Big Band /= Jazz

are they similiar? sure, there are similarities. do they have a history born of each other? unquestionably. are they same thing? no more than a man is a monkey.

Big Band/Swing is VERY different from Jazz, which leaves the music open to interpretation to be reinvented over and over again. Big Band/Swing is meant to be played exactly as it is written and without improvisation. This is one thing that made many composers and arrangers love to write for Goodman: He played it how they wrote it.

I just had to say something because the review talked about New Orleans and how much more Jazz you would have. The perfect double feature to this WOULD be The Glenn Miller story, because the styles are closer all the way through. Gene Krupa Story would be good as well, because he was another Swing band, even though his style was completely different, and not really swing. Still, it was and is very dancable. Some of my favorties from the three are:

Krupa: Drum Boogie, Boogie Blues
Goodman: Sing, Sing, Sing, Down South Camp Meeting, Roll 'Em, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Swingin' the Rockies
Miller: String of Pearls, In The Mood, Little Brown Jug, Tuxedo Junction

saxamaphone.... saxamaphone.....