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The Swing Era was the period of time (1935–1946) when big band
Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the swing from the early 1930s until the late 1940s....
 swing music was the most popular music in America
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. Though the music has been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by Black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
, Jimmie Lunceford
Jimmie Lunceford

James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an United States jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader of the swing era.Lunceford was born in Fulton, Missouri, but attended school in Denver and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Fisk University....
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Jazz royalty" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century....
, Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
 and Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an United States pianist, bandleader, arrangement and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and Swing ....
, most historians believe that the Swing Era started with Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman

Benjamin David Goodman, was an United States jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing ", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
's performance at the Palomar Ballroom
Palomar Ballroom

The Palomar Ballroom, built in 1925, was a famous ballroom in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was destroyed by a fire in late 1939....
 on August 21, 1935, bringing the music to the rest of the country.






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The Swing Era was the period of time (1935–1946) when big band
Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the swing from the early 1930s until the late 1940s....
 swing music was the most popular music in America
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. Though the music has been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by Black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
, Jimmie Lunceford
Jimmie Lunceford

James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an United States jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader of the swing era.Lunceford was born in Fulton, Missouri, but attended school in Denver and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Fisk University....
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Jazz royalty" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century....
, Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
 and Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an United States pianist, bandleader, arrangement and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and Swing ....
, most historians believe that the Swing Era started with Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman

Benjamin David Goodman, was an United States jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing ", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
's performance at the Palomar Ballroom
Palomar Ballroom

The Palomar Ballroom, built in 1925, was a famous ballroom in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was destroyed by a fire in late 1939....
 on August 21, 1935, bringing the music to the rest of the country. Other musicians who would rise during this time include Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey

James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent United States jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader....
, his baby brother Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey was an United States jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey....
, Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller , was an United States jazz musician, arranger, composer, and band leader in the Swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big band"....
, Count Basie
Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an United States Jazz piano, organist, bandleader, and composer. Widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years....
, & Goodman's future rival Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an United States jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of his time....
. Several factors left to the demise of the swing era; the recording ban from August 1942 to November 1944 (The union that most jazz musicians belong to told its members not to record until the record companies agree to pay them each time their music is played on the radio), the earlier ban of ASCAP songs from radio stations, World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 which made it harder for bands to travel around as well as the "cabaret tax", which was as high as 20%, the change in music taste & the rise of bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
. Though Ellington & Basie were able to keep their bands together (the latter did briefly downsize his band; from 1950-1952), by the end of 1946, most of their competitors were forced to disband, bringing the swing era to a close.

Songs from the Swing Era

The Swing Era has left behind a lot of recordings that are now classics. Some of those are: "Begin the Beguine
Begin the Beguine

"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter and introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee . Based on the Beguine , it is notable for its 108-Bar length, departing drastically from the conventional thirty-two-bar form....
" by Cole Porter "Body and Soul
Body and Soul (song)

"Body and Soul" is a Popular music written in 1930 in music by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and Johnny Green. It was introduced by Libby Holman in the revue Three's a Crowd and used as a soundtrack theme in the 1947 in film Body and Soul named for the song....
" by Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins , nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was a prominent jazz Tenor saxophone.He is commonly regarded as the first important and influential jazz musician to use the instrument: Joachim E....
 "Cherokee" by Charlie Barnet
Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", and "Southland Shuffle"....
 "Daddy From Georgia Way" recorded by Bob Chester and his Orchestra on Columbia Records
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, lyrics and music by Daisy Lawton, a pen name for Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
. "Here Comes That Mood" recorded by Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez was a United States bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917....
, music and lyrics by Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
. "I Can't Get Started" by Bunny Berigan
Bunny Berigan

Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an United States jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the Swing Era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33....
 "In Santiago by the Sea" by Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
 and recorded by Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez was a United States bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917....
 and his Orchestra. "In the Mood
In the Mood

"In the Mood" is a song popularized by the American bandleader Glenn Miller in 1939, and one of the best-known arrangements of the big band era....
" by Glenn Miller "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

"It Don't Mean a Thing " is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a jazz standard. The music was written and arranged by Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at Chicago's Lincoln Tavern and was first recorded by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records on February 2, 1932....
" by Duke Ellington "Jersey Bounce
Jersey Bounce

"Jersey Bounce" is a song written by Myron C. Bradshaw, Edward Johnson and Bobby Plater with lyrics by Buddy Feyne who used the nom de plume Robert B....
" by Benny Goodman "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie "Sing, Sing, Sing
Sing, Sing, Sing

"Sing, Sing, Sing " is a 1936 song, written by Louis Prima, strongly identified with the big band and swing eras. Although written by Prima, it is often most associated with Benny Goodman....
" by Louis Prima "Song of India" by Tommy Dorsey "Stardust
Stardust (song)

"Stardust" is an American popular song composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael with the lyrics added in 1929 by Mitchell Parish.Composition...
", which has been recorded by everyone from Armstrong, to Miller to Shaw. "Tonight Be Tender To Me" by Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
 and recorded by Una Mae Carlisle
Una Mae Carlisle

Una Mae Carlisle was an American jazz singer, pianist, and songwriter.Fats Waller discovered Carlisle when she was still in her teens, while she worked as a local Cincinnati performer live and on radio....
. "Tuxedo Junction
Tuxedo Junction

"Tuxedo Junction" is a song written by Birmingham, Alabama composer Erskine Hawkins and introduced by his orchestra. Lyrics were by Buddy Feyne....
" by Glenn Miller