There is still a celebration of great names who personified the swing many years ago with great recording associated with them. Great performance from Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and others feature songs that are still popular today such as take a train and in the mood. This paper will compare and contrast Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington jazz history.
Ellington was the head of a band and wrote orchestra with a unique voice which displayed tremendous creativity. Ellington was a great pianist and which made him a great soloist. Also, Duke Ellington band used trumpet in his orchestra. Consequently, saxophone, trombone, clarinet, and snare drums were used in his orchestra. Similarly, Goodman was a bandleader and known for his impeccable timing of his band. Also, moved along with clarinet solos which put Goodman at any performance. However, his primary instrument for his swing music was clarinet (Gabbard, 2018). Late in his career, Goodman favored licorice stick or Parisian as his instrument of choice.
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Duke Ellington composed interesting melodic, rhythmic and harmonic music which formed his music characteristics during the 1930 swing era. Similarly, he used his unique jungle style in orchestral purposes which was accompanied by harmonious colors and late in his career he played swinging solos with angular melodies (Gabbard, 2018). However, Goodman was a clarinetist composer and was regarded as the king of swing. His popular swing style used black dance band style and hired musicians from all races by their talent.
Consequently, Duke Ellington used soloists based on their unique talents and was impressionistic and used a diverse field to compose his music. Some of his famous tunes were cottontail which used 3 minutes instruments. However, Goodman broke the color barrier in his concerts and put himself in the center of the African-American genre. In conclusion, both Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington were great jazz musicians who used the various instrument in their music. Ellington was well known for his unique jungle style music while Goodman performed clarinet solos and broke the racial bondage by having a band full of blacks.
Reference
Gabbard, K. (2018). The Jazz Ambassadors.