A big band (historically referred to as jazz orchestra) is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of 10 or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Big bands started as accompaniment for dancing the Lindy Hop. In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists.
Instruments
Big bands generally have four sections: trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section of guitar, piano, double bass, drums and sometimes vibraphone or other percussion. The division in early big bands, from the 1920s to 1930s, was typically two or three trumpets, one or two trombones, three or four saxophones, and a rhythm section of four instruments. In the 1940s, Stan Kenton's band used up to five trumpets, five trombones (three tenor and two bass trombones), five saxophones (two alto saxophones, two tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone), and a rhythm section. Duke Ellington at one time used six trumpets. While most big bands dropped the previously common jazz clarinet from their arrangements (other than the clarinet-led orchestras of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman), many Duke Ellington songs had clarinet parts, often replacing or doubling one of the tenor saxophone parts; more rarely, Ellington would substitute baritone sax for bass clarinet, such as in "Ase's Death" from Swinging Suites. Boyd Raeburn drew from symphony orchestras by adding flute, French horn, strings, and timpani to his band. In the late 1930s, Shep Fields incorporated a solo accordion, temple blocks, piccolo, violins and a viola into his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra.The Big Bands - 4th Edition George T. Simon. Schirmer Trade Books, London, 2012 "Shep Fields Biography" on Books.google.com Paul Whiteman also featured a solo accordion in his ensemble.A Passion for Polka: Old-TIme Ethnic Music in America. Greene, Victor. University of California Press, 1992 p. 124 Paul Whiteman featured the accordion on Google Books.comMusic Around The World: A Global Encyclopedia . Andrew Martin & Matthew Mihalka editors. "Accordion (Americas) p. 3 Paul Whiteman Orchestra, accordion on Google Books
Jazz ensembles numbering eight (octet), nine (nonet) or ten (tentet) voices are sometimes called "little big bands". During the 1940s, somewhat smaller configurations of the big band emerged in the form of the "rhythm sextet". These ensembles typically featured three or more accordions accompanied by piano, guitar, bass, cello, percussion, and marimba with vibes and were popularized by recording artists such as Charles Magnante,Music Around The World: A Global Encyclopedia. Andrew Martin & Matthew Mihalka editors. "Accordion (Americas) p. 3 Charles Magnanate & accordion on Google BooksDiscography of American Historical Recordings: Charles Magnante's Accordion Quartette with guitar and string bass on uscb.edu Joe BivianoThe songs "Leone Jump" & "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Sonora 1110) from the album Accordion Capers (Sonora, MS-476) in 1946 by the Joe Biviano Orchestra with John Serry (second accordion & composer) archived at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History on americanhistory.si.edu and John Serry.Discography of American Historical Recordings- John Serrapica (aka John Serry) as a member of the Charles Magnante Accordion Quartette with guitar and string bass on uscb.eduReview of album Squeeze Play, p. 22 in The Billboard, 1 December 1956Squeeze The: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America. Jacobson, Marion. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, Il. 2012, P. 39 "Advent of the Piano Accordion - Charles Magnante Accordion and Big Band jazz recordings on GoogleBooks.comMusic in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars and Stories that Shaped Our Culture. Edmondson, Jacqueline. ABC-CLIO, 2013, p. 3. "Accordion" - Charles Magnante, jazz bands, recordings on GoogleBooks.com
Twenty-first century big bands can be considerably larger than their predecessors, exceeding 20 players, with some European bands using 29 instruments and some reaching 50.
Seating and arrangements In the most common seating for a 17-piece big band, each section is carefully set-up in a way to optimize the band's sound. For the wind players, there are 3 different types of parts: lead parts (including first trumpet, first trombone, and first alto sax), solo parts (including second or fourth trumpet, second trombone, and the first tenor sax), and section members (which include the rest of the band). The band is generally configured so lead parts are seated in the middle of their sections and solo parts are seated closest to the rhythm section. The fourth trombone part is generally played by a bass trombone. In some pieces the trumpets may double on flugelhorn or cornet, and saxophone players frequently double on other woodwinds such as flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, or soprano saxophone.
It is useful to distinguish between the roles of composer, arranger and leader. The composer writes original music that will be performed by individuals or groups of various sizes, while the arranger adapts the work of composers in a creative way for a performance or recording. Arrangers frequently notate all or most of the score of a given number, usually referred to as a "chart". Bandleaders are typically performers who assemble musicians to form an ensemble of various sizes, select or create material for them, shape the music's dynamics, phrasing, and expression in rehearsals, and lead the group in performance often while playing alongside them. One of the first prominent big band arrangers was Ferde Grofé, who was hired by Paul Whiteman to write for his "symphonic jazz orchestra". A number of bandleaders established long-term relationships with certain arrangers, such as the collaboration between leader Count Basie and arranger Neil Hefti. Some bandleaders, such as Guy Lombardo, performed works composed by others (in Lombardo's case, often by his brother Carmen), while others, such as Maria Schneider, take on all three roles. In many cases, however, the distinction between these roles can become blurred. Billy Strayhorn, for example, was a prolific composer and arranger, frequently collaborating with Duke Ellington, but rarely took on the role of bandleader, which was assumed by Ellington, who himself was a composer and arranger.
Typical big band arrangements from the swing era were written in strophic form with the same phrase and chord structure repeated several times. Each iteration, or chorus, commonly follows twelve bar blues form or thirty-two-bar (AABA) song form. The first chorus of an arrangement introduces the melody and is followed by choruses of development. This development may take the form of improvised solos, written solo sections, and "shout choruses".
An arrangement's first chorus is sometimes preceded by an introduction, which may be as short as a few measures or may extend to a chorus of its own. Many arrangements contain an interlude, often similar in content to the introduction, inserted between some or all choruses. Other methods of embellishing the form include modulations and cadential extensions.
Some big ensembles, like King Oliver's, played music that was half-arranged, half-improvised, often relying on head arrangements. A head arrangement is a piece of music that is formed by band members during rehearsal. They experiment, often with one player coming up with a simple musical figure leading to development within the same section and then further expansion by other sections, with the entire band then memorizing the way they are going to perform the piece, without writing it on sheet music.Simon, 105. During the 1930s, Count Basie's band often used head arrangements, as Basie said, "we just sort of start it off and the others fall in." Head arrangements were more common during the period of the 1930s because there was less turnover in personnel, giving the band members more time to rehearse.
History Dance music Before 1910, social dance in America was dominated by steps such as the waltz and polka. As jazz migrated from its New Orleans origin to Chicago and New York City, energetic, suggestive dances traveled with it. During the next decades, ballrooms filled with people doing the jitterbug and Lindy Hop. The dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle popularized the foxtrot while accompanied by the Europe Society Orchestra led by James Reese Europe.
One of the first bands to accompany the new rhythms was led by a drummer, Art Hickman, in San Francisco in 1916. Hickman's arranger, Ferde Grofé, wrote arrangements in which he divided the jazz orchestra into sections that combined in various ways. This intermingling of sections became a defining characteristic of big bands. In 1919, Paul Whiteman hired Grofé to use similar techniques for his band. Whiteman was educated in classical music, and he called his new band's music symphonic jazz. The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attention to the demand for dance music and created their own big bands. They incorporated elements of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville.
Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a job at Club Alabam in New York City, which eventually turned into a job as bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom. At these venues, which themselves gained notoriety, bandleaders and arrangers played a greater role than they had before. Hickman relied on Ferde Grofé, Whiteman on Bill Challis. Henderson and arranger Don Redman followed the template of King Oliver, but as the 1920s progressed they moved away from the New Orleans format and transformed jazz. They were assisted by a band full of talent: Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, Louis Armstrong on cornet, and multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, whose career lasted into the 1990s.
The swing era
Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s and was distinguished by a more supple feel than the more literal of early jazz. Walter Page is often credited with developing the walking bass, although earlier examples exist, such as Wellman Braud on Ellington's Washington Wabble (1927).
This type of music flourished through the early 1930s, although there was little mass audience for it until around 1936. Up until that time, it was viewed with ridicule and sometimes looked upon as a menace. After 1935, big bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style. Western swing musicians also formed popular big bands during the same period, though their use of fiddles and guitars and their roots in the American southwest distinguished them from groups like Ellington's.
A considerable range of styles evolved among the hundreds of popular bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby (brother of Bing), more of a dixieland style, Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated. Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clarinets of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, the trombone of Jack Teagarden, the trumpet of Harry James, the drums of Gene Krupa, and the vibes of Lionel Hampton.