Swing is an era of jazz popular during late 20s and early 30s (but lasted a long time), which coincided with the Great Depression.
During this era:
- jazz subgenres: big-band jazz and symphonic jazz
- piano playing (successors to ragtime): stride piano and boogie woogie
- rent parties: musicians often hosted “rent parties” in which
- dances with carefree body language (primitivism)
- Stomp
- Foxtrot
- Tango
- Charleston
- tone poem
Artists
- Josephine Baker: dancer, first Black movie star
- famous for her “Charleston” dance (1925) during her Paris tour
- professes primitivism through her dance and behaviorisms
- Mary Lou Williams: pianist
- boogie woogie style
- Billie Holiday: singer
Common Band Structure
- wind/horns
- 3-4 trumpets
- 3-4 trombones
- 5 reeds (clarinet, 3-4 saxes)
- rhythm
- piano
- bass (instead of tuba)
- not amplified until 1950
- guitar (instead of banjo)
- drums