Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early '30s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era, when people were dancing the Lindy Hop. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Django Reinhardt.
Isham Edgar Jones was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.
Jazz music has a long history in Australia. Over the years jazz has held a high-profile at local clubs, festivals and other music venues and a vast number of recordings have been produced by Australian jazz musicians, many of whom have gone on to gain a high profile in the international jazz arena.
Alan Dell, born Alan Creighton Mandell, was a BBC radio broadcaster, associated in particular with dance band music of the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s.
The Irish Showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s, hitting its peak in the 1960s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band, sometimes they had 8, 9, 10 members, if there was singer who didn't play an instrument, or if they had extra brass/woodwind players. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and covers of pop music hits. The versatile music ranged from rock and roll and country and western songs to traditional dixieland jazz, big band music and even Irish Céilí dance, Latin ballroom dances, folk music and waltzes, Foxtrots, Quicksteps, Jiving. Key to a showband's popular success was the ability to perform songs currently in the record charts. Some bands also did comedy skits onstage.
George Edward Heath was a British musician and big band leader.
Benjamin Baruch Ambrose, known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an English bandleader and violinist. Ambrose became the leader of a highly acclaimed British dance band, Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.
Elizabeth 'Elsie' Carlisle was an English female singer both before and during the British dance band era of the 1920s and 1930s, nicknamed "Radio Sweetheart Number One"; according to AllMusic, she was "beyond a doubt the most popular radio performer in England in the '30s." Carlisle has also been described as "British radio's first woman crooner". She was prolific in the recording studio, and cut over 300 sides between 1926 and 1942.
Sam Browne was an English dance band singer, who became one of the most popular British dance band vocalists of the 1930s. He is remembered for singing with Jack Hylton and with Ambrose and his Orchestra, at the Mayfair Hotel and Embassy Club, with whom he made many recordings from 1930 to 1942, and for his duets and variety performances with the singer, Elsie Carlisle.
Joshua Alexander "Joe" Loss was a British dance band leader and musician who founded his own eponymous orchestra.
The Squadronaires is a Royal Air Force band which began and performed in Britain during and after World War II. The official title of the band was 'The Royal Air Force Dance Orchestra', but it was always known by the more popular title "The Squadronaires".
Louis Stone known professionally as Lew Stone was a British bandleader and arranger of the British dance band era, and was well known in Britain during the 1930s. He was known as a skillful, innovative and imaginative musical arranger.
Jack Jackson was an English trumpeter and bandleader popular during the British dance band era, and who later became a highly influential radio disc jockey. The BBC's nickname "Auntie" is often credited to Jackson.
John Wesley Vivian Payne was a British dance music bandleader who established his reputation during the British dance band era of the 1930s.
Go Man Go featuring David Ede and the Rabin Band was one of British radio's flagship lunchtime pop music shows during the late 1950s and early '60s. The show ran on the BBC Light Programme radio channel in Britain from January 1959 to the end of March 1964 with a total of 255 consecutive weekly episodes.
The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain. In 2009, it was named by the Brecon Jazz Festival as one of twelve venues which had made the most important contributions to jazz music in the United Kingdom.
Albert Norman Benedict "Norm" Amadio was a Canadian jazz pianist, piano teacher, music coach, composer, arranger, session player, band leader and accompanist. For a span of fifty years he worked for the CBC as an orchestra leader and musical director for many TV series. In 1956, he became the first and only Canadian to play at the original Birdland in New York City and while playing opposite Duke Ellington.
Mecca Leisure Group was a British business that ran nightclubs, hotels, theme parks, bingo parlours and Hard Rock Cafes. During the 1960s, Mecca was a centre of entertainment with numerous nightclubs throughout major United Kingdom towns and cities. Mecca ballrooms were used for the BBC TV show Come Dancing. Eric Morley was a general manager of dancing at Mecca Leisure Group and was involved in the Miss World competitions.
Max David Bacon was a British actor, comedian and musician. Although he was British-born, his comedic style centred on his pseudo-European, Yiddish accent and in his straight-faced mispronunciation of words.
