Big Bands and Great Ballrooms: America Is Dancing...Again - Softcover

Behrens, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1425969771 ISBN 13: 9781425969776

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2006

Synopsis

Where did big bands and swing music go? They didn't leave. . . but many Americans actually believe they disappeared along with ballrooms, jukeboxes, bobby sox and zoot suits decades ago. Band leader Brooks Tegler, who has recreated the great music of World War II with his Army Air Corps Review Big Band, offers a good response. "In order for something to come back, it needs to have gone away. Big bands have wrongly been put in that category. They never went away." And that's the essence of the chapters of my book about America's big bands, ballrooms and dancing's past and present. And there's a good look at the future through the eyes of a number of young bandleaders from the east to west coast who carry on in the tradition of Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, Harry James, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington and a host of other music legends in their own distinctive way. The struggle to survive in the music business hasn't been without losses and a need for life support. It did when Miller, Benny Goodman, James and Ellington were in their heyday. It's a financially precarious business regardless of your talent. Inevitably, music and dancing evolved and matured. The reasons are numerous and linked to our heritage. But like marching bands on the 4th of July, imagine a country club new year's eve without live dance music and a big band. Think about the many community social events and high school and college proms let alone wedding receptions that still insist on having live bands to play the foxtrots and swing numbers people enjoy. My research shows that while there were approximately 800 big bands on the road during the swing era of the 1940s, today there are nearly 1,300 big bands, according to a Google search and a review of hundreds of territory bands. Consequently, neither the bands nor the music vanished. . . they scattered throughout the American countryside.

About this title

About the Author:

My big band days were spread over two decades (1940s, 1950s) but they were a special six years. I met bandleaders, musicians, singers and played ballrooms, clubs and dancing and drinking spots I never forgot. I met people I never forgot either, Jack Behrens told a radio audience in 2002 about his life "on the road" after the release of his 1st book about the big band era, "Big Band Days." (AuthorHouse/2003). A nationally known award-winning columnist, editor and writer and Reader's Digest Magazine professor, Jack Behrens has written more than 14,000 magazine articles, columns and essays in national and international periodicals including Harvard's Nieman Report, Mankind, Physicians Financial News, Writer's Digest, National Observer, Business Journal and hundreds of others. "Big Bands & Great Ballrooms: America Is Dancing. . . Again" is his 20th book. His 1976 book "Typewriter Guerrillas" (Nelson-Hall) was a best seller. Columbia Scholastic Press Association awarded him the coveted Gold Key Award for his work with the student press.He's a 30 year member of America's writing elite, the American Society of Journalists & Authors. His music experience led him to become a writer. "I traveled with Bob Hope's USO Tour in the Far East while working for Pacific Stars & Stripes and once I heard Les Brown's great drummer, the late Jack Sperling, I knew I better polish my writing and put my drumsticks aside," he laughs.

About this edition

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1425969771
• ISBN 13: 9781425969776
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 204