Editing Swing music (section)

==1940s: Decline==
The early 1940s saw emerging trends in popular music and jazz that would, once they had run their course, result in the end of the swing era. Vocalists were becoming the star attractions of the big bands. Vocalist [[Ella Fitzgerald]], after joining the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1936, propelled the band to great popularity and the band continued under her name after Webb's death in 1939. In 1940 vocalist [[Vaughn Monroe]] was leading his own big band and [[Frank Sinatra]] was becoming the star attraction of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, inciting mass hysteria among [[bobby-soxer]]s. Vocalist [[Peggy Lee]] joined the Goodman Orchestra in 1941 for a two-year stint, quickly becoming its star attraction on its biggest hits. Some big bands were moving away from the swing styles that dominated the late 1930s, for both commercial and creative reasons. Some of the more commercial big bands catered to more "sweet" sensibilities with string sections. Some bandleaders such as [[John Kirby (musician)|John Kirby]], [[Raymond Scott]], and [[Claude Thornhill]] were fusing swing with classical repertoire. Lower manpower requirements and simplicity favored the rise of small band swing. The [[Savoy Sultans]] and other smaller bands led by [[Louis Jordan]], [[Lucky Millinder]], [[Louis Prima]], and [[Tony Pastor (bandleader)|Tony Pastor]] were showcasing an exuberant "jump swing" style that would lead to the postwar rise of [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]]. In a 1939 ''[[DownBeat]]'' interview, Duke Ellington expressed dissatisfaction with the creative state of swing music;<ref>"It's not very difficult to understand the evolution of jazz into Swing. Ten years ago this type of music was flourishing, albeit amidst adverse conditions and surrounded by hearty indifference....It is the repetition and monotony of present-day Swing arrangements which bode ill for the future." ''Downbeat'', February 1939, pp. 2–16</ref> within a few years he and other bandleaders would be delving into more ambitious, and less danceable, forms of orchestral jazz and the creative forefront for soloists would be moving into smaller ensembles and [[bebop]]. [[The Earl Hines Orchestra]] in 1943 featured a collection of young, forward-looking musicians who were at the core of the bebop movement and would in the following year be in the [[Billy Eckstine|Billy Eckstine Orchestra]], the first big band to showcase bebop. As the swing era went into decline, it secured legacies in vocalist-centered popular music, "progressive" big band jazz, R&B, and bebop.

The trend away from big-band swing was accelerated by wartime conditions and royalty conflicts.<ref>{{cite web |title= The 1942 Recording Ban and the ASCAP/BMI War |url= http://www.swingmusic.net/Big_Band_Era_Recording_Ban_Of_1942.html |access-date= 15 June 2017 |archive-date= 9 August 2003 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030809234911/http://www.swingmusic.net/Big_Band_Era_Recording_Ban_Of_1942.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> In 1941 the American Society of Composers and Producers ([[ASCAP]]) demanded bigger royalties from broadcasters and the broadcasters refused. Consequently, ASCAP banned the large repertoire they controlled from airplay, severely restricting what the radio audience could hear. ASCAP also demanded pre-approval of set lists and even written solos for live broadcasts, to assure that not even a quoted fragment of ASCAP repertoire was broadcast. Those restrictions made broadcast swing much less appealing for the year in which the ban was in place. Big band swing remained popular during the war years, but the resources required to support it became problematic. Wartime restriction on travel, coupled with rising expenses, curtailed road touring. The manpower requirements for big swing bands placed a burden on the scarce resources available for touring and were impacted by the military draft. In July 1942 the [[American Federation of Musicians]] called a [[1942–44 musicians' strike|ban on recording]] until record labels agreed to pay royalties to musicians. That stopped recording of instrumental music for major labels for over a year, with the last labels agreeing to new contract terms in November 1944. In the meantime, vocalists continued to record backed by vocal groups and the recording industry released earlier swing recordings from their vaults, increasingly reflecting the popularity of big band vocalists. In 1943 [[Columbia Records]] re-released the 1939 recording of "[[All or Nothing at All]]" by the [[Harry James|Harry James Orchestra]] with [[Frank Sinatra]], giving Sinatra top billing ("Acc. Harry James and his Orchestra"). The recording found the commercial success that had eluded its original release. Small band swing was recorded for [[1942-44 musicians' strike#Small specialty labels|small specialty labels]] not affected by the ban. These labels had limited distribution centered in large urban markets, which tended to limit the size of the ensembles with which recording could be a money-making proposition. Another blow fell on the market for dance-oriented swing in 1944 when the federal government levied a 30% excise tax on "dancing" nightclubs, undercutting the market for dance music in smaller venues.<ref>''Stomping the Blues''. By Albert Murray. Da Capo Press. 2000. pages 109, 110. {{ISBN|0-252-02211-4}}, {{ISBN|0-252-06508-5}}</ref>