Saturday Sessions: Swing & Big Band

As an old Air Force guy I have to start off with Major Glen Miller, founder of the Air Force Band... well, Army Air Forces band actually.

Artie Shaw is recognized of one of the leaders of a genre known as third stream, a fusion of jazz and classical.

And of course the King of Swing, Benny Goodman.  The story is Benny started the Swing craze, booked at the Palomar Ballroom in 1935 the band was playing a stock arrangement to an indifferent audience.  Gene Krupa, the drummer supposedly remarked to Benny "If we're gonna die, let's die playing our own thing" and the audience loved it.