This page contains a brief overview on the album BIG BAND SOUNDS: Swing Era, The 50's - Cd011. Learn more about the artist and explore the track lists and website. If you find any information that needs to be corrected, please let us know.

 
After the disheartening weeks in 1946 when half a dozen of the biggest bands in the business broke up, there seemed to be no future for swing. Bands reformed themselves but it was not the same. New idols and new kinds of jazz were pushing into the spotlight. Theaters no longer hired bands due to TV competition. Radio had been usurped by disc jockeys who did not need live bands. People did not dance to jazz any more. And musicians returning from military service found it hard to get jobs.

The competition for jobs helped swing in that leaders had their pick of sidemen and the bands recovered a quality lost during the war. Cautiously, at first but then more eagerly, the harmonies and rhythms of the new jazz were intertwined into their music thus keeping swing from becoming merely an echo of itself. There was more precision and polish with the more mature musicians. The swing of the decades after the war was a refreshing variety of styles and contain a fullness. Jazz was no longer in the running as mass music, however, as rock became popular. Swing rather settled into place as one of the many forms - bop, cool, modern, progressive - that jazz developed. Jazz no longer reigned but it was and still is - swing.

Check out the artist's website:
http://bigbandsounds.com

Track List:
1. The Kid from Red Bank (Count Basie Version)
2. Swanee River Boogie (The Commanders Version)
3. Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin' (Stan Kenton Version)
4. All of Me (Billy May Version)
5. April in Paris (Count Basi Version)
6. The Continental (Tommy Dorsey Version)
7. Early Autumn (Woody Herman Version)
8. St. Louis Blues March (Glenn Miller Version)
9. The Peanut Vendor (Stan Kenton Version)
10. Tango Blues (Harry James Version)
11. Caravan (Ralph Marterie Version)
12. V.I.P.'s Boogie (Duke Ellington Version)
13. Across the Alley from the Alamo (Stan Kenton Version)
14. Bingo, Bango, Boffo (Tommy Dorsey Version)
15. Lean Baby (Billy May Version)
16. Hot Toddy (Ralph Flanagan Version)
17. The Doodletown Fifers (Sauter-Finegan Version)
18. Interlude (Stan Kenton Version)
19. Cute (Count Basie Version)
20. Pussy Willow (Tommy Dorsey Version)
21. Artistry Jumps (Stan Kenton Version)
22. Night Train (Buddy Morrow Version)
23. Keen and Peachy (Woody Herman Version)
24. Benjie's Bubble (Benny Goodman Version)

Suggested CDs:

• Black Bird Stitches

Other Genres:

• JAZZ: Big Band
• JAZZ: Swing/Big Band
• TYPE: COMPILATIONS