The Swing Era: A Documentary

by Various Artists

Jazz began to "swing" as musicians began to adopt swing eighths, the string bass, high hat cymbals, and a looser, more rhythmic feeling . This change occurred gradually starting in the twenties notably with Louis Armstrong, and continued on into the 40's. A lot of the music that came out of this period was played by bands of ten musicians or more. Because of this the swing era is also often known as the big band era. This definitive history of Swing music documents many of the classic performers of the era including Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Erskine Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson and more.

A note of explanation for the unfamiliar: the swing school of jazz music connotes several stylistic tropes, including the use of high-hat cymbals and the string bass, the adoption of numerous "swing eighths," and in general, a looser, more relaxed rhythm overall. On a historical level, the segue into swing commenced in the 1920s with such performers as Louis Armstrong, and remained both popular and prevalent - the "dominant mode" of jazz interpretation - well into the 1940s. Given the fact that swing was generally played by ten musicians or more, it was also known as the Big Band Era. This ambitious music history documentary examines the evolution of swing over time, as performed by such icons as Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Erskine Hawkins and Cab Calloway.