About 1940s bands
The 1940s really was the swing era. Big
bands were swinging, small bands were swinging, singers, players,
musicians and just about everyone was swinging!
Who wouldn’t be with big bands led by:
- Count Basie
- Duke Ellington
- Artie Shaw
- Tommy Dorsey
- Benny Goodman
- and Harry James?
Of course no list of swing bands would be
complete without the man who put the ‘GI’ in nostalgia -
Glenn Miller - famous for great tunes like In The Mood, Chatanooga
Choo Choo and Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree.
Jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie
Holiday, Nat King Cole, and Sarah Vaughan were swinging with tunes
like, The Lady Is Tramp and I Get A Kick Out Of You.
Of course, the king of medium tempo swing, Frank Sinatra, is forever a 1940s and 1950s music and film icon with songs like:
- Fly Me To The Moon
- Come Fly With Me
- You Make Me Feel So Young
- Witchcraft
- Cheek to Cheek
- and the ever-popular New York New York.
1940s bands and swing music is often revisited by present-day music stars like
- Robbie Williams
- Michael Buble
- Jamie Cullum
- and of course, Harry Connick Jnr
For 1940’s music, you might be looking for bands that play swing
music and latin rythms from The Great American Song Book – songs
by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin and Johnny
Mercer, to name a few.
You might want a mix of Sinatra, The Rat Pack and Tony Bennett mixed with a few Glenn Miller and Louis Jordan Tunes.
Though much of the swing music of the
1940s was performed by big bands, you can still get great entertainment
evoking this era from a small swing band of jazz musicians.
Sound like your cup of tea? Click here to read about the Oscar Bernhardt Ensemble, or look at our 2-minute showcase.
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