The Birth Of The Big Band

4 Pages 1118 Words

Benny Begets the Swing Band
The world sometimes gives birth to creative and innovative individuals. These rare men often leave their mark on the world, forever changing a facet of our society and culture. The arts, specifically music and jazz, have had a more volatile history than history than perhaps any other genre in the spectrum of popular culture. One of these innovators, Benny Goodman, rekindled the flame of jazz with a new and exciting form of swing that brightened the stagnant waters of music. This revolutionary swing style was dubbed Big Band. While other bands conformed to the swing jazz mold, Benny Goodman and his group of your diverse musicians sought to change jazz as a whole, and in the effort ushered in the Swing Band Era.
Yearning for success in the music business, Benny Goodman quickly gathered a group of fresh musicians, and in showing the might of his band, the hot new group, which had the credit of sparking the swing era, gained national noteriety. Karen Johnson mentions that jazz clarinetists Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo, and Jimmy Noone collectively fueled Benny’s inner desire to lead a band (1). Finally feeling seasoned enough to make it in the big band circuit, Karen Johnson adds that Goodman formed a twelve piece big band in 1932 (1). Before 1934, dance and “sweet” bands controlled the radio waves and dancehalls, but as Johnson states, upon the arrival of Benny’s band “at the Polomar Ballroom in Las Angeles on August 21, 1935… Goodman became a nationally known star.”(1). Young listeners all over the country tuned their radios to hear Benny’s band play, and Parker adds that with his new mix of hot jazz, like an explosion Benny was suddenly a national star(3). Some columnists proclaimed this the beginning of the Swing Era, but Parker adds in opposition that “no one incident can be related to [big band jazz’s] genesis” (2). Similarly, it is possible to infer that Benny’s band was credit...