Big Band/ Swing

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from 1935 until the late 1940s. more...

Home
Accessories/ Storage
CDs
Cassettes
Music Memorabilia
Other Music Formats
Records
10" Singles
12'' Singles
7'' Singles
78 RPM
Albums/ LPs
Avant-Garde/ Experimental
Blues
Brass Bands/ Military Bands
Children's
Christmas/ Seasonal
Classical
Ballet/ Dance
Chamber
Choral
Early Music/ Baroque
Keyboard
Opera/ Vocal
Orchestral
Organ Music
Other Classical
Comedy
Compilations
Country
Dance
Big Beat
Breakbeat
Chillout/ Ambient
Disco
Drum 'n' Bass/ Jungle
Electronica
Garage
Hard House
Hardcore/ Rave
House
Lounge/ Downtempo
Old Skool
Other Dance
Progressive House
Techno/ Industrial
Trance
Easy Listening
Instrumental
Vocal
Folk
American
English
Other Folk
Indie/ Britpop
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Irish Folk/ Traditional
Jazz
Acid/ Fusion
Big Band/ Swing
Bop
Contemporary
Free/ Avant-Garde
Latin
Other Jazz
Traditional/ Dixieland
Metal
Death Metal
Heavy Metal
Nu-Metal
Other Metal
Speed/ Thrash Metal
Other Albums/ LPs
Pop
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Pop & Beat: 1960s
Beat: 1960s
Pop: 1960s
The Beatles
R&B/ Soul
Funk
Mainstream
Motown
Northern Soul
Other R&B/ Soul
R&B
Soul
Rap/ Hip Hop
East Coast
Freestyle
Gangsta
Hip Hop
Old School
Other Rap/ Hip Hop
West Coast
Reggae/ Ska
Dancehall
Dub
Other Reggae/ Ska
Popular
Roots
Ska
Religious/ New Age
Rock
Alternative
Classic
Country
Doo Wop/ 50s Rock 'n' Roll
Elvis
Folk
Glam
Gothic
Grunge
Hard
New Wave
Other Rock
Progressive
Psychedelic/ 60s Garage
Punk
Rockabilly
Soft
Soundtracks/ Themes
Film
Musicals
Other Soundtracks/ Themes
TV
Spoken Word
World Music
Other Records

A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 19 musicians and contains saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. The terms jazz band, stage band, jazz orchestra, and dance band are also used to refer to this type of ensemble.

In contrast to smaller jazz combos, in which most of the music is improvised, or created spontaneously, music played by big bands is highly 'arranged', or prepared in advance and notated on sheet music. Improvised solos may be played only when called for by the arranger.

History and style

There are two distinct periods in the history of popular bands. Big bands, then typically consisting of 10-13 pieces, came to dominate popular music in the middle 1920s. At that time they usually played a sweet form of jazz, including one or more violins, which were mostly dropped after the mid-1930s. Typical of the genre were such popular artists as Paul Whiteman and Ted Lewis. Many of these artists changed styles or retired after the introduction of swing music.

Swing music began appearing in the early 1930s, and this type of music flourished through the early 1950s, although there was little mass audience for it until around 1936. After that time, Big Bands rose to prominence playing swing music and held a major role in defining swing as a distinctive style. Later bandleaders pioneered the performance of various Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles with the traditional big band instrumentation, and big bands led by arranger Gil Evans and virtuoso bassist Jaco Pastorius introduced cool jazz and jazz fusion, respectively, to the big band domain. Modern big bands can be found playing all styles of jazz music.

Instrumentation

While composers and arrangers have written for many combinations of instruments, conventional big bands since the 1930s have had a rhythm section (composed of drums, bass, piano, and possibly guitar), a trumpet section, a trombone section, and a saxophone section, the latter three collectively referred to as "horns." In the second half of the twentieth century, a standard 17-piece instrumentation evolved, for which many commercial arrangements are available. This instrumentation consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones and a four-piece rhythm section.

Saxophone section

The saxophone section (known as the reeds, the sax section, or just the saxes in jazz parlance) usually comprises five players: two altos, two tenors and one baritone. The 'leader' of the section, who sets overall style, volume, tuning and phrasing, is always the first alto player.

Read more at Wikipedia.org