[Dixielandjazz] Demise of the Big Swing Bands

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Steve thanks - I had forgotten about the Cabaret tax.  I used to run into 
that and lost work because of it.  I'm not sure when that ended but I had 
already quit playing clubs when it did.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:52 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Demise of the Big Swing Bands


> IMO, while many like to blame bebop and changing jazz styles for the 
> demise
> of Big Band Swing, it died largely because of a combination of economics 
> and
> a switch from dancing at nightclubs to listening. Below is the "short
> history course" distilled from a term paper I did on the subject in 1958 
> at
> Hofstra University.
>
>
> A) Perhaps the Goldkette Band was the first to die because of economics. 
> It
>   became too top heavy. best players, highest salaries, superb music. They
>   bested the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1927 as you might recall. Yet
>   a year or so later they were forced to disband. Why? They had become
>   victims of their own success and no venue could afford them and proof
>   that the music is not enough.
>
> B) The 20% entertainment tax of World War II. This 20% add on to night 
> club
>   bills was specifically targeted to clubs that featured dancing and dance
>   floors. So a $25 night out suddenly became a $30 night out. The club
>   owners were no dummies. As they watched their own profits fall, because
>   people then spent less on booze, they eliminated the dance floors and
>   filled that space with tables. The music was now for listening, not for
>   dancing. Voila, no tax to pay and more customers. For a time Dixieland
>   became the rage for "listeners", but that too would fade. Once the
>   entertainment scene broadened, folks made other choices.
>
> By the end of World War 2, the Big Bands were much too expensive, compared
> with smaller groups. And so most, like Goldkette's, disbanded. A few kept
> going, Basie for a while, Kenton, Ellington (subsidized by Duke's royalty
> revenue), Woody Herman and others. But they oriented more towards jazz and
> less towards dance.
>
> The days of dancing to the Dorsey's, Miller, Goodman, Shaw, Barnett, Basie
> et. al., were over and subsequently the dancers gravitated to Jump Blues 
> and
> Rock & Roll.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
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