Are there any Big Band fans left out there?
I trust everyone noticed that I capitalized the words Big Band because it is a title, but it is also descriptive.
My guess is that many don’t really know what I mean when I say Big Band.
The era of the Big Bands was a relatively short one, lasting roughly from the early 1930s to the mid-1940s, also known as the Swing Era.
Big Bands were born out of the American music form known as jazz. Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African American areas in the southern United States such as New Orleans.
The jazz musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were often poor and uneducated and couldn’t read a note of music, and usually played on poor quality, used instruments. But could they play!
Because they couldn’t read music, they had to play “by ear” and often would solo, making up the music as they played. This is the defining feature of jazz, known as improvisation.
Prior to the early 1930s, jazz groups were usually smaller collections of musicians such as Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five.
As the late 20s turned to the early 30s the bands began to grow in size and the Big Band era was born.
I conduct the Wallaceburg Concert Band which while big in size, is not a Big Band.
The term Big Band insinuates a particular instrumentation that can vary a little bit, but is relatively standardized.
A Big Band typically consists of a five-member saxophone section, four-member trombone section, four-member trumpet section, and a four-member rhythm section. Please take note that there are no flutes, clarinets, bass clarinets, oboes, bassoons, French horns, euphoniums or tubas mentioned.
I’m not........