Community Chat

[Oznell]

Love the different styles on display here. 

Benny Goodman--  "Cool"

Gene Krupa-- "Hot"   (His drumming always enhanced by the gum-chewing, lock of hair on forehead, grimaces, ha.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwPvLMlGWPI

[just bee]

@Oznell

When I was a teenager I'd hole up in my room with The Who, Jethro Tull, Sparks...

Meanwhile, my mother and stepfather were in the living room with one of those massive Time Life collections: The Swing Era.

My stepfather was a Goodman fan, my mother loved Glenn Miller.  All I know is that I had to walk through that room to get to the kitchen and I was exposed to that music.

Got to the point where I'd find excuses to loiter and eventually I parked myself in the livingroom to listen.

Good stuff.  Still listening today.

[SoX]

I suppose the Big Band era appealed to many, but for my taste it was too regimented, too "practiced."   While this is a good rendition, I prefer an unstructured, more laid back, let's say a Lionel Hampton version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140Hb2q_EzA&index=1&list=RD140H

[Oznell]

@SoX, I've seen a Forties' version where an impossibly young Lionel Hampton played with Goodman on "Sing, Sing, Sing".    Dynamic!    It's all good.

[PA Mom-mom]

Love Sing Sing Sing! My children had this on the regular rotation along with Mozart, Beethoven, St. Saenes, Roy Orbison, etc. Timeless! When my grandson started playing drums, we looked at video of Ginger Baker and Gene Krups, among others.I also love the Lionel Hampton touch. We actually got to see him live in the Philly area. I sure wish we could have seen Krupa.

[SoX]

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@Oznell wrote:

@SoX, I've seen a Forties' version where an impossibly young Lionel Hampton played with Goodman on "Sing, Sing, Sing".    Dynamic!    It's all good.

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@Oznell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBs9gZQX7lQ

[Oznell]

Hey, thanks, kind @SoX for linking!

[spiderw]

The big band era wasn't my era but as I aged, I grew to appreciate and love this music.  My aunt and uncle used to tell my sister, brother and me about Glen Miller, Goodman, Artie Shaw, and so many other greats and we would continue to listen to rock and roll and all the decades of music of our generations.  However, you do learn music isn't just for a particular generation but for all.  The swing era has much to offer in the world of music and over the years I appreciate the enthusiasm of my aunt and uncle who passed on their love for it as I pass on my love for all the music of my era.

[PA Mom-mom]

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@spiderw wrote:

The big band era wasn't my era but as I aged, I grew to appreciate and love this music.  My aunt and uncle used to tell my sister, brother and me about Glen Miller, Goodman, Artie Shaw, and so many other greats and we would continue to listen to rock and roll and all the decades of music of our generations.  However, you do learn music isn't just for a particular generation but for all.  The swing era has much to offer in the world of music and over the years I appreciate the enthusiasm of my aunt and uncle who passed on their love for it as I pass on my love for all the music of my era.

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@spiderw Yes, you are so right! Music isn't for a particular generation. Good music is good music, and it will stand the test of time. I'll never forget my very strict Mennonite dad, who had a Mennonite minister for a dad, listining to Jimi Hendrix and saying "that is genius."

[Oznell]

I was one of those kids with a nerd-like passion for pop culture of previous generations.  My parents didn't necessarily encourage or discourage it.  I just gravitated there on my own...

My first love will always be jazz, and to a slightly lesser extent, blues, but Tin Pan Alley and big band sounds, especially Goodman, come a close second.  Big band encompasses many influences-- jazz, Latin, even long-lost European folk sounds, I think-- in a seamless melange. 

Big band and swing era Benny Goodman, and jazzy Duke Ellington, to my untrained ear have a coolness, an intellectual's approach to music, but they also jump and swing, in their own way...   So glad that youtube can show us these highly visual performances, as well as transmit their immortal music!