Big Bands

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In the late 1930s and early 1940s America was into swing. The great sound of big bands filling dance halls as dancers did the jitterbug doing the Shag and bopping to the Lindy Hop. You could say that the Swing Era was kicked off on August 21, 1935 by Benny Goodman and his band at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, California. The performance was caught by lots of fans in the audience and by loads of others listening to a live radio broadcast. Goodman started his career at the age of 24 playing on a weekly radio program known as Let’s Dance in New York City. He picked up a lot of pointers from an African-American jazz ensemble. He taught his group all of the syncopated rhythms and they first acquired a lot of fans when he took his group to the West Coast. Goodman became one of the best of the Big Bands and if you were a musician during this time you knew you had made it big if you were hired to join Goodman’s band. Goodman became known as “The King of Swing”. How many of you like this kind of music? Here is a video of Fred Astaire and his partner dancing to swing. Doesn’t that look like fun? http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-swing-era-begins-with-benny-goodmans-triumphant-palomar-ballroom-performance