Sweet-Bands: "Society" versus "Mickey Mouse"vs "smooth swing"
S.J.Carras
SOCIETY
Characterizated by a "busniessman;s boubnce" tempo, violin, tuba, banjo, and of
course pianos, as well as small brass and three or four sax usu.
Eddie Duchin
Emil(e) Coleman
Rudy Vallee
Leo Reisman
Meyer Davis
John Green (the same guy who wrote "Body and Soul" and "Coquette")
Freddie Martin
Frankie Masters
Russ Morgan (I have THREE CDs of him and one is on my CD player now!)
Wayne King
Ozzie Nelson
Will Osborne
Sam, Harry and Lster Lanin
and just about ANY 1920s whtie band and even some blakc ones.
Incidentally Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll" and "Sophisitcated Lady' are smooth
tunes and quailfy as soceity while retaining true blue jazz creds.
"MICKEY MOUSE" (as unkindly called by swing band leaders)
Guy Lombardo
Jan Garber
Lawrence Welk
Horace Heidt
Shep Fields
Hal Kemp
Sammy Kaye
Gray Gordon
Orrin Tucker
Tommy Tucker
SMOOTH SWING
Kay Kyser
Les Brown
Harry James
Glenn Miller
Paul Whiteman (all of his bands incl.hsi synphonci jazz)
The Dorseys
and just about ANY swing bands.
Of course there was overlap here and Freddie Martin fit into the first
categories, Kyser and a few others in the mickey/swing (in a polite style of
course) way.
Of course The Dorseys could do real swing as well as smooth swing.
There are other examples of these too.
BTW Meyer Davis was a contractor of orks., rather than actually leading one
himself.If you're a upper clas tpe you'll have NO trouble securing one of his
outfits..
In short
society bands were sweet bands for sophiociates,
rinky-dink"mickey"(or novelty) bands for middle class(th0ough MANY African
Americans LOVED many band sin the above two;Freddy Martin and Guy Lombardo
being just some examples)
and smooth swing were a compromise (all the swing and, even Goodman, with soem
recordigns, and Shaw with the strings he used, did this) for younger, hip kids
who maybe weren't too ready yet to be TOTALLY hip but who did want something
swinging (but not over the edge.)
Also, I have heard Freddy Martin and Rudy Vallee and some other society abnds
use ricky-tick (as it is called) styles, and Lombardo and Welk by contrast
didn';t always use that (as detractors put it) stereotyed sounds in their
music, and Sammy Kaye did a lot of what musicolgist Geo.SImon called legitimate
kin Sammy's lateer years (I woudl place it earlier in 1950 when Sammy featured
electric guitarists on his last million-seller, HARBOR LIGHTS with Tony Alamo,
a star vocalist for him)yet Sam is still typecast for his rinky-dink type
stuff.
This of coruse belogns in the alt.music.swing category and alt.music.big-band
but it is interesting to note the overlap.
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Dave Rapp
He modeled his 1930s orch. after it. (He wasn't really
the leader--though that's beside the point.) I had the
pleasure of seeing Louis play with Guy's band, which he
did every night after each of their summer shows at Jones
Beach NY, in the dance pavillion. (I think the show was called
Mardi Gras--mid '60s.)
Re: Paramount Building discussion. I believe the address has always
been 1501 Broadway. It still houses a lot of theatrical businesses,
including TDF--the Theater Development Fund, which runs the TKTS
booths.
S.J.Carras
>From: Dave Rapp davera...@mjet.com
>Date: Mon, 11 October 1999 02:08 AM EDT
>Message-id: <38017E...@mjet.com>
>
>Let's not forget how much Armstrong admired Lombardo.
alweays thoiught that there was a kind of influcnece. 1951's "A Kiss to build a
dream on"
form Satch is Very Guy-like.One of my personal favorites and a great admirer
of Guy without bring his sweet style for his own was Russ Morgan.
>He modeled his 1930s orch. after it. (He wasn't really
>the leader--though that's beside the point.) I had the
>pleasure of seeing Louis play with Guy's band, which he
>did every night after each of their summer shows at Jones
>Beach NY, in the dance pavillion. (I think the show was called
>Mardi Gras--mid '60s.)
I've read about that in very book on Guy.
C Porter
> SOCIETY
> Characterizated by a "busniessman;s boubnce" tempo, violin, tuba, banjo, and of
> course pianos, as well as small brass and three or four sax usu.
> Eddie Duchin
> Emil(e) Coleman
> Rudy Vallee
> Leo Reisman
> Meyer Davis
> John Green (the same guy who wrote "Body and Soul" and "Coquette")
> Freddie Martin
> Frankie Masters
> Russ Morgan (I have THREE CDs of him and one is on my CD player now!)
> Wayne King
> Ozzie Nelson
> Will Osborne
Osborne has been thought to be part of the Mickey Mouse bands by some in the last few decades, but it's become unmistakably clear that he was in fact a society bandleader like shown here, but even in the mid 30s he was swinging in a way that really can't be distinctly narrowed down to one genre of band. Osborne swung with a glissando-based form of music he patented called "Slide Music", which despite how a lot of his Decca stuff from 1937 - 1939 doesn't show it, was undeniably meant to be a thing of beauty of if you listen to any of his 1935 - early 1937 stuff. "I'm In The Mood For Love", "You've Got Me Under Your Skin", "In The Chapel In The Moonlight" and others like these from '35 & '36 speak volumes to the beauty of the band. I'd go as far as to say that he was more into the SMOOTH swinging category than anything else for a while. Sure Osborne could deliver with a lot of heat when he desired like in "Where Has My Little Dog Gone?", "Hungry For A Rhapsody", or "It's De-Lovey" from '36 - '39, just like those like the Dorseys, Miller, Brown, Kyser, Gray, Barnet, etc. And a fair share of his sidemen travelled through those bands at some point or another. Full sections even. Not to mention, aside from Artie Shaw and Rudy Vallee, basically everyone in the industry loved him.