Swing is both the name of jazz's rhythmic feel (an uneven, “triplet” division of the beat) and the name of a whole era. In the 1930s jazz became America's popular dance music, played by large orchestras — big bands with sections of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm group.
The style's classics are Duke Ellington, Count Basie, the clarinettist Benny Goodman (the “King of Swing”), and singers Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Arrangements grew more sophisticated and improvised solos more expressive, setting the stage for the coming bebop revolution. Swing mania swept the world, and after the Second World War the lavish big-band sound gave way to smaller combos and the new “modern jazz.”
