Swing

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The 1930s belonged to Swing - and to the radio and dancing. During what many regard as jazz's classic era the popular bands became larger in size - Big Bands – and the solo became more important in jazz, with the soloists sometimes as famous as their leaders. Key figures in developing the "big" jazz band were bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Jimmie Lunceford, Jay McShann, Walter Page, Don Redman and Chick Webb. Other Big Bands, such as Artie Shaw's, Tommy Dorsey's and Benny Goodman's "Orchestra", were highly jazz oriented while others, such as, later, Glenn Miller's, left less space for improvisation.

Trumpeter, bandleader and singer Louis Armstrong, known internationally as the "Ambassador of Jazz," was a much-imitated innovator of early jazz.

Swing was also dance music - hence its immediate connection to the people - and it was broadcast 'live' coast-to-coast nightly across America for many years, most famously by The Earl Hines Band from Al Capone's Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago, well-positioned for the 'live coast-to-coast' time-zone broadcasting problem. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to 'solo' and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex and 'important' music.

Over time, social structures regarding racial segregation began to relax, and white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians. In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. During this period, swing and big band music were popular. The influence of Louis Armstrong can be seen in bandleaders like Cab Calloway, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and vocalists like Bing Crosby, who were influenced by Armstrong's style of improvising. The style further spread to vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday; later, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan, among others, would jump on the scat bandwagon.