What Is the Minimum Number of Musicians a Band Can Have to Be Considered a "Big Band"?

Music ensemble associated with jazz and Swing Era music

Large band
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1921
Stylistic origins	Jazz dejection American marches classical various rhythmic social dances
Cultural origins	1910s
Derivative forms	Swing progressive jazz Kansas City jazz easy listening space age pop lounge

A large band or jazz orchestra is a blazon of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with iv sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Large bands originated during the early on 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was almost pop. The term "big band" is too used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only fashion of music played by big bands.

Big bands started equally accompaniment for dancing. In contrast to the typical jazz accent on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists.

Instruments [edit]

Typical seating arrangement for a 17-piece big band

Big bands mostly have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm department of guitar, piano, double bass, and drums.^{[1] [2]} The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or four saxophones, and a rhythm section of four instruments.^[3] In the 1940s, Stan Kenton's ring used upward to five trumpets, five trombones (three tenor and two bass trombones), 5 saxophones (two alto saxophones, ii tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone), and a rhythm section. Duke Ellington at one time used six trumpets.^[4] While well-nigh big bands dropped the previously mutual jazz clarinet from their arrangements (other than the clarinet-led orchestras of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman), many Knuckles Ellington songs had clarinet parts,^[5] often replacing or doubling i of the tenor saxophone parts; more than rarely, Ellington would substitute baritone sax for bass clarinet, such as in "Ase's Expiry" from Swinging Suites. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding flute, French horn, strings, and timpani to his band.^[3]

Jazz ensembles numbering 8 (octet), nine (nonet) or ten (tentet) voices are sometimes called "little large bands".^[vi]

Twenty-first century big bands tin can be considerably larger than their predecessors, exceeding 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some reaching 50.^[seven]

Arrangements [edit]

Information technology is useful to distinguish between the roles of composer, arranger and leader. The composer writes original music that will be performed past individuals or groups of various sizes, while the arranger adapts the work of composers in a artistic fashion for a operation or recording.^[8] Arrangers oft notate all or most of the score of a given number, commonly referred to as a "chart".^[9] Bandleaders are typically performers who assemble musicians to form an ensemble of various sizes, select or create material for them, shape the music'south dynamics, phrasing, and expression in rehearsals, and lead the group in functioning ofttimes while playing alongside them.^[x] Some bandleaders, such as Guy Lombardo, performed works equanimous by others (in Lombardo'due south case, often past his blood brother Carmen),^[11] while others, such every bit Maria Schneider take on all three roles.^[12] In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can get blurred.^[xiii] Billy Strayhorn, for case, was a prolific composer and arranger, often collaborating with Knuckles Ellington, only rarely took on the role of bandleader, which was causeless past Ellington, who himself was a composer and arranger.^[14]

Typical large band arrangements from the swing era were written in strophic course with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times.^[15] Each iteration, or chorus, commonly follows twelve bar blues form or thirty-2-bar (AABA) song class. The first chorus of an arrangement introduces the tune and is followed by choruses of development.^[16] This development may take the class of improvised solos, written solo sections, and "shout choruses".^[17]

An system's first chorus is sometimes preceded by an introduction, which may be as short as a few measures or may extend to a chorus of its ain. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. Other methods of embellishing the form include modulations and cadential extensions.^[18]

Some large ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, ofttimes relying on caput arrangements.^[nineteen] A head arrangement is a slice of music that is formed past band members during rehearsal.^[twenty] They experiment, often with one player coming up with a uncomplicated musical figure leading to development within the aforementioned section and and so further expansion past other sections, with the entire band so memorizing the style they are going to perform the piece, without writing information technology on sail music.^[21] During the 1930s, Count Basie'due south band often used head arrangements, as Basie said, "we but sort of kickoff it off and the others fall in."^{[22] [23]} Head arrangements were more common during the menstruation of the 1930s because there was less turnover in personnel, giving the band members more fourth dimension to rehearse.^{[24] : p.31}

History [edit]

Trip the light fantastic toe music [edit]

Before 1910, social trip the light fantastic in America was dominated by steps such as the waltz and polka.^[25] As jazz migrated from its New Orleans origin to Chicago and New York Urban center, energetic, suggestive dances traveled with it. During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing the jitterbug and Lindy Hop. The trip the light fantastic duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Social club Orchestra led by James Reese Europe.^[1]

One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led past a drummer, Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman'south arranger, Ferde Grofé, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in diverse ways. This intermingling of sections became a defining feature of big bands. In 1919, Paul Whiteman hired Grofé to apply similar techniques for his band. Whiteman was educated in classical music, and he called his new band'south music symphonic jazz. The methods of dance bands marked a step abroad from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attending to the demand for dance music and created their ain big bands.^[three] They incorporated elements of Broadway, Can Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville.^[1]

Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a job at Guild Alabam in New York City, which somewhen turned into a task as bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater function than they had before. Hickman relied on Ferde Grofé, Whiteman on Neb Challis. Henderson and arranger Don Redman followed the template of King Oliver, but equally the 1920s progressed they moved abroad from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz. They were assisted by a band full of talent: Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, Louis Armstrong on cornet, and multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, whose career lasted into the 1990s.^[1]

The swing era [edit]

Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more than supple feel than the more literal ⁴
_iv of early jazz. Walter Page is often credited with developing the walking bass, though earlier examples exist, such every bit Wellman Braud on Ellington'southward Washington Wabble from 1927.

This blazon of music flourished through the early 1930s, although there was little mass audience for it until around 1936. Up until that time, it was viewed with ridicule and looked upon as a curiosity. After 1935, big bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major part in defining swing every bit a distinctive style. Western swing musicians as well formed popular big bands during the same menstruation.

In that location was a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of pop bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the atomic number 82 arranger, and the personnel. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby (blood brother of Bing), more of a dixieland style,^[26] Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated. Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clarinets of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, the trombone of Jack Teagarden, the trumpet of Harry James, the drums of Factor Krupa, and the vibes of Lionel Hampton. The popularity of many of the major bands was amplified past star vocalists, such as Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey, Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly with Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, Billie Holiday and Jimmy Rushing with Count Basie, Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest with Harry James, Doris Twenty-four hours with Les Brown,^[27] and Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman. Some bands were "society bands" which relied on strong ensembles but trivial on soloists or vocalists, such as the bands of Guy Lombardo and Paul Whiteman.

A distinction is often fabricated between so-called "hard bands", such as those of Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey, which emphasized quick difficult-driving spring tunes, and "sweet bands", such every bit the Glenn Miller Orchestra, who specialized in less improvised tunes with more emphasis on sentimentality, featuring somewhat slower-paced, oft heart-felt songs.^[28]

By this time the big band was such a dominant forcefulness in jazz that the older generation found they either had to adapt to it or merely retire. With no market for small-group recordings (fabricated worse past a Depression-era industry reluctant to take risks), musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines led their ain bands, while others, like Jelly Roll Morton and Male monarch Oliver, lapsed into obscurity.

The major "black" bands of the 1930s included, autonomously from Ellington'due south, Hines's and Calloway's, those of Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. The "white" bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields and, later, Glenn Miller were more popular than their "black" counterparts from the heart of the decade. Bridging the gap to white audiences in the mid-1930s was the Casa Hill Orchestra and Benny Goodman's early ring.

Glenn Miller, a major in the U.Due south. Regular army Air Forces during World State of war 2, led a 50-piece military band that specialized in Swing music

White teenagers and young adults were the master fans of the large bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They danced to recordings and the radio and attended live concerts. They were knowledgeable and often biased toward their favorite bands and songs, and sometimes worshipful of famous soloists and vocalists. Many bands toured the country in grueling i-night stands. Traveling weather condition and lodging were difficult, in part due to segregation in near parts of the United states, and the personnel ofttimes had to perform having had lilliputian slumber and nutrient. Apart from the star soloists, many musicians received low wages and would abandon the tour if bookings disappeared. Sometimes bandstands were besides small, public address systems inadequate, pianos out of tune. Bandleaders dealt with these obstacles through rigid discipline (Glenn Miller) and canny psychology (Duke Ellington).

The Grand Central Big Ring.

Big bands uplifted morale during Earth War II. Many musicians served in the military and toured with USO troupes at the front, with Glenn Miller losing his life while traveling betwixt shows. Many bands suffered from the loss of personnel and quality declined at abode during the war years. The 1942–44 musicians' strike worsened the situation. Vocalists began to strike out on their ain. By the end of the state of war, swing was giving way to less danceable music, such as bebop. Many of the great swing bands bankrupt upwards, as the times and tastes changed.

Many bands from the swing era continued for decades after the death or departure of their founders and namesakes, and some are notwithstanding active in the 21st century, often referred to as "ghost bands", a term attributed to Woody Herman, referring to orchestras that persist in the absence of their original leaders.^[29]

Modernistic big bands [edit]

Although big bands are identified with the swing era, they continued to exist afterward those decades, though the music they played was frequently different from swing. Bandleader Charlie Barnet's recording of "Cherokee" in 1942 and "The Moose" in 1943 accept been called the beginning of the bop era. Woody Herman's first band, nicknamed the Start Herd, borrowed from progressive jazz, while the 2d Herd emphasized the saxophone section of three tenors and one baritone. In the 1950s, Stan Kenton referred to his band's music as "progressive jazz", "mod", and "new music". He created his band every bit a vehicle for his compositions. Kenton pushed the boundaries of big bands past combining clashing elements and by hiring arrangers whose ideas about music conflicted. This expansive eclecticism characterized much of jazz afterward World War Two. During the 1960s and '70s, Sun Ra and his Arketstra took big bands further out. Ra'south eclectic music was played by a roster of musicians from 10 to thirty and was presented as theater, with costumes, dancers, and special furnishings.^[1]

As jazz was expanded during the 1950s through the 1970s, the Basie and Ellington bands were still around, every bit were bands led by Buddy Rich, Cistron Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, Les Brown, Clark Terry, and Medico Severinsen. Progressive bands were led by Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, Don Ellis, and Anthony Braxton.

In the 1960s and 1970s, big band rock became pop by integrating such musical ingredients as progressive rock experimentation, jazz fusion, and the horn choirs ofttimes used in blues and soul music, with some of the most prominent groups including Chicago; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Tower of Power; and, from Canada, Lighthouse. The genre was gradually absorbed into mainstream pop rock and the jazz stone sector.^[30]

Other bandleaders used Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with big band instrumentation, and big bands led by arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist John Coltrane (on the album Ascension from 1965) and bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius introduced absurd jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion, respectively, to the large band domain. Modernistic large bands can be found playing all styles of jazz music. Some big gimmicky European jazz ensembles play mostly avant-garde jazz using the instrumentation of the big bands. Examples include the Vienna Art Orchestra, founded in 1977, and the Italian Instabile Orchestra, active in the 1990s.

In the tardily 1990s, in that location was a swing revival in the U.S. The Lindy Hop became popular once more and young people took an interest in large band styles again.

Big bands maintained a presence on American television, specially through the late-nighttime talk evidence, which has historically used large bands as business firm accessory. Typically the nearly prominent shows with the primeval time slots and largest audiences have bigger bands with horn sections while those in later time slots get with smaller, leaner ensembles.

Many higher and university music departments offer jazz programs and feature big band courses in improvisation, limerick, arranging, and studio recording, featuring performances by 18 to 20 piece large bands.^[31]

Radio [edit]

During the 1930s, Earl Hines and his band broadcast from the Grand Terrace in Chicago every nighttime beyond America.^[32] In Kansas City and across the Southwest, an earthier, bluesier style was developed by such bandleaders as Bennie Moten and, later, by Jay McShann and Jesse Stone. Big band remotes on the major radio networks spread the music from ballrooms and clubs beyond the land during the 1930s and 1940s, with remote broadcasts from jazz clubs continuing into the 1950s on NBC's Monitor. Radio increased the fame of Benny Goodman, the "Pied Piper of Swing". Others challenged him, and battle of the bands became a regular feature of theater performances.

Gloria Parker had a radio programme on which she conducted the largest all-daughter orchestra led by a female person. She led her Swingphony while playing marimba. Phil Spitalny, a native of Ukraine, led a 22-piece female orchestra known as Phil Spitalny and His Hr of Charm Orchestra, named for his radio show, The 60 minutes of Charm, during the 1930s and 1940s. Other female person bands were led past trumpeter B. A. Rolfe, Anna Mae Winburn, and Ina Ray Hutton.^[23]

Movies [edit]

Large Bands began to appear in movies in the 1930s through the 1960s, though cameos by bandleaders were often stiff and incidental to the plot. Fictionalized biographical films of Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Benny Goodman were fabricated in the 1950s.

The bands led by Helen Lewis, Ben Bernie, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's band were filmed by Lee de Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process in 1925, in three curt films which are in the Library of Congress movie collection.

See also [edit]

• List of big bands
• Swing (jazz functioning style), a term of praise for playing that has a stiff rhythmic "groove" or drive

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Gioia, Ted (2011). The History of Jazz (2 ed.). New York: Oxford University Printing. pp. 100—. ISBN978-0-19-539970-vii.
2. ^ "Big Ring Music Genre Overview". AllMusic . Retrieved 6 September 2017.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Collier, James (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Lexicon of Jazz. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove'southward Dictionaries. p. 122. ISBN1-56159-284-half-dozen.
4. ^ O'Meally, Robert One thousand. , Brent Hayes Edwards and Farah Jasmine Griffin (2004). Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies. NY: Columbia University Printing. ISBN9780231508360 . Retrieved nine December 2021.
5. ^ Wilson, John S. (15 May 1981). "Ellingtonians salute swing era clarinets". New York Times. NYTco. Retrieved nine Dec 2021.
6. ^ Palmer, Robert (5 April 1981). "2 "Little Large Bands" offer new jazz". New York Times. NYTCo. Retrieved nine December 2021.
7. ^ West, Michael J. "JazzTimes 10: Not bad Modernistic Big-Band Recordings". JazzTimes. Madavor Media. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
8. ^ "Divergence Between Music Composer & Arranger". BestAccreditedColleges.org . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
9. ^ Thompson, William Forde (2014). Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Los Angeles: SAGE. p. 85. ISBN9781452283029 . Retrieved 22 Dec 2021.
10. ^ "What does a Bandleader do?". Berklee . Retrieved 21 Dec 2021.
11. ^ Studwell, William Emmett and Mark Baldin (2000). The Large Band Reader Songs Favored past Swing Era Orchestras and Other Pop Ensembles. New York: Haworth Press. pp. 175–77. ISBN9780789009142 . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
12. ^ Chinen, Nate. "Composer Maria Schneider Returns, With A Reckoning, On 'Data Lords'". npr . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
13. ^ Allay, Robert. "Composer vs Arranger". Robert Abate Music . Retrieved 21 Dec 2021.
14. ^ Effinger, Shannon J. "Billy Strayhorn'south Lush Life Across Duke Ellington". uDiscoverMusic. Universal Music Group. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
15. ^ "Large Band Music History". TheMusicHistory.com . Retrieved 8 Nov 2020.
16. ^ "A Guide To Song Forms – AABA Vocal Class". Songstuff . Retrieved 9 December 2021.
17. ^ Rogers, Evan. "Big Band Arranging: for composers, orchestrators and arrangers: 16, Solos and Backgrounds". Evan Rogers: Orchestrator/Arranger/Conductor . Retrieved 10 Nov 2020.
18. ^ Dennis, Tyler. "Inside the Score in the 21st Century: Techniques for Contemporary Large Jazz Ensemble Limerick". The Aquila Digital Community. Academy of Southern Mississippi. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
19. ^ Bowman, Robert (1982). The question of improvisation and caput organisation in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (One thousand.F.A. thesis ed.). Toronto: York Academy. ISBN9780612155411.
20. ^ "Definitions: Timbre, Ostinato, Stride". W.Due west. Norton. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
21. ^ Simon, 105.
22. ^ Kernfeld, Barry (1995). What to Listen to in Jazz. New Haven [u.a.]: Yale Univ. Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN0-300-05902-7.
23. ^ ^{a b} John Behrens (March 2011). America'south Music Makers: Big Bands & Ballrooms 1912-2011. AuthorHouse. pp. 36–. ISBN978-1-4567-2952-3 . Retrieved 31 August 2017.
24. ^ Martin, Henry and Keith Waters (2010). Jazz: The First 100 Years (third ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning. ISBN9781439083338 . Retrieved viii November 2020.
25. ^ "1910s Pop Tendency: The Ragtime Dance Craze". Popular Song History . Retrieved 19 Dec 2021.
26. ^ Wilson, Jeremy. "George Robert Crosby Bandleader, Vocalizer, Actor, Radio/TV Host". JazzStandards.com . Retrieved 28 November 2021.
27. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Les Brown". AllMusic . Retrieved 30 December 2021.
28. ^ "Jazz Music: The Swing Era". Academy of Colorado Boulder . Retrieved 23 Dec 2021.
29. ^ Epstein, Benjamin (18 July 1986). "Sounds of Hot Jazz Stay Warm : Harry James Band to Play at the Mission". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved xiii December 2021.
30. ^ Hoffmann, Frank and Robert Birkline. "Big-band rock". Survey of American Popular Music . Retrieved xi November 2020.
31. ^ Lawrence, Rick (6 Nov 2019). "Best College Jazz Bands in The World". Studio Notes Online . Retrieved 7 November 2020.
32. ^ Travis, Dempsey J. (26 March 1985). "Where The Jazz Was Super-hot". tribunedigital-chicagotribune . Retrieved vi September 2017.

Bibliography [edit]

• Russo, William (1973). Composing for the Jazz Orchestra . Academy of Chicago Press. ISBN0-226-73209-6. LCCN 61-8642.
• Simon, George T. (1967). The Large Bands. New York: The Macmillan Company. LCCN 67-26643. OCLC 1169701.

External links [edit]

• International Large Band Directory
• Land University of New York, Fredonia. Rockefeller Arts Center. Jazz Large Band Arrangements
• Christopher Popa'due south Big Band Library
• Big Bands After The Large Ring Era - Bill Kirchner, faculty at Manhattan School of Music.
• half-dozen Steps to Big Band Writing with Steven Feifke. - YouTube video.

lingerfeltmosencestiss.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_band

Share this post