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SWING
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...one view of the history of jazz
Part 1:
Jazz was a 2000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniseries" rel="nofollow - , directed by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns" rel="nofollow - . It was broadcast on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Broadcasting_Service" rel="nofollow - in 2001 just after I had retired from a 50
year student-and-employment life, 1949 to 1999. The chronological and
thematic episodes of the series provided a history of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz" rel="nofollow - emphasizing innovative composers and musicians as well as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_history" rel="nofollow - . It was an
interpretation of the history of jazz rooted in biography.
I have seen the series twice during the years
2004 to 2014 on television in Tasmania Australia. Jazz has always been on the
periphery of my musical experience since the earliest days of my life in the
1940s. This series brought jazz closer to the centre of my life, although I
was not waiting for this to occur.
Part
2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_%28jazz_performance_style%29" rel="nofollow - musicians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong" rel="nofollow - and Duke Ellington are the central figures in
the series. "They provide the
narrative thread around which the stories of other major figures turn"; several episodes discuss the contributions
of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Parker" rel="nofollow - and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Gillespie" rel="nofollow - to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop" rel="nofollow - ,
and of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis" rel="nofollow - , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornette_Coleman" rel="nofollow - , and John Coltrane to free and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_jazz" rel="nofollow - . Nine episodes
survey the forty-five period (1917–1961), leaving the final episode to cover
the forty years from 1961 to 2001. The
impact on jazz of racial segregation and drugs is discussed.1 Like all histories of all subjects, there
are many ways of writing the story.
Ken Burns and his crew gave viewers one of these ways of dealing with
a century of jazz. Many enthusiasts were waiting for Burns' take on jazz
knowing, as many did, that Burns is one of the best doco producers.
Part 3:
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The swing
era, also frequently referred to as the "big band era", was
the period of time from about 1935 to 1946. During this period http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_band" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_music" rel="nofollow - was the most popular music in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" rel="nofollow - . Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been
around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by
such artists as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington" rel="nofollow - , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Lunceford" rel="nofollow - , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennie_Moten" rel="nofollow - , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cab_Calloway" rel="nofollow - , and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Henderson" rel="nofollow - . There were also the white bands from the 1920s
led by the likes of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Morgan" rel="nofollow - and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isham_Jones" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman" rel="nofollow - 's performance at the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Ballroom" rel="nofollow - in Los Angeles on 21 August 1935 bringing
the music, as it did, to the rest of the country.2 By the last half of 1935, millions
waited for the next war only four years away.-Ron Price with thanks to 1Wikipedia,
and 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Yanow" rel="nofollow - and Paul Du Noyer, The
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, first edition, Fulham, London: Flame
Tree Publishing, 2003, p.128.
Part 4:
I could not help but see
the remarkable tie-in, a
synchronization, betwix
the origins, development
of the Baha'i teaching &
administration programs
with the history of jazz
going right back to 1917!1
This was especially true
of Benny Goodman in a
performance at Palomar
in Los Angeles, the same
time as the Baha'is of the
USA and Canada planned
their first systematic Plan
to implement those Tablets
after a hiatus of twenty years,
in the year 1937 and the Plan
went to '44 with two years of
waiting to begin the next Plan.
Those last 40 years to 2001,
the beginning of a new 21st
century, and the opening of
those Terraces on Mt Carmel
just topped that amazing and
wondrous synchronization
beginning in 1917 with the
revelation of those Tablets.1
1 Abdul-Baha completed His writing of the Tablets of the Divine Plan
in 1917. Those Tablets were the
foundation document for the Baha'i teaching program organized within and by
Baha'i Administration. It is a program I
have now been associated with for more than 60 years.
Ron Price
30/5/'14
and 2/11/'14.