Chapter 7: Swing and Big Bands
By the mid-1920s, several bands began moving away from the controlled and reserved style of the society syncopators. Although these new groups still played music suitable for dancing, their sound grew bolder, more intricate, and increasingly focused on the talents of individual soloists and arrangers. These larger ensembles, known as big bands, would come to define the Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s.
Big band instrumentation began to take shape during this period and was fairly standardized by the mid-1930s. Most bands featured a rhythm section made up of piano, guitar, string bass, and drum set. The brass section typically included three trumpets, with the second trumpet often taking the lead on jazz solos, and two trombones. The reed section generally consisted of four saxophones—first and third alto, and second and fourth tenor—with the second tenor frequently serving as the featured soloist. Although specific instrument combinations varied among ensembles, this general layout became the blueprint for most swing orchestras. The large number of players enabled richly layered textures, dynamic call-and-response passages between sections, and intricate arrangements that seamlessly blended tight ensemble playing with moments of individual improvisation.
As these bands began to develop their own distinct personalities and musical trademarks, they were sometimes labeled by journalists using vivid language. For instance, some writers referred to their driving rhythms and dense textures as “jungle sounds,” especially when describing the more primal, percussive, and blues-inflected styles of Duke Ellington’s band at New York’s Cotton Club. While the term often reflected racialized stereotypes, it also pointed to the raw energy and complexity that set these new big bands apart from earlier, more restrained dance orchestras.