ZIZALIE

There was a time, from 1935–1946, when teenagers and young adults danced to jazz-orientated bands. When jazz orchestras dominated pop charts and when influential clarinettists were household names. This was the swing era. ” —Scott Yanow, Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 1-904041-96-5. The Swing Era (also frequently referred to as the “Big Band Era”) was the period of time (1935–1946) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though swing music was most popular during this period, the music had actually been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Moten, Cab Calloway, and Fletcher Henderson. Musicians and arrangers with the white bands from the 1920s like Russ Morgan, Isham Jones, and after 1932 most historians believe that the Swing Era started with Benny Goodman’s performance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, bringing the music to the rest of the country. (Ouote Wikipedia) Music experimentation has always been popular in America. The many avenues of black, white, Latin, American, and European music influences merged when Swing arrived. In 1932, early in the jazz, and the sweet music styles of the American music scene – they worked on new, often unheard-of musical arrangements that were emphasized toward a more polished song with a bounce. Recordings by Isham Jones, the popular jazz/blues bandleader, and his orchestra which sometimes included Benny Goodman recorded for RCA Victor. The swing era also was precipitated by spicing up familiar commercial, popular material with a Harlem oriented flavour and selling it via a white band for a white musical/commercial audience.[1] The Jazz/Blues era brought to swing music Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday, and by 1938 Ella Fitzgerald. Other musicians who rose during this time include Jimmy Dorsey, his brother Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Goodman’s future rival Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman who departed the Isham Jones band in 1936 to start his own band. Several factors led to the demise of the swing era: the recording ban from August 1942 to November 1944 (The union that most jazz musicians belong to told its members not to record until the record companies agreed to pay them each time their music was played on the radio), the earlier ban of ASCAP songs from radio stations, World War II which made it harder for bands to travel around as well as the “cabaret tax”, which was as high as 20%, the change in music taste and the rise of bebop. Though Ellington and Basie were able to keep their bands together (the latter did briefly downsize his band; from 1950–1952), by the end of 1946, most of their competitors were forced to disband, bringing the swing era to a close. Just sitting at the bar at the music village in Brussels listening to Floreffe Jazz Orchestra and Zizalie playing swing. It puts me in a 1920s mood when swing really began. The décor of the bar (http://www.themusicvillage.com/), all dimmed by red light, putting you in the right smoochy mood. The owner Paul Huygens sitting at the bar enjoying every minute himself. Yeah, its totally cool and enhances the feeling of the peaceful night. I find myself a dreaming a little of times gone by. In fact I vision my parents doing the swing, being concentrated on their sensual sexual movements, which will take them to the bedroom later where they might work on the creation of me. The boss all cool and collected listening to the big band himself reminds me a bit of long gone days with my dad at the piano or switching over to his accordion then again hearing the keys of the piano where he would do his version of Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the night” The first set finishes and I go outside to have a cigarette with the singer. Paul comes to join us and unfortunately he is on his way home. “Enjoy the rest of the evening.” He says to us and continues with “I have to sleep sometime.” He has put his life into creating such a ‘Maison du Blues and Jazz’. It’s really a fantastic experience, the light and the mood is right and the staff is very friendly. The break is over and the Big Band and Zizalie go back on stage. Zizalie with her golden voice, raps down ‘Route 66’ as if she had been singing it in her cradle. She’s a wonderful singer and on our way here she explained to me how she had joined the Big Band. Everyone was there for the fun of it. She had been working with people who had been looking only for fame and fortune but then that’s stuff we all dream about and it comes true for only the very few. So if you love music and want to do it you have to with heart and not always for the Big Buck. The night is coming to an end soon and we shall be heading back to Liege… Yeah … Somewhere over the rainbow… Before I realize it after enjoying the night profoundly, the sound of ‘Old Black Magic’ comes through the speakers, the Band performing beautifully, and one more song after a cheer from the crowd begging for more – almost time to go now. Black magic… PoeDes