Alyn Shipton
The History of Jazz, Part 2: Into the Swing Era
Summary
This extraordinary lecture series continues with small groups in the 20s and 30s in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. The development of big bands across the US, including territory bands from Kansas to Florida, as well as the numerous Chicago and New York groups. We will also cover the arrangers who developed the sound, including Fletcher Henderson; the first white big bands, including Goodman, Shaw, and the Dorseys; and all-female bands, including the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Alyn Shipton
Alyn Shipton has worked in music for many years as a writer, editor, and player. He was the publisher of the New Grove Dictionary series in the 1980s working on musical instruments, American music, jazz, and opera, in addition to commissioning the Grove handbooks in musicology. His own books include numerous biographies, mainly of jazz musicians, including Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Ian Carr, and Cab Calloway, as well as the songwriter Jimmy McHugh. His other books include the award-winning life of singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, and a study of the relationship between visual arts and jazz. He has edited six volumes of oral history, including the memoirs of pianist George Shearing and of the New Orleans musician Danny Barker. His New History of Jazz (2001, revised 2007) won awards on both sides of the Atlantic and is now well established as one of the standard works on the subject. Since 1989 he has presented and produced programmes on music and history for BBC Radio. As a double bassist, he has played with many leading British jazz groups, and he currently co-leads the Buck Clayton Legacy Band.