The evolution of big band jazz music

Big band Jazz music emerged precisely on August 26, 1935, and ended on February 2, 1945, at 3:46 in the afternoon.

Obviously, the above statement isn't true. Big band jazz developed as a natural progression of tr form of music in America. The Big Band era lasted roughly a decade, from 1935 to 1945. The Big Band era appealed uniquely to the problems of Americans during the Great Depression, and Americans involved in the Second World War.

Many people mark the beginning of the Big Band era with the appearance of Benny Goodman and his orchestra in Los Angeles during the summer of 1935. This view neglects, to a degree, all of the great Big Band music that had preceded Goodman, of course. In fact, many believe that Benny Goodman, while certainly one of the most talented Big Band musicians, did very little in the way of originality. Rather, he reflected a momentum that had already been building up in the jazz community.

The Big Band era hit just as radio was spreading like wildfire across the country. It is estimated that the audience for radio in 1935 was around 91 million listeners. Most of them were listening to Big Band music, too, along with radio shows such as "The Shadow" and "The Lone Ranger." It was the radio and the RCA 77A microphone, designed specifically for live performances, that helped to push Big Band music out across the entire nation.

There were a number of factors that brought the Big Band era to an end. The companies that licensed music at the time, BMI and ASCAP, demanded more money from the radio networks to play popular songs. This caused many of the headliners to fade from publish consciousness. In addition, the networks made a rule that there could be no improvisation on broadcasts, meaning that these jazz musicians, who had been using improvisation for years, had to write out their solos ahead of the time and to be approved by the networks. This caused a great deal of damage, as the quality of big band music, at least in the broadcast area, fell like a rock. Finally, when the AFM recording ban hit in 1945, it put the final nail in the coffin of the Big Band era.