The joy of jazz

by Scanlan, Tom

After "musicians' music" suddenly became nationally popular in 1935, jazz held center stage as America's best example of art and entertainment. This was the Swing Era, when great energy and originality flowed through the music and when jazz meant joy. Here are the personal memories of the sounds and sights of this golden age of popular song and dancing, when countless small jazz combos and hundreds of big bands - including those led by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, and Duke Ellington - created exciting and romantic music in nightclubs, dance hall, theaters, ballrooms, and on the radio. It was a time of great sounds and personal performances when ingenious soloists such as Goodman, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Jack Teagarden, and Lionel Hampton, as well as young singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were in their heyday.