First off.... the Swing-Era

In these next few blogs, I'll be showing what I've learned about some of the few major types of jazz. By the 1950's, jazz was already beginning to move in multiple directions and paths. When a person mentioned that they played "jazz", they had to specify what style of jazz they were referring to.

The first style of popular, arranged, jazz that existed was known simply as "Swing". From around 1935-1945, known as the "Swing-Era", swing was incredibly popular in the United States. Swing, especially within high-schools, may still be the most commonly known today. With that in mind, this is probably why I'm tackling this first - I at least have a little experience in big band jazz (middle school Black Dog Band!), and I've certainly already heard a lot of Swing music on the radio and just in general.
Nearly all swing music was performed with a "big band", or an ensemble that consisted of multiple people on multiple types of instrumentation, "sections", consisting of rhythm, woodwinds, and brass, and oftentimes a band leader.

During the Swing Era, there were many nationally recognized bands, each with their own distinctive style, such as those led by Duke Ellington,Count Basie, and Benny Goodman. Now that I think about it, Swing jazz is probably what first introduced me to the actual existence of jazz - as in, middle school jazz band.
This project has made me quite nostalgic in a lot of ways, especially in bringing back memories of my middle school jazz band days, when I'd just have a bunch of fun with a lot of friends in a large jazz ensemble.

I still remember that we actually played an arrangement of one of Duke Ellington's tunes, Cotton Tail. Although it was fun, there was certainly still a lot of room for improvement back then:

Ahhhh..... 7th Grade.

So while middle school jazz may have been fun and overall not too shabby, I already knew that with this project I was aiming for something much more. In terms of big band swing, there's a term to describe the precision and overall musicality of a performance: "tight."
And I think that THIS is the "tight" that I want to get closer to right now and in the future:

Oh yes.

So, with that in mind, I should probably get to the good stuff - my attempts at Swing! Unfortunately, I didn't quite have a big band of 20 people at my fingertips, so in my practicing, I decided to just settle with trying to play along to the professional recordings.

Some of the major things from Swing jazz that I had to pay attention to included:
 - a strong rhythm section, usually consisting of drums and string double bass, that established a steady beat and constant modulations (changes in the scales and chords).
 - intonation, with the other saxes in the recording, and the entire band itself
 - balance: how a section blends to make its own sound, and how it fits into the entirety of the band. However, when I'm playing below, I'm not exactly in "balance" with the recording, since (1) I want to just hear myself more clearly, and (2) it isn't exactly easy to blend flawlessly into an old 1940's recording.
 - And finally, just feeling the groove. Swing-Era music was meant to be danced to, whether in a slower-waltz or a more upbeat tempo. To be more definite, a lot of songs, including those that I tried to play along to, put emphasis on the upbeats, or more off-sounding beats, in order to create that sort of dancy feel.

But nonetheless, here it is:

1: Duke Ellington - "Take the 'A' Train":

2: Count Basie - "Corner Pocket":

**Excuse the off intonation :\

Readings and Resources!
1. A great history lesson, provided by Jim Scully: Composer, Performer, and Educator at California State University - http://www.csub.edu/~jscully/teaching/documents/105lectures/7swing.pdf
2. Free music EVERYWHERE!
3. Jazz in America: http://www.jazzinamerica.org/JazzResources/StyleSheets/9
4. And once again, my handy-dandy sax teacher