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JAZZ |
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played by the whole ensemble by solo spots for the star instrumentalists, with the rest of the band in an accompanying role. He would fall back on the old jazz tradition of a stereotyped sort of phrase—the 'riff'—for the main bulk of his chorus, lightened by freer improvised (or improvised-sounding) 'breaks' at the cadences or breathing-places.
"The riff", writes 'Jelly Roll' Morton, "is what we call a foundation, like something that you walk on. It's standard. But without breaks, and without clean breaks, and without beautiful ideas in breaks, you don't need to think about doing anything else, you haven't got a jazz band and you can't play jazz."
Other well-known names of this era—men who experimented with big-band novelty in orchestration and composition—are those of Benny Goodman (the 'King of Swing'), Jimmie Lunceford, Bunny Berrigan, Harry James, Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Lionel Hampton.
The Mastery of Duke Ellington
But probably the best-known and most consistent, of all the big bands has been that of Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington. In 1933, Ellington toured Europe and created a sensation when he arrived at the Palladium, giving a particular shock to those critics who had rashly boasted that British bands and players were every bit as good as American ones. The perfect drill of his ensemble playing and the fascinating experiments in orchestral colour were |
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