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from the issue of March 8, 2007
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Profs aid NET
BY KATHE ANDERSEN, FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS
When you think of the Great Depression, you think of hard times, scarce jobs, families struggling, the Dust Bowl... and lively swing music.
| | ON STAGE - Darryl White, associate professor of trumpet in the School of Music, performs during the taping of the NET-produced "Hard Times Swing." The documentary, which debuts at 7 p.m. March 17, features a number of UNL professors and performers.
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While it may seem like a contradiction, the rise of the swing phenomenon during the Great Depression of the 1930s is examined in a new NET Television performance documentary entitled "Hard Times Swing," which follows the development of territory swing bands, swing dancing and the hybrid musical blend that changed American pop culture from 1935-1945.
"Hard Times Swing" premieres at 7 p.m. March 17 on NET1 and in high definition on NET-HD. The program repeats on NET1 and NET-HD at 11 a.m. March 18; 8:30 p.m. March 19; and 4:30 p.m. March 24.
Swing music was the popular music from 1935 to 1945. According to School of Music lecturer Tom Larson, who serves as one of the commentators on the program, swing music "was the name that was given to jazz in the 1930s as a way to repackage jazz as a consumer product."
It's characterized by being big band music that was danceable and melodic.
"From a strictly musical point of view, this was some of the most complex pop music that we've ever had," Larson said. "Some of the songs, the arrangements, the chord progressions and key changes, there's really never been anything quite like that."
"Hard Times Swing" begins just after the stock market crash in 1929 and follows the popularity of swing into the mid 1940s, focusing on Nebraska and the Midwest.
"You'd think at first glance that when people don't have any money and when times are hard, the last thing they'd be doing is spending money having a party," said Joel Geyer, NET senior producer, who served as producer/director/writer for the program. "And you can argue that when people feel bad, they need something to celebrate, and I think there's some truth to that."
Radio helped develop a coast-to-coast popular culture as the sounds of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem made their way across the country to places like Wahoo or Schuyler, Neb.
Automobiles were also changing society.
"The vaudeville circuits worked the railroads," Geyer said. "So little towns like Red Cloud, where Willa Cather grew up, could get light opera and comedians and vaudeville. But if you weren't on a rail line, you didn't get anything. But with the rise of the automobile and the improvement of roads in the late 1920s and early 1930s, any town that could afford a band could pull one in."
This gave rise to the so-called "territorial bands," who worked the roads all across the Midwest and around the country. Sometimes a band might drive 500 miles in a day to play at night, and then get in their car or bus at 3 a.m. and drive to the next destination the next night.
An important part of telling the story of swing in the "Hard Times Swing" program is a performance by top regional soloists, backed by the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, filmed in March 2006 at Omaha's Sokol Hall.
Performers included Darryl White, associate professor of trumpet, along with trumpeter Mac McCune, vocalists Annette Murrell and Trudy Du May, and percussionist Luigi Waites. Scott Anderson, associate professor of trombone, and Peter Bouffard, lecturer, performed in the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra. The Omaha Jitterbugs and other invited guests were the dancers.
"I had a blast," White said. "It was really nice just to be able to meet some of the other well-known musicians in town that I really never have had a chance to play with."
Geyer hopes "Hard Times Swings" resonates with viewers.
"My hope is that the program takes the people who love the music and gives them a deeper sense of what it means, why we should care" Geyer said. "And on the other hand, I hope this takes people who are into history or social history and brings them to music that they thought was just fun. And that's the magic. If you do performance documentary right, people hear the song in a new light and a new context, and it has meaning for them in a way it never has before."
Funding for "Hard Times Swing" was made possible in part by the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Humanities Council.
Sneak Preview
NET will offer a sneak preview of "Hard Times Swing" at 7 p.m. March 15 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. The showing is free and open to the public. A reception, featuring the documentary producer and musicians, will follow the screening.
GO TO: ISSUE OF MARCH 8
ARTS HEADLINES FOR MARCH 8
Profs aid NET
American Life in Poetry
British quilter to discuss U.K. craft March 19
Great Plains museum offers 'Journey Home' to March 26
Great Plains Quarterly features Plains artists, Treaty Six, Crazy Horse
Kruger offers new miniatures March 19
'Lives of Others,' 'Commune' open March 16
Paddywhack offers Free at 6 performance
Ross event explores German cinema
Scarlet and Cream Singers to open Nebraska tour
Sheldon's 'Room in New York' to go on tour
Steamroller presents 'Fresh Aire' at Lied
TALKING QUILTS
732743S36818X
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