Swing Music Recomendations

Here is a list of songs that I often use in our Beginning Swing - Lindy Hop Class


A Brief History of Swing Jazz Music

Swing music more or less started in the late 1920's (though it used many techniques and styles that had been developing for years) by artists such as Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson amongst many others.

Swing, the style of early Jazz, became rather popular during 30's with such bands as those lead by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald / Chick Webb, Benny Goodman and far to many others to list. Towards the late 1930's and early '40s swing music and dancing became wildly popular broadcasted on radio from coast to coast and showing up on movies at the time. In the 1940's swing continued in its popularity especially as nostalgia for the fighting forces across the seas during World War II. Also during the '40s some of the swing musicians developed other forms of jazz such as what became known as Bebop, which would rise to become to more dominate form of jazz. During World War II it became difficult for many of the Big Bands to keep together (with so many of their members in the forces) the sharp exception to this where the bands of the arm forces such as Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw. This lead way to smaller groups becoming more popular as well as setting the ground work for Swing being supplanted in popularity by Rhythm & Blues (which is often mistakingly labled as Swing music and is a popular style of music for many swing dancers). Through the late 1940's, '50s, and beyond, many of the swing artists continued to play swing music, but met with less enthusiasm by the masses, many also switch over to the new popular R&B style and other forms that became popular later on, and many pushed to develop the new Bebop and other devloping styles of Jazz.

More Music Recomendations

If your just starting out your collection you should check out the songs and albums listed int the player above. You can also check out the following albums. Starting with those, read the notes in the album and look for some of the artists you see listed playing on the songs you like. Look for the sidemen, not just the headliners, and you can grow your collection from there.

  • Are You Hep to the Jive? - by Cab Calloway and his band
  • Really Swingin': Frankie Mannings Favorites - by various Artists
  • Oscillating Rhythm - by various artists
  • Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song - a 3 CD compilation of later Ella Fitzgerald material
-- Chris Chapman,
HepCat Productions