JAZZ

The Swing Era

The people need music upbeat and comforting. Americans who had managed to avoid the ruin aspired to entertainment. This is the jazz time to express them openly. Until then considered a cult music, jazz became the American music's most popular. The Swing invades the dance halls and music magazines. Cabarets require sequins, movement and noise, the public wants drown in the mirage of prosperity ceremonial, the intoxication of the dance and the arts of luxury to better penetrate its disappointments and try to forget the recession. Never in those years had music responded to the demands of a younger audience in search of emotions, a public accounting for all Americans, regardless of race. This is the reason for the unprecedented rise in popularity of swing and thus jazz.

The Jazz orchestras attract millions of spectators in the concert halls and cinemas. These sets were the heart of a vogue that lasted more than a decade beyond U.S. borders: the era of Swing. Now, Americans will meet the new slogan of jazz swing. They throw in a chorus of furious melee swing, speak and sing swing, working, loving and will dream swing. The American who had learned to sing in the choir of the school, to play in the school band, to fight in the street was barely three options if he wanted to get out: music, boxing or combines. Whoever chose the music was jazz without asking any question.

The daily life of jazz musician could begin in the afternoon at the cinema, where he accompanied silent films and continue dancing in a club or restaurant. After hours, the musician ran the boxes to deal with competitors and some even ended their night by hosting breakfasts in major hotels. The madness of a Swing also leads to smaller formations including musicians playing black music as easy as the big band repertoire, more oriented towards the music hall. The success of Goodman emulated. Then appear in major orchestras, composed of blacks and whites, which occur throughout the country. The Swing came to the rescue of the music industry. While in 1932 was selling 10 million records in the United States, they reach 50 million in 1939; the entertainment was therefore one of the first sectors to recover.

Harlem Renaissance

With the end of the World War II stopped off in the early twenties, a period of material prosperity and cultural renaissance ...