So the other night, toward the beginning of the evening, I play Guy Lombardo, Pennies from Heaven.
Nothing I play often, just a nice little tune, easy for beginning dancers, early birds and the like.
Some older fellow (like 70-something) comes over and says he loves "sweet music", like the tune I was playing, and could I play some more.
Now, I pride myself on being one of the nicest djs in the world about requests, but I felt like I honestly didn't know what made "sweet music"...
I feel like I know what makes a tune "hot", but not "sweet", so I had a hard time picking out a tune to follow it. I think I followed it with "Celery Stalks at Midnight" or something, which had a similar feel.
Any words of advice on this term, and do any of you out there use it?
The Sweet Music
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Couldn't tell ya... I guess he meant stuff that sounded romantic or nice? Probably stuff we'd consider "sappy".
I know the older dancers/listeners like it when I play older Ellington or any kind of Ella stuff.
Either way, the guy seemed to give a nice compliment.
Tina
I know the older dancers/listeners like it when I play older Ellington or any kind of Ella stuff.
Either way, the guy seemed to give a nice compliment.
Tina
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GemZombie
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When i think of "Sweet" for some reason, I also think of music that has a lot of unision sax lines with heavy vibrato. Not really high energy music, and very very clean.gatorgal wrote:Couldn't tell ya... I guess he meant stuff that sounded romantic or nice? Probably stuff we'd consider "sappy".
I know the older dancers/listeners like it when I play older Ellington or any kind of Ella stuff.
Either way, the guy seemed to give a nice compliment.
Tina
Here are a couple of links to think about --- I've heard the term "sweet" as an opposite to "hot", but they both describe 20's or early 30's music as opposed to big band - appears to be more of a traditional jazz band term.
http://www.sweethot.org/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 0?v=glance
http://www.sweethot.org/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 0?v=glance
"Sweet" music was the other big popular form of music during the Swing Era. It is the Swing Era's version of Celine Dion and Michael Bolton: popular and mellodramatic, but really lacking spirit and "soul," no matter what hundreds of thousands of middle-aged, "volumnicaly-challenged" secretaries (or, for that matter, the Grammies) might think.
Most "Sweet" songs are slow, cheesy ballads with a sort of warbly, muted tone in the horns and long, drawn-out notes to mellodramatically milk the emotion out of every note. Many of the Harry James, Glenn Miller pop tunes had that sweet, warbly tone. Some are genuinely romantic and good to listen to, but most are akin to Elevator Music.
Most "Sweet" songs are slow, cheesy ballads with a sort of warbly, muted tone in the horns and long, drawn-out notes to mellodramatically milk the emotion out of every note. Many of the Harry James, Glenn Miller pop tunes had that sweet, warbly tone. Some are genuinely romantic and good to listen to, but most are akin to Elevator Music.
FWIW, Allmusic actually has a definition of "sweet" bands. Click the "styles" radio button and search for "sweet". It does mention Lombardo specifically...
From that page:
When swing became popular and the big-band craze first landed in the '30s, not every American — nor every fan of music — was ready for the hard-swinging style led by Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman. The sweet bands, often derided and unfairly compared to those swing bands also active during the 1930s and '40s, came out of a different tradition entirely. Though similarly influenced by jazz maestros from Duke Ellington to Louis Armstrong, the sound of the sweet band was simply an outgrowth from the society orchestra of the 1910s and '20s. Based mostly in New York, hundreds of society bands fanned out across the metropolis each weekend, playing easily recognizable versions of the hits-of-the-day for light dances and debutante balls. The major early sweet bands, Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians and Les Brown & His Band of Renown, paved the way for the most popular band of the World War II era, the Glenn Miller Orchestra. And even after large orchestras became unfeasible after the war, the sound of the sweet bands lived on for decades via The Lawrence Welk Show and various big-band tours.
From that page:
When swing became popular and the big-band craze first landed in the '30s, not every American — nor every fan of music — was ready for the hard-swinging style led by Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman. The sweet bands, often derided and unfairly compared to those swing bands also active during the 1930s and '40s, came out of a different tradition entirely. Though similarly influenced by jazz maestros from Duke Ellington to Louis Armstrong, the sound of the sweet band was simply an outgrowth from the society orchestra of the 1910s and '20s. Based mostly in New York, hundreds of society bands fanned out across the metropolis each weekend, playing easily recognizable versions of the hits-of-the-day for light dances and debutante balls. The major early sweet bands, Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians and Les Brown & His Band of Renown, paved the way for the most popular band of the World War II era, the Glenn Miller Orchestra. And even after large orchestras became unfeasible after the war, the sound of the sweet bands lived on for decades via The Lawrence Welk Show and various big-band tours.
John Dyer, Denver CO