Kansas City, a city renowned for its all-night jam sessions and bands who played improvised ‘head arrangements’, is also considered the origin of one of the most influential innovations in jazz music in the late 1920s and early 1930s: swing rhythm. Swing went on to dominate popular jazz music for the next two decades. 

Kansas City was home to bands including the Bennie Moten Orchestra, Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy, and the pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams. Count Basie, who played in Bennie Moten’s Band, went on to form his own band and hired many musicians who had worked in Kansas City or had played in Territory Bands throughout the Midwest, including Jimmy Rushing, Walter Page, Lester Young, and Herschel Evans.

Some of the Big Bands in this period worked as house bands for popular entertainment venues, like Earl Hines at the Grand Terrace in Chicago, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and Jimmie Lunceford at the Cotton Club, Count Basie and his Orchestra at the Woodside Hotel, and Chick Webb and his Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald at the Savoy Ballroom.

Bands also performed for radio broadcasts, such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington live from the Cotton Club, or the Benny Goodman Orchestra on a regular radio program called ‘Let’s Dance’. Beginning in 1934, ‘Let’s Dance’ was one of the first regular radio shows playing swing music on a national network. 

Big Bands and small groups also featured in ‘Soundies’, short films, and feature films, often featuring dancers, including Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, Mabel Lee, Marie Bryant, Paul White, John Bubbles, the Nicholas Brothers, and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.  

Small Groups also formed and recorded in the 1930s and 40s, including Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five, John Kirby and his Sextet, and the Benny Goodman small groups. Goodman’s groups were notable because Goodman, who was white, worked with Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Jo Jones, and Count Basie, who were African American. 

Segregation had a significant impact on performers and musicians. Billie Holiday, whose career began singing and recording with white bands led by Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, was unable to use the same front entrances or elevators at venues as the white band members. She eventually left Shaw’s band. African American bands touring in the South were often unable to stay in hotels or eat at restaurants due to segregation laws, and relied on the support of local African American residents.

Major innovations later in the 1940s included the development of small groups playing jump blues and early Rhythm and Blues, including Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, Julia Lee and her Boyfriends, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra.

Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra: Live at the Grand Terrace, Chicago, 1938
This is later period Henderson but features many of the arrangements he sold to Benny Goodman in the early 1930s, and which helped to make the Goodman Orchestra become hugely successful. 

Cab Calloway, New York 1937-1938 

Cab Calloway was a hugely charismatic bandleader, vocalist and performer. He appeared in feature films, including Stormy Weather, and the Max Fleischer Betty Boop animations.

RCA Victor: Artie Shaw Greatest Hits 

Despite not being particularly fond of dancers, Artie Shaw and his Orchestra recorded many dancer favourites. 

Ella Fitzgerald: the Complete Decca Recordings 

This collection includes Ella Fitzgerald’s time as a singer with the Chick Webb Orchestra and later as a bandleader at the Savoy Ballroom. 

Benny Goodman: The Carnegie Hall Concert

This is a live recording of a Goodman concert from 1938. It features classic numbers in the Goodman band’s repertoire and performances from his small groups. 

Eddie Condon: Dixieland All-Stars 1939-1946 

This is a good example of the Chicago jazz style played by Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman, which was heavily influenced by the New Orleans musicians who moved to Chicago in the 1920s and 30s. 

Count Basie: the Complete Decca Recordings 

This collection includes many of Count Basie and his Orchestra’s best-known work featuring Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Jimmy Rushing, and Helen Humes.

The Complete Victor Lionel Hampton Sessions 

Lionel Hampton was a vibraphonist and bandleader.  Hampton’s band of course played dancer favourite ‘Flying Home’ with THAT solo by alto saxophonist Illinois Jacquet.

Saga Jazz: Happy Billie 

Billie Holiday is one of the best-loved and most influential vocalists of the swing era. This is a swinging compilation of her recordings featuring Teddy Wilson, Roy Eldridge, Don Redman and Don Byas from the 1930s and 40s. 

Changes in the post-war period as well as labour and hiring practices in the entertainment industry led to many of the big bands breaking up. Big bands including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman, however, continued to record, tour and perform swing music in the USA and internationally.

Many of the star soloists who had played or sang in the big bands went on to have careers recording and performing solo, in their own bands and in small combos, including Illinois Jacquet, Johnny Hodges, and Cootie Williams.

Many of the early Rhythm and Blues artists of the 1940s and 50s, such as Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and Sister Rosetta Tharpe are recognised as pioneers of rock’n’roll music.

Johnny Hodges: The Complete Verve Small Sessions 1956-1961
Johnny Hodges, one of Ellington’s soloists, went on to record many albums, including new versions of old Ellington classics with former Duke Ellington Orchestra bandmates.

Count Basie: Live at Newport 1957
This is a recording of a live performance at the Newport Jazz Festival featuring dancer favourites including ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’, ‘Evenin’, and ‘Alright, Okay, You Win’, with vocals by Joe Williams.

Count Basie: the complete Verve Recordings 
These recordings feature Basie’s ‘New Testament’ band, playing new versions of their hits from the 1930s and new original compositions including ‘Shiny Stockings’, ‘Basie Goes Wess’, and ‘Sixteen Men Swingin’. This collection also features vocals by Joe Williams and Ella Fitzgerald.