Sweet jazz

Name#

The “sweet” moniker was originally coined to contrast the melodic sound of the sweet bands with the highly energetic and cacophonous improvisation of New Orleans’ “hot” jazz. For many contemporary white critics, the name was an indication of its melodic accessibility and refined structure, but the term was also used by some musicians and critics as a mocking, somewhat derogatory term for a style they saw as more generic and less spirited. The most popular sweet bandleader, the so-called “King of Jazz” Paul Whiteman, preferred to describe his ensemble’s music as “symphonic jazz”.

Style#

Sweet jazz is notably distinguished from “hot” Dixieland jazz by its slower tempos and more “square” rhythms with less swing, tending towards a highly melodic and sentimental sound that lends the genre its name. Sweet band repertoires included lightly syncopated dances like the foxtrot and instrumental renditions of Tin Pan Alley songs, though some bands eventually incorporated singers for vocal chorus sections, in an early form of vocal jazz. Sweet bandleaders tended to be white and had training in classical music, with Paul Whiteman himself having been a symphony orchestra violinist before encountering jazz in 1915. Whiteman and his peers aspired to elevate jazz to a more respected form of concert music, seeking to make it less “primitive” and more structured. This attitude culminated in the 1924 premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Whiteman’s band at Aeolian Hall which fully transcended the popular sweet jazz idiom as a classical rhapsody with some jazz elements. Despite their reputation and the development of a distinctive sweet jazz style, most sweet-oriented jazz dance bands tended to have diverse repertoires that could also include “hot” jazz soloists, like Bix Beiderbecke in Whiteman’s orchestra. Although sweet jazz was a predominantly white style, it was also performed by black groups like Fletcher Henderson’s.

Popularity and influence#

Sweet bands were highly commercially successful in the 1920s, performing in concert settings for urban society and touring as dance bands across the United States. Many of the earliest jazz recordings were of sweet bands, which sold well with white audiences in America and Europe and consequently became highly influential on how jazz was seen by mainstream culture in the early Jazz Age. The sweet jazz sound became closely associated with the accompaniment of hotel bands and theater bands. Sweet jazz was also influential on European dance bands, who blended its approach with local folk dances.

Prominent sweet bandleaders#

• Art Hickman
• Paul Whiteman
• Guy Lombardo
• Les Brown
• Ben Selvin
• Ted Lewis
• Vincent Lopez
• Fletcher Henderson
• Louis Armstrong (with his Orchestra)
• Glenn Miller
• Blue Barron
• Eddie Duchin
• Shep Fields