Swing, Swing, Swing

Before attending this class, I had a very narrow minded view of jazz. I was entirely unaware of its history, concepts, and even its artists were unknown to me. I was unaware that jazz had strong racial ties. I always assumed it was coincidence that the majority of jazz artists were black.  The course has definitely changed my perception and opinion of jazz and its performers. My opinion of jazz has changed entirely, this whole time I thought jazz to be “cool”. I didn’t realize that there was a “hot” type of jazz. I assumed it to be slow with small quintets. I never realized that the New Orleans big bands were a type of jazz. To be honest, the only jazz I was familiar with was the music from the film Chicago. And that music is entirely modern and has a pop feel to it. But what changed the most was my perception of swing.

            The concept that has changed the most for me was swing. After seeing the movie swing kids, I thought swing to be only an upbeat, fast-moving type of sound. I thought it to be its own genre apart from the classification of jazz. I also never realized that it took a big band sound to create a real swing sound. With rhythm sections and strong emphasis on percussion. I also heard the greatest song ever created while being in this class. Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman, in my personal opinion is the best jazz song ever. And I had no idea that it existed because I was unaware of jazz and its history. I also didn’t know that the clarinet could be used in jazz, along with the guitar. There is a plethora of instrument that are used in jazz, especially swing and now I know.

            So basically my entire perception of jazz has changed, and the biggest impact was my perception of swing.