Where Did This Great Music Go?

     You've heard the brilliant notes of an orchestra playing a Mambo or Salsa.  You've heard the sparkle in Glenn Miller's "In The Mood", with escalating joy, as the finale approaches.  Both came to America in the early 1940s--considered by historians as a dawn of discovery.  Where did all that wonderful music go?

     Big Band music is a derivative of Jazz, which became popular from the 1930s until post-war II.  They do continue today, but sadly with less enthusiasm.  Nowadays, music fans seem more mesmerized with "smoke & mirrors" & lip-synching than with REAL orchestration/improvisation.  Without ballroom tempos, you don't have dance steps.  If not for South American and European "couple dancing" styles, 

...America might be stuck with only "bump & grind".
     Jazz--invented & developed in America--created improv.  Its current manifestation looks back to the "greats" and re-performs their Standards and uses the tried and true style to make new compositions.  
     Going back in time, you see the flourish of Big Band music right after the Jazz Age 1920s (notice the tuba).   

     It has a more nimble sound.  Swing music took root in the mid-1930s and quickly rose to prominence.  

     The era of Radio ushered in its popularity within millions of homes, campuses, and eateries.

    Live music was "standard", at that time.  Thus, music was excellent because it had to be.  Touring groups were like movie stars (desired for their autographs!), 

playing in towns/cities across America.

     Outside of radio and record albums, orchestras played "live" in front of audiences.

    Hundreds of bands/orchestras kept audiences happy across America: on the radio, at school parties, society balls, hotels, supper clubs, night clubs, Harlem ballrooms, and in hundreds of movies.  Below, "Andy Hardy" films display actor Mickey Rooney's talent for drumming and dancing to Big Band music (see Judy Garland at the left).  

     The famous 1947 film, "It's A Wonderful Life" showcases a Swing Dancing scene, as the main couple dances over the school's retractable gym/pool floor (which is mischievously opened to swallow them).  

     Wealthy boozer / womanizer Bing Crosby got his start during the 1920s (despite his conservative "image" during the 1950s and his 1977 David Bowie duet).  Big band crooner Crosby had some really fine recordings during the 1940s.  Bringing recording technology from the Nazis, Crosby gave America a boost in music distribution.  Stereo sound was improved by orchestra leaders like Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians (below)...

as well as by Enoch Light and Esquivel in the 1960s.  Even 50s TV icon, Jackie Gleason, favored its music (below):

     Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra (who began with famous bandleader Artie Saw and then Tommy Dorsey, as seen below) 

became established with 1950s arranger, Nelson Riddle, and sought to prop up Crosby amidst his "Rat Pack" of the 1960s (below).  

     The Rat Pack included Italian crooner/comedian/TV Show host, Dean Martin (after his 1940s film/music start with goofy Jerry Lewis--another Big Band fan) as well as drummer/tap dancer/vocal impersonator Sammy Lewis, Jr. (who married a white girl and pushed America's minority discrimination boundaries).  
     Speaking of which, Big Band music improved Equality for African American music artists like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald (amazing vocal range and skat singing), Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole (who got the first "black" TV show), Count Basie, Earl Grant, the Mills Brothers, Quincy Jones, Ruth Jones, Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone, Dorothy Dandridge, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Lena Horne.  

Listen to their music!  Caucasian bandleaders were inspired by them to make swinging orchestrations and renditions!
     Otherwise-excluded Jewish players like Benny Goodman also found success in Big Band music (long before Elvis, Goodman was called "King" of Swing). 

     Films like "Swing Kids" illustrate how Jewish youth found stability & inspiration despite anti-Semitic Nazi oppression.  
     That era also introduced a willing America to the Latin beats of impresarios like Xavier Cugat, Perez Prado, Tito Puente, and Desi Arnaz.  Such cross-cultural acceptance!  

    Cugat's orchestra played nightly at Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.  Many orchestras performed live in hotels across the country (broadcast via radio)...

     It was an era when women could be jazz musicians (which still hasn't resurfaced) or music stars... as seen in the 1994 George Lucas film "Radioland Murders" or as seen below:

     Big band music was steered by a common conception: quantity of instrumentalists and "sound":

     Seemingly stronger than concrete or World War II, the Big Band Era disintegrated.  Why?  

     On August 1, 1942, (shortly after America entered WWII) the American Federation of Musicians, Union--at the instigation of union president James Petrillo--started a strike against the major American recording companies, regarding overdue royalty payments.  Thus, union musicians could not make recordings for any Record Company.  A union musician was allowed to participate on radio programs and other kinds of musical entertainment--but not in a recording session.  They earned money playing oversees (often with their entire bands) on tour for US military.

     The strike did not affect musicians performing on live radio shows, in concerts, or, after October 27, 1943, on special recordings made for government-sanctioned V-Discs (as morale-boosters to the armed forces fighting World War I).  V–Discs were not available to the general public and were illegal to reproduce.  Yet, they thankfully captured the magic & enthusiasm of the 1940s Big Band Era!  

     The music companies refused to pay their musicians any royalties.  In preparation for the strike, they stock-piled existing recordings of Big Band music.  Ergo, the momentum of the Big Band movement was lost... over greed.  For 2 years, the strike crippled the stubborn (no change nowadays either) music industry from releasing any new albums.  The industry relied on old recordings to re-release.  Yet, the governments of the Allied Forces of WWII wanted optimistic and energetic Big Band music to muster morale of its troops.  

So, (no surprise), the government concocted a deal with Music Industry & Union to allow musicians to make music for sole distribution to oversees soldiers.  The Big Band era's vocalists and musicians roared ahead with the most effervescent and talented Live Recordings ever heard!  Only the "musical numbers" of 1940s Hollywood Musicals equal the vim & verve of that time!  

     By 1943, the industry relented in making royalty payments to the union.  WWII ended in 1946.  An unexpected result of the strike was that vocalists began to dominate the scene, above the bands.  e.g.: Frank Sinatra's early recordings emphasize the orchestra, as he fills in the lyrics; his 1950s Nelson Riddle arrangements hold him "center stage" with musicians "backing him up".  

     Historians attribute the decline of Big Bands to their costs.  Transporting a 20-piece orchestra with a 5-piece vocal group (like the tight-knit Modernaires, below) cost money.  

Post-war club owners grew reluctant to spend so much.  They were (cheaply) content with jukeboxes and recordings.  Starved of great bands, Americans settled for what they got (as they did for mediocre cars from General Motors instead of Tucker or Packard, which were also wiped out by Big Businesses).  Lost was the mesmerizing interaction between Lidy-Hop dancers, below,

and the orchestra--between the audience and the performers.  

     Sweeping into the void, Rock n' Roll groups used fewer musicians and had louder (electrically amplified) sound (albeit lower quality).  They were cheaper.  They got hired.  Bill Haley & the Comets is a prime example, via the 1956 movie he starred in.

     True, a lot of talent was killed in the war, but many souls carried on the tradition/values/sound: Ray Anthony, Ralph Flanagan, Tex Beneke, Lester Lanin, Johnny Long, Lawrence Welk, Henry Mancini, Ted Heath, and the Crew Cuts.  

     Before the existence of television studios (that only focused on physicality), audiences didn't discriminate against "regular looking" performers.  Neither the Andrews Sisters nor the Modernaires are physically gorgeous...

but they have amazing harmony and talent!  Post-war Americans suddenly cared less about talent and focused more on hydrox-blonde hair and hip-shaking (not classy like Jack Benny's bandleader, Phil Harris) pop stars.  1950s TV's "Bandstand Boogie" was the precursor to MTV: a lack of talent, a focus on lip-synching and visual tricks to keep you distracted from the lack of true talent.  It was suddenly uncool to merely appreciate the skill and craft of singing/performing.  

     That is, until the Swinging Sixties hailed a resurgence of American Jazz ... but as a more cerebral form of listening.  

Less dancing and more watching the improvisation.  Oscar Peterson is very different than Carmen Cavallaro.  Dave Brubeck is afar from Gene Krupa.  

     If post-war Big Business greed (as documented in my prior blog entries) hadn't been allowed to deprive/harm society, another attribute of amazing American spirit wouldn't have dwindled.

     Recently, bandleaders like Brian Setzer and the Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra led a revival of this music.  Listen to original composition, "Bill's Bounce": a tight build-up at the finish!  Brassy!

     Mambo music is more prevalent.  Ballroom-style dancing got a kick in popularity from TV shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing With the Stars".  Turner Movie Classics  (TCM) revitalizes 1930s & 1940s films featuring Supper Club orchestras and dancing.  Not just Fred Astaire, it includes musicals like "Flower Drum Song" and movies like 1940's "Strike Up the Band" or "I Love You Again" (with debonair William Powell) or 1943's "Casablanca".   

     To witness the high-energy passion & innate talent of the Big Band era, I recommend listening to:

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra "Hawaiian War Chant"

Ray Anthony Orchestra "House Party Hop"

Hugo Montenegro "Top Hat White Tie & Tails (medley)"

Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife"

Bing Crosby & Bob Hope "The Merry-G0-Runraound" 

Charlie Barnet & Jimmy Dorsey "Smiles"

Glen Gray & the Casa Loma Orchestra "Leap Frog"

Betty Grable "I Feel Like Dancing"

Betty Grable "Are You Kidding"

Mills Brothers "Cielito Lindo"

Andrews Sisters "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" 

Ray Anthony "The Honey Dripper"

Fletcher Henderson "You're Driving Me Crazy"

Xavier Cugat & Fred Astaire "Tap Number"

Glenn Miller "Flying Home" (remastered version)

Glenn Miller "Peggy the Pin-up Girl"

Dean Martin "Me And You And the Moon"

Tony Pastor "With A Twist of the Wrist"

Johnny Otis Orchestra "J.T. Stomp"

Bobby Sherwood "T-Bone for Two"

Paul Anka "Walkin' My Baby Back Home"

Count Basie "The Trolley Song"

Count Basie "Everything's Coming Up Roses"

Lester Lanin "S'Wonderful" (medley)

Benny Goodman "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down & Write Myself A Letter"

Sarah Vaughn & Billy Eckstine "Cheek To Cheek"

Sid Phillips "Clarinet Marmalade"

Gene Krupa "Watch Out"

Lucky Millinder "Savoy"

Pearl Bailey "That's My Weakness Now"

Fred Astaire "Say It With Firecrackers"

Jimmy Mundy Orchestra "Fiesta In Brass"

Danny Kaye "Knock On Wood"

Glen Gray & the Casa Loma Orchestra "Bugle Call Rag"

Judy Garland "Drummer Boy"

Joanie Sommers " 'Til There Was You"

Billy May Orchestra "I Believe In You"

Nat King Cole "Cappuccina"

Lou Monte "If I Knew You Were Coming"

Slim Cooper Orchestra "The Song Is You"

Frank Sinatra "It Happened In Monterey"

The Ames Brothers "No Moon At All"

Johnny Mathis "Too Close for Comfort"

Bing Crosby "Cuanto La Gusta"

Glenn Miller "In The Mood" (remastered 2001)

Mel Torme "South of the Border"

     In your own hearts, such truly inspiring--and often optimistic--music can kindle your imagination, good spirits and dreams.  Just because something is old doesn't mean that it should be discarded in favor of things that are new but inferior of quality.