The Jazz of the Southwest by Jean A. Boyd

Author:Jean A. Boyd [ Boyd, Jean A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1998-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

FIVE

The Western Swing Rhythm Section: Banjo and Bass

Swing is a rhythmic concept, and swing jazz is defined by its rhythm section. There are, of course, other typical characteristics of swing jazz: preference for large ensembles of ten or more musicians, greater dependence upon written arrangements, decreasing occurrence of collective improvisation, regular appearance of saxophones and string bass in ensembles, the use of the high-hat cymbal among drummers, and a higher level of technical proficiency in terms of speed, agility, tone color, and intonation.1 Swing jazz can exist without one or more of these components, but it is not swing without its definitive swing rhythm.

Swing rhythm sections maintain a steady quadruple meter (4/4) in which the bass instrument, the bass drum and cymbals from the drum set, the piano, and the rhythm guitar or banjo strike every beat with equal intensity. Against this continuous background of four equal pulses, the drummer superimposes a pattern of subdivided beats on the ride cymbal. The resulting juxtaposition of evenly accented and unevenly subdivided beats results in the characteristic swing rhythm by which the music is recognized.2 Two-beat patterns do occur in swing rhythm sections, but it is normal procedure for the rhythm players to revert to the smoother, more fluid swing-four meter during solo choruses.

The rhythmic nature of jazz began to change in the late 1920s, when individual musicians and some bands paved the way for the newer swing rhythm approach that had assumed dominance by the mid-1930s. Early jazz, sometimes labeled “Dixieland,” “traditional,” “New Orleans,” or “Chicago” jazz, was built upon a basic two-beat feel supplied by rhythm sections consisting of a variety of instruments—banjo, guitar, tuba, bass saxophone, string bass, piano, and drums.

Certain musicians and bands working in the Southwest were pivotal in moving jazz rhythm sections from syncopated two-four to the smoother swing-four. The main jazz attraction in Dallas in the late 1920s and early 1930s was Alphonso Trent and His Orchestra, which was firmly ensconced at the Adolphus Hotel Ballroom and recorded on the Gennett label. Other southwestern jazz musicians raved about the Trent ensemble. After listening to Trent recordings and allowing for their poor recording quality, Ross Russell, author of Jazz Styles in Kansas City and the Southwest, concludes:

The Alphonso Trent Orchestra, on the strength of its astonishingly advanced arrangements and smooth, precise performances, can be compared favorably with Fletcher Henderson and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. The musicianship is beyond reproach. Difficult unison and voiced passages, often in difficult keys . . . are taken with consummate ease. The band never fails to swing. The writing, with bold juxtapositions of brass and reed passages, the use of antiphony, and the voicing within the sections were years ahead of anything in Texas. For that matter, it was more sophisticated than any band in Kansas City, even Bennie Moten and Jesse Stone.3

The Trent Orchestra, though known only in the Southwest, was a pioneer swing jazz ensemble, as was another seldom-recorded but nevertheless legendary territory band out of Oklahoma City, the Blue Devils.

The

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