Swing Era
Benny Goodman was regularly called the "King of Swing". His rival, Artie Shaw, was often called "King of the Clarinet". Goodman's song "King Porter Stomp" was written by Jelly Roll Morton after a piano player he knew named Porter King. Later a little-known bandleader took the name "King Porter". Nat King Cole's nickname is partly inspired by the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole" and partly inspired by his impressive jazz piano technique.
There was a popular big band, led by Blue Barron, a stage name. Blue Barron once billed himself as competing for the title of "King of the Mickey Mouse Bands". Pianist Albert Ammons was referred to both as the "King of Boogie Woogie" and the "Rhythm King" in the 30s and 40s.
Read more about this topic: Jazz Royalty
Famous quotes containing the words swing and/or era:
“The bells, I say, the bells break down their tower;
And swing I know not where.”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)
“The fantasies inspired by TB in the last century, by cancer now, are responses to a disease thought to be intractable and capricious—that is, a disease not understood—in an era in which medicine’s central premise is that all diseases can be cured.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)