Jazz of the 1920s and 1930s

What is Jazz?• American style music that

blended African rhythms with classical structure

• Musicians often “improvised” or made up solos on the spot

• 1920s and 1930s jazz focused mostly on “big bands” with– Piano– Drums– Saxophones– Clarinets– Trumpets

• Dance music made popular at clubs and on the radio

• Most big bands had one key leader

Duke Ellington• Piano player and most famous

“big band” leader• Born to piano teacher parents in

Washington DC• Played at the famous Cotton

Club in Harlem throughout the 1930s

• “Take the A Train” was probably his most famous song (1939)

• Connected to the Harlem Renaissance when Black culture and arts flourished in Harlem

• Duke Ellington 1929 Movie "Black and Tan“

• Take the A Train

Benny Goodman• Most famous clarinet player: the

“King of Swing”• Orchestrated a “big band” and

was the band’s leader• Hugely popular on radio and for

dances• Born to a large poor Jewish

immigrant family in Chicago• 1938 Carnegie Hall concert is

considered the greatest jazz concert ever: jazz became “respectable” because of the concert

• Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing

Fats Waller• Famous piano player• Enormous hands allowed him to

play difficult chords and jump back and forth between bass notes

• “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929) most famous song, also became title of a movie and plays

• Ain't Misbehavin'

Louis Armstrong• Most famous trumpet player and

vocalist with a gravelly voice• Used “Dixieland” orchestrations

from his native New Orleans• Long career started in 1920s

and continued into 1950s• Often sang duets with Ella

Fitzgerald• Louis Armstrong's Dinah (1933)• When the Saints Go Marching

In