[Dixielandjazz] Was Jazz ever popular music?

[Charles Suhor]

On Jan 11, 2007, at 5:49 AM, pat ladd wrote:

> After WWII the public didn't want the fast pace of
> the swing bands that had dominated for a decade but something to relax
> by, romantic stuff.>>
>
> Not sure about the `fast pace` Charlie.  A lot of the WW2 swing Bands 
> tunes were sentimental ballads. Thousands of people weere away from 
> loved ones. There was a focus on a `great day` when the war would end 
> and everyone could return home. Sure there were bands producing 
> fireworks but Moonlight Serenade was the top tune. Blue birds over the 
> White cliffs, Silver Wings in the Moonlight and so on made up a major 
> proportion of a bands  pad.
>
> Cheers
>
> Past
>

You're totally right of course, Pat. And it was the dreamy sweet stuff 
of the swing bands that people wanted to continue after the war, not 
the hot swing, so the vocalists held sway.

Which raises another point. It's been said that the Swing Era of about 
1935-45 was the main one in which jazz was THE popular music. Very true 
when we think only of the hot big band stuff by Basie, Goodman, Shaw, 
Duke, Woody, etc.. But sooo much of  the sweet material bears so little 
resemblance to jazz that you can almost call it anti-jazz. A stretch, 
but not by much when you listen to some of the innumerable icky ballads 
in the books of lesser and even better swing bands. It served a social 
function both during and after the war, but it's ever farther from jazz 
than the post-ragtime/pre-Mickey dance bands of the 20's and before. At 
least, the latter had a kick to them.

Charlie