Early Jazz Big Swing Music

Jazz music is defined as kind of music which is syncopated and has its origin linked with southern blacks. The music characterized by high rhythms and started in the late 19th century. It is believed that black African-American immigrants came up with Jazz music while trying to build a new life and move away from old ways. Jazz has different styles which differ in their characteristics. This paper entails a discussion of jazz periods, characteristics of the specific techniques, and the major figure in the jazz music including the prevailing circumstances in America when the style took place.

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To start with, Chicago style is one of the major styles of jazz music. The style was practiced between 1920 and 1930. Chicago style is considered as the style that gave rise to many young innovative players CITATION Mic17 \l 1033 (Verity). The style characterized by its light two-beats feel which replaced the use of flat four in the hitherto style of New Orleans. Chicago style also has characteristics of innovative and harmonic arrangements. The players are characterized by a high technical ability which made the style further improvised music during its time. Some of the major figures of Chicago style in the 1920s are Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. During their time, America was in an era of vast change regarding fashion. American ladies used to dress in short dress slightly above the knees. Makeup was at its epitome at that time, and its popularity had captured the attention of jazz players. Jazz players responded with music which seemed to inspire fashion while entertaining the audience.

Swing which was also known as Big Band followed Chicago between 1930 and 1945. Swing style was derived from New Orleans style, and the Jazz groups during this era were characterized by Big Bands which made the style famous as Big Band Jazz style. Swing style was full of vigor and gusto, and the players would make the audience feel the vitality of Jazz music then. Band Big style emphasized more on written arrangements with less improvisation and large ensembles. It is during the swing Jazz style era when trumpets and Saxes were developed from the New Orleans style.

Some of the famous figures of the swing style era are Count Basie who was a pianist and the bandleader of their group and Coleman Hawkins who played tenor sax. Swing style came in times when America was going through hard economics time that resulted in depression of many people. There were very high rates of unemployment and companies continued to incur losses then. The music industry was also affected negatively, and the industry recorded lowest sales of 6 million which is the lowest record of all-time in history. After that, the country was got relieved when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as the president in mid-1930s. The nation began a journey of a long economic upturn, and all industries got a boom including the jazz music industry. The Jazz players then responded to change in economic times taking advantage of media growth including radio stations to spread their music. Jazz figures like Hawkins used radio to play jazz as a saxophonist and were featured in many tours including the Europe tour which was necessitated by hard economic times in America.

Jazz music continues to grow in the industry at a very fast rate while metamorphosing to different styles. Each style has its timeframe and unique characteristics based on the player of Jazz at that era.

Works Cited

Verity, Michael. "Jazz Decade: 1920-1930." ThoughtCo (2017)