Swing and Bebop

Charlie Barnet - was one of the first to integrate his band.

Glenn Miller - successful band leader. Signature music: "In the Mood." Played trombone in the Dorsey brothers. Played in Ben Pollack's band.

Bud Powell - piano, instrumental in the development of bebop.

Kenny Clarke - House drummer at Minton's playhouse.

Jay McShann - pianist and band leader; his band features the likes of Ben Webster and Charlie Parker.

Swing Street - reference to 52nd street which hosted major jazz clubs during the swing and the bebop era.

Minton's Playhouse - a Harlem jazz club that saw the emergence of bebop and hosted artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian. the house band included Thelonious Monk on piano, Joe Guy on trumpet, Nick Fenton on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums.

Billy Strayhorn - famous for his collaboration with Duke Ellington.

Billy Berg's - jazz club in Hollywood.

Lionel Hampton - one of the first to use the vibraphone in jazz. Part of Benny Goodman's quartet, along with Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson and Goodman. This group was one of the first racially integrated group to perform. Many renowned artists passed through his group: Dizzie Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Wes Montgomery, Quincy Jones, etc.

Earl Hines -

The band to follow Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club was Cab Calloway's band. Though classically trained singer in the opera, he always aspired to be in show business. He went to Chicago where he joined the Alabamians, who later changed their name to the Missourians when they moved to New York. Calloway was not a jazz singer but a showman who surrounded himself with jazz musicians. By the late 1930's Cab Calloway was the most successful African American band leader in the country.

Milt Hinton, Chu Berry, Dizzy Gillespie - all played at Cab Calloway's band. Chu Berry was next in line after Coleman Hawkins. When Lester Young was fired from the Fletcher Henderson Band, Berry was the guy to replace him.

Jimmy Lunsford's band was a black band that prided itself in playing dance music with percussion. Sy Oliver, the arranger, was the most famous one to come out of that band.

Benny Goodman established himself in New York as a studio musician. He made various records with Red Nichols. When he made records with Billie Holiday, he encountered John Hammond. Hammond invited Goodman to his house to play chamber music, where Benny fell in love with Hammond's sister and married her.

During the depression, Fletcher Henderson sold many of his arrangements to John Hammond, which became the basis for Goodman's band musical library. He later hired Fletcher Henderson to write him some more arrangements. Because Goodman's band was the hottest band it aired on the last minutes of a radio show. They went on a national tour and outside New York they found that white people didn't like their music that was too hard-swinging. In order to play something the people could dance to, they played stock arrangements. By the time they came to Los Angeles they were ready to disband and return home. They played at the Palomar Ballroom, ready to play their stock arrangements, when Gene Krupa suggested playing something they would enjoy, and they played "King Porter Stomp". The show that aired in New York at 11:30, was listened to in Los Angeles much earlier, and the kids loved it. This coincides with the end of probation.

"Sing Sing Sing" was originally written by Louis Prima, a very light skinned Black musician, which enabled him to perform where other black musicians were not allowed.

Jim Mundy - Goodman commissioned him to write an arrangement to "Sing Sing Sing." The band realized Fletcher Henderson had a similar arrangement called "Christopher Columbus." In the end, Benny Goodman's version is a mix of the two.

In 1938, Hammond had the idea of putting a jazz concert on a classical stage. These concerts were historically significant because of the first time jazz music was present in a distinguished art form.

Benny Goodman was the first white band leader to hire black musicians. He hired Teddy Wilson to play with his trio, after the two met while recording with Billie Holiday.

When the band was in Los Angeles Goodman encountered Lionel Hampton, and the band became a quartet. The quarter then becomes a quintet when Hammond introduces Goodman to Charlie Christian. Goodman immediately took offense to Charlie Christian and did not want to play with him. Hammond ambushed Goodman to listen to Christian, who established guitar as a solo instrument.

Lionel Hampton later struck out with his own band.

Roy Eldridge, the next in trumpet lineage after Louis Armstrong, was the most influential trumpet player during the swing area, inspiring Dizzy Gillespie. He was also the featured trumpet player in Gene Krupa's band. His nickname was Little Jazz.

Artie Shaw - another famous clarinet player during the swing area. He had a self-identity problem and many times retired and left to Mexico. Shaw moved from playing sax to clarinet, which why his clarinet playing sounds like a sax.

Red Norvo played the xylophone. He met his wife Mildred Bailey, when he played for Paul Whiteman's band. Bailey is one of the handful singers in the swing era that could be called a jazz singer. They were nicknamed the swing couple.

"Stardust" by Hobie Carmichael is the second most recorded piece after "St. Louis Blues."

Artie Shaw's most famous recorded improvisation is featured in "Stardust": it is an example of how some of his music was more dance than jazz.

Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey came from Pennsylvania but are considered Chicago style. The Dorsey Brothers band was their first together. They were always in conflict.

After an argument Tommy walked off the band to form his band. They reunited in the late 1940's, and in the 1950's they had their own TV show (where Elvis made his TV debut).

Tommy Dorsey played trumpet but eventually he settled for trombone. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental over You," which is why he was called "The Sentimental Gentleman." His trombone playing was seamless, silky and smooth. Tommy Dorsey also introduced Frank Sinatra to the world.

Bunny Berigan played with Benny Goodman as well as with Tommy Dorsey. He later had his own band