Hear are some great performances by some of the best big bands, and soloists, from the Early Days of Jazz. In something approaching chronological order:
The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra – 1920’s – “Hop Off” – Until the Duke Ellington Orchestra started giving a it serious run for its money in the early ‘30’s, the Henderson band was the best band in the land. At one time or another its members included Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman, and Buster Bailey. This was a band that played the hottest jazz of the “jazz age,” and middle class parents rightly feared for their daughter's virtue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUP4HUdGcM8
Louis Armstrong – “West End Blues,” “Dinah” – West End Blues, recorded in the late 20’s, has been called the finest three minutes in recorded jazz. It introduced a new concept of “swing,” freeing the soloist from the strict confines of the written melody, and playing notes before, after and around the beat, a practice which has defined the essence of “swing” to this day. “Dinah,” recorded in 1933, similarly revolutionized pop and jazz singing forever. Improvising freely, paring down the melody to its essence, and “scatting,” Louis's approach would leave future vocalists from Ella to Sinatra wrestling with its implications. The trumpet solo is marvelous, but the vocal is what makes this performance historic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6COgkqy1UU8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f4i0SxNPE0
Duke Ellington Orchestra – I Let A Song Go Out My Heart - By the mid-30’s the Ellington Band had established itself as the preeminent hot jazz band in the land. After dozens of successful records in the 20’s, many of whose melodies we can all hum, The Duke Ellington Orchestra reached a peak around 1940. The only close competition was Count Basie, Chick Webb, and Jimmie Lunceford. Here is a late 30’s version of “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvB9O_nk6YA
Count Basie – Honeysuckle Rose, Boogie Woogie, and I Got Rhythm (Live Recording From Randall’s Island 1938) - Discovered in 1936 by the legendary producer John Hammond (whose other finds included Billy Holiday and Bruce Springsteen(!)) who heard the band on his car radio in NYC as they were burning down the house at the Reno Club in Kansas City, they reached their peak from 1937 to 1941. They had a completely different sound from Ellington, based on blues-inspired “head pieces” that they would compose spontaneously in the recording studio. You can hear the emphasis on competing “call and response” riffs between the brass and the reeds, with plenty of room for soloing by such greats as Lester Young, Buck Clayton, and Hershel Evans. In their heyday there was no hotter band, including Ellington’s. I included the live recording because it has an absolutely stunning solo by the Lester Young, perhaps the best tenor sax man ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApD0R6JPPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbubFSgUTlM
Charlie Christian w/ Benny Goodman – 1939 – Solo Flight – No one changed the approach to the electric guitar in jazz as much as Charlie Christian. He was the first player realize that electricity allowed a guitarist to do more than make his instrument louder. He used its ability to lengthen its attack like a piano, and bend notes like a horn. Discovered by John hammond (see above) he was plucked out of a territorial band in Texas in 1938 at age 20 by Benny Goodman. He would be dead at 23 from TB. But everyone from Herb Ellis and Joe Pass to Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jimi Hendrix have acknowledged their debt to him. Here is his showcase tune with Goodman, “Solo Flight.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-U1-AB_vnM
Thanks for listening. This was fun.
Greg