Swing: Pure Pleasure (1935-1937) -
jazz

Big band jazz, "swing," becomes the most popular music in America. Clarinetist Benny Goodman, whose band creates a sensation on radio broadcasts and in live performances, becomes the first white bandleader to hire black musicians and presents the first integrated public performances of jazz. Billie Holiday's buoyant music and exquisite phrasing enable her to overcome a limited range as a singer. Louis Armstrong lands roles in Hollywood films, and Duke Ellington continues to compose distinctive music for the members of his band. Swing bands, headed by Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunceford, Glenn Miller and Goodman's rival, Artie Shaw, achieve enormous popularity. Some jazz fans, disturbed by the popularity of swing, look backwards and start a movement to embrace "traditional" jazz. Drummer and bandleader Chick Webb's propulsive music inspires dancers at Harlem's integrated Savoy Ballroom. In the western "territories," a blues- soaked big band jazz style is set to further transform jazz.

Episode Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes and 54 seconds

Episode Number: 105

No future air times were found for this episode.

About Jazz:

Jazz is born in the unique musical and social cauldron of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, emerging from several forms of music, including ragtime, marching bands, work songs, spirituals, European classical music, funeral parade music and, above all, the blues.

Musicians who advance early jazz in New Orleans include Creole pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton, cornetist Buddy Bolden and clarinet prodigy Sidney Bechet.

Composer W.C.

Handy codifies the blues through his popular compositions.

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band makes the first jazz recordings.

Their enormous popularity spreads the sounds of jazz across the country and, eventually, the world.

At the end of the episode, viewers meet an 11-year-old New Orleans boy, Louis Armstrong, who will emerge from the city's toughest streets to become jazz music's greatest star and transform American music.