SwingDJs

Hi!

Today a high school student that is writing a paper about swing music approached me and asked me if I knew of any website that has authorative information about the history and evolution of swing music.

It surprised me that I didn't have any website in my bookmarks, but then again, everything I know about swing I've pick up in bits and pieces here and there, I haven't done any formal music studies.

Which websites would you recommend her to look at to learn about the history and evolution of swing music?

You might want to start by checking out the links in Rayned's extensive Swing 101 discussion.

Also check out the History section of SwingDJs.com's Links resource, and please feel free to add any resources that you come across that are missing there.

Jesse

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/RiseandFall/index.htm
The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, by Donald Clarke

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/index.htm
MusicWeb Encyclopadia of Popular Music edited by Donald Clarke

http://www.savoyballroom.com/

http://nfo.net/usa/index.html Big Band Database
http://www.redhotjazz.com/ Red Hot Jazz Archive

Don't forget, CD liner notes can be loaded with great information.

Also, for a student doing research, it would be great to encourage him/her to look for multiple corroborating references from different perspectives. For example, it's really neat hearing Frankies story about the night Basie played at the Savoy and then reading reading the liner notes of one of the Chick Webb CDs written from the perspective of a music writer/critic. According to Frankie, the dancers were excited that Basie was playing and Webb was complaining. To send a message to Webb, Whitey told the Lindy Hoppers to only dance to Basie. A music writer at the time wrote that the dancers like Basie so much more they wouldn't dance to Webb.

KattenPejst wrote:Hi!

Today a high school student that is writing a paper about swing music approached me and asked me if I knew of any website that has authorative information about the history and evolution of swing music.

It surprised me that I didn't have any website in my bookmarks, but then again, everything I know about swing I've pick up in bits and pieces here and there, I haven't done any formal music studies.

Which websites would you recommend her to look at to learn about the history and evolution of swing music?

Not sure about websites, but a good book is

The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 (The History of Jazz, Vol. 2) by Gunther Schuller