[78-L] Re : The 5 most influential 78s ever/ Charlie Parker

[David Lewis]

> My questions remains unanswered, or rather you subtly change categories> between jazz styles and other genres:>>> 
They died because the bottom fell out of the business after World War II ended; people weren't going to the big ballrooms to dance anymore because they wanted to stay home instead. Singers rose in popularity versus the bands,
and some producers - like Eli Oberstein - promoted the singers over the bands and conversely some bands survived by
moving the attention to singers, like Frankie Carle did. Any notion that rock n roll killed the big bands is sheer nonsense, as that did not catch on until 1955 and the Big Bands were certainly passe by 1948; some leaders even claim 1946. The record ban in 1947-48 did not help either. 
 
The big bands depended on live gigs in ballrooms and dance clubs for their very existence; the recording revenue was chicken feed by comparison; radio paid little better. Some were helped by the advent of TV -- think Lawrence Welk -- but in order to get there they had to struggle through those awful, barren years in the late 40s.
 
While some advanced charts became popular, like "Six Flats Unfurnished," no advanced band -- save Kenton's -- became popular playing advanced charts. That was never considered mass taste, and neither was BeBop which was widely embraced mainly in the black community at first. The biggest bop hits were not the acclaimed masterworks like Parker's Dials so much as the jokey, kind of laid back records that Dizzy Gillespie made for Manor and others.
 
Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
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