A Taste of Big Band Music
The 1930s and early 1940s belonged to Big Band Dance and Swing Music. During that classic era, most of the Jazz groups were Big Bands. Derived from New Orleans style, small combo Jazz music, Swing was robust and invigorating. However, Swing – and all Big Band music – was also DANCE music. Back then, there were no Big Band CONCERTS before Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall concert on January 16, 1938 -- only DANCES. And these served as immediate connections between people – young and not so young. Although it was a collective mixture of sounds, Big Band music also offered individual musicians and vocalists who played and sang it the opportunities to improvise melodic, thematic solos, which could vary from slower, romantic ballads to faster, swinging, at times quite complex, and all shades and hues in-between.
Although the era of American big bands was rather brief (1930s to 1945), this form of American Jazz (America’s sole recognized musical art form) was quickly adopted and played the world over after World War II. The whole world now knows how to fox-trot, swing, cha-cha, rhumba, samba, bossa nova, meringue, polka, waltz, and to cuddle close while dancing to romantic vocals that carry a message of love.
The mid-1990s saw a revival of Big Band and Swing music, fueled by retro trends in dancing. Once again, young couples across America and throughout the world are jitterbugging and fox-trotting to all the swingin’ tempos of Big Band Music. This revival has been refueled by recent television programs such as Dancing With The Stars, and So You Think You Can Dance, both of which have generated a renewed interest in ballroom dancing. It is also being fueled by the Sally Bennett Big Band Hall of Fame (West Palm Beach, FL) and their efforts to promulgate and perpetuate Big Band Music.
The Olney Big Band offers you a Taste of Big Band Music as it was played by the great Big Bands of the 1930s and ‘40s.