Editing Swing music (section)

==1935–1946: The swing era==
{{Main|Swing era}}
[[File:BennyGoodmanStageDoorCanteen.jpg|thumb|[[Benny Goodman]], one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame]]

In 1935 the Benny Goodman Orchestra had won a spot on the radio show ''[[Let's Dance (radio)|Let's Dance]]'' and started showcasing an updated repertoire featuring [[Fletcher Henderson]] arrangements. Goodman's slot was after midnight in the East, and few people heard it. It was on earlier on the West Coast and developed the audience that later led to Goodman's [[Palomar Ballroom]] triumph. At the Palomar engagement starting on 21 August 1935, audiences of young white dancers favored Goodman's rhythm and daring arrangements. The sudden success of the Goodman orchestra transformed the landscape of popular music in America. Goodman's success with "hot" swing brought forth imitators and enthusiasts of the new style throughout the world of dance bands, which launched the "[[swing era]]" that lasted until 1946.<ref name="Parker">{{cite web|last1=Parker|first1=Jeff|title=Jazz History Part II|url=http://www.swingmusic.net/getset.html|website=www.swingmusic.net}}</ref>

A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely-tied woodwind and brass sections playing [[Call and response (music)|call-response]] to each other. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect varied with the arrangement, song, band, and band-leader. Typically included in big band swing arrangements were an introductory chorus that stated the theme, choruses arranged for soloists, and climactic out-choruses. Some arrangements were built entirely around a featured soloist or vocalist. Some bands used string or vocal sections, or both. Swing-era repertoire included the [[Great American Songbook]] of [[Tin Pan Alley]] standards, band originals, traditional jazz tunes such as the "[[King Porter Stomp]]", with which the Goodman orchestra had a smash hit, and [[blues]].

Hot swing music is strongly associated with the [[jitterbug]] dancing that became a national craze accompanying the swing craze. Swing dancing originated in the late 1920s as the "[[Lindy Hop]]", and would later incorporate other styles including [[Suzie Q (dance move)|The Suzie Q]], Truckin', Peckin' [[Jive (dance)|Jive]], [[Big Apple (dance)|The Big Apple]], and [[Collegiate shag|The Shag]] in various combinations of moves. A subculture of jitterbuggers, sometimes growing quite competitive, congregated around ballrooms that featured hot swing music. A dance floor full of jitterbuggers had cinematic appeal; they were sometimes featured in newsreels and movies. Some of the top jitterbuggers gathered in professional dance troupes such as [[Whitey's Lindy Hoppers]] (featured in ''[[A Day at the Races (film)|A Day At the Races]]'', ''[[Everybody Dance (film)|Everybody Dance]]'', and ''[[Hellzapoppin' (film)|Hellzapoppin']]''). [[Swing (dance)|Swing dancing]] would outlive the swing era, becoming associated with [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] and early [[Rock&Roll]].

As with many new popular musical styles, swing met with some resistance because of its improvisation, tempo, occasionally risqué lyrics, and frenetic [[Swing (dance)|dancing]]. Audiences used to traditional "sweet" arrangements, such as those offered by [[Guy Lombardo]], [[Sammy Kaye]], [[Kay Kyser]] and [[Shep Fields]], were taken aback by the rambunctiousness of swing music. Swing was sometimes regarded as light entertainment, more of an industry to sell records to the masses than a form of art, among fans of both jazz and "serious" music. Some jazz critics such as [[Hugues Panassié]] held the polyphonic improvisation of New Orleans jazz to be the pure form of jazz, with swing a form corrupted by regimentation and commercialism. Panassié was also an advocate of the theory that jazz was a primal expression of the black American experience and that white musicians, or black musicians who became interested in more sophisticated musical ideas, were generally incapable of expressing its core values.<ref name="Gennari 2006">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=dcxlWTZPK-AC&pg=PA58 Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics],'' by John Remo Gennari, PhD (born 1960), [[University of Chicago Press]] (2006), pg. 58; {{OCLC|701053921}}</ref> In his 1941 autobiography, [[W. C. Handy]] wrote that "prominent white orchestra leaders, concert singers and others are making commercial use of Negro music in its various phases. That's why they introduced "swing" which is not a musical form" (no comment on Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, or Count Basie).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Handy|first1=William Christopher|title=Father of the Blues|url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0|date=1941|publisher=MacMillan|page=[https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0/page/292 292]}}</ref>  The [[Dixieland]] revival started in the late 1930s as a self-conscious re-creation of New Orleans jazz in reaction against the orchestrated style of big band swing. Some swing bandleaders saw opportunities in the Dixieland revival. [[Tommy Dorsey|Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven]] and [[Bob Crosby|Bob Crosby's Bobcats]] were examples of Dixieland ensembles within big swing bands.

Between the poles of hot and sweet, middlebrow interpretations of swing led to great commercial success for bands such as those led by [[Artie Shaw]], [[Glenn Miller]] and [[Tommy Dorsey]]. Miller's trademark clarinet-led reed section was decidedly "sweet", but the Miller catalog had no shortage of bouncy, medium-tempo dance tunes and some up-tempo tunes such as "Mission to Moscow" and the [[Lionel Hampton]] composition "[[Flying Home]]". "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" Tommy Dorsey made a nod to the hot side by hiring jazz trumpeter and Goodman alumnus [[Bunny Berigan]], then hiring [[Jimmie Lunceford]]'s arranger [[Sy Oliver]] to spice up his catalog in 1939.

New York became a touchstone for national success of big bands, with nationally broadcast engagements at the [[Roseland Ballroom|Roseland]] and [[Savoy Ballroom|Savoy]] ballrooms a sign that a swing band had arrived on the national scene. With its Savoy engagement in 1937, the [[Count Basie Orchestra]] brought the riff-and-solo oriented Kansas City style of swing to national attention. The Basie orchestra collectively and individually would influence later styles that would give rise to the smaller "jump" bands and [[bebop]]. The [[Chick Webb Orchestra]] remained closely identified with the Savoy Ballroom, having originated the tune "[[Stompin' at the Savoy]]", and became feared in the Savoy's Battles of the Bands. It humiliated Goodman's band,<ref name="Chick Webb" /> and had memorable encounters with the Ellington and Basie bands. The Goodman band's [[The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert|1938 Carnegie Hall Concert]] turned into a summit of swing, with guests from the Basie and Ellington bands invited for a jam session after the Goodman band's performance. [[Coleman Hawkins]] arrived back from an extended stay in Europe to New York in 1939, recorded his famous version of "[[Body and Soul (1930 song)|Body and Soul]]", and fronted his own big band. 1940 saw top-flight musicians such as [[Charlie Parker]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Don Byas]], [[Charlie Christian]], and [[Gene Ramey]], whose careers in swing had brought them to New York, beginning to coalesce and develop the ideas that would become [[bebop]].