A freshwater swamp in Florida

Belarus

A swamp is a wetland that is forested^[1]. Many swamps occur along large rivers, where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations^[2]. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes^[3]. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.^[4] The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo^[5].

Geology[link]

Swamps are characterized by very slow-moving waters. They are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. In some cases, rivers become swamps for a distance. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief.

Draining[link]

Swamps were historically drained to provide additional land for agriculture, and to reduce the threat of diseases born by swamp insects and similar animals.^[6] Many swamps were also heavily logged, which also required construction of drainage ditches and canals. These contributed as well to drainage, and, along the coast, allowed salt water intrusion that converted swamps to marsh or open water.^[7] Large areas of swamp were therefore lost, or degraded. Louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors.^[8] Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands.^[9] As another example, New Zealand has lost 90 percent of its wetlands over the past 150 years.^[10] It is now appreciated that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat.^[11] In many parts of the world swamps are protected. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration is becoming widespread^[12][13]. Often the simplest steps to restoring swamps are to plug drainage ditches and remove levees.^[14]

Famous examples[link]

The largest swamp in the world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species^[15][16][17].

Africa[link]

The Sudd and the Okavango Delta are Africa's best known marshland areas.

Asia[link]

The Vasyugan Swamp is a large swamp in the western Siberia area of the Russian Federation. This is one of the largest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland. The Tigris-Euphrates river system is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq, traditionally inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs.

North America[link]

Swamp in southern Louisiana

Atchafalaya Swamp at the lower end of the Mississippi River is the largest swamp in the United States. It is an important example of southern cypress swamp^[18] but it has been greatly altered by logging, drainage and levee construction^[19]. Other famous swamps in the United States are the Everglades, Okefenokee Swamp, Barley Barber Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp. The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia and extends slightly into northeastern Florida. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia and extreme northeastern North Carolina. Both are National Wildlife Refuges. Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake of extreme western Tennessee and Kentucky, was created by the New Madrid earthquake of 1812. Caddo Lake, the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps that are centered at large lakes. Swamps are often called bayous in the southeastern United States, especially in the Gulf Coast region.

Land value and productivity[link]

Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies, or woodlands. They have a reputation as being unproductive land that can't be easily utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers for example typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops.

Societies now generally understand that swamps are critically important in the processes of providing fresh water and oxygen to all life, and are often breeding grounds for a wide isolated variety of life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are extremely important in fish production^[20]. Government environmental agencies (such as the Department of Natural Resources in the United States) are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps and other wetlands. In Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers^[21]

List of major swamps[link]

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A small swamp in the Padstow, New South Wales.

Inside the Mangrove canopy, Salt Pan Creek, New South Wales

The worlds largest wetlands include significant areas of swamp, such as in the Amazon and Congo River basins^[22]. Further north, however, the largest wetlands are bogs.

Africa[link]

• Bangweulu Swamps, Zambia
• Okavango Swamp, Botswana
• Sudd, Sudan
• Niger Delta, Nigeria

Asia[link]

• Asmat Swamp, Indonesia
• Vasyugan Swamp, Russia
• Candaba Swamp in Apalit, Batangas, Candaba in Pampanga and Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines
• Mangrove Swamp in Karachi, Pakistan

North America[link]

• Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, United States
• Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, United States
• Barley Barber Swamp, Florida, United States
• Everglades, Florida, United States
• Great Black Swamp, Indiana/Ohio, United States
• Great Cypress Swamp, Maryland, United States, also known as Great Pocomoke Swamp
• Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina/Virginia, United States
• Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, United States
• Green Swamp, Florida, United States
• Green Swamp, North Carolina, United States
• Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana, United States
• Hudson Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada
• Limberlost, Indiana, United States
• Louisiana swamplands, Louisiana, United States
• Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Puxico, Missouri, United States
• Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia/Florida, United States
• Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee/Kentucky, United States
• Shu Swamp, New York, United States
• Congaree Swamp, South Carolina, United States

South America[link]

• Lahuen Ñadi, Chile
• Pantanal, Brazil
• Paraná Delta, Argentina

See also[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Swamps

Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of American music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets, and sometimes stringed instruments such as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos, and a "lilting" swing time rhythm.The name swing came from the phrase ‘swing feel’ where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music ( unlike classic music). Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945, a period known as the Swing Era.

The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive.

History[link]

1920s: Origins[link]

The styles of jazz that were popular from the late teens through the late 1920s were usually played with rhythms with a two beat feel, and often attempted to reproduce the style of contrapuntal improvisation developed by the first generation of jazz musicians in New Orleans. In the late 1920s, however, larger ensembles using written arrangements became the norm, and a subtle stylistic shift took place in the rhythm, which developed a four beat feel with a smoothly syncopated style of playing the melody, while the rhythm section supported it with a steady four to the bar.

Like jazz, swing was created by African Americans, and its impact on the overall American culture was such that it marked and named an entire era of the USA, the swing era – as the 1920s had been termed "The Jazz Age".^[1] Such an influence from the black community was unprecedented in any western country.^[1] Swing music abandoned the string orchestra and used simpler, "edgier" arrangements that emphasized horns and wind instruments and improvised melodies.

Louis Armstrong shared a different version of the history of swing during a nationwide broadcast of the Bing Crosby (radio) Show.^[2] Crosby said, "We have as our guest the master of swing and I'm going to get him to tell you what swing music is." Armstrong said, "Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation—then they called it ragtime, then blues—then jazz. Now, it's swing. White folks yo'all sho is a mess."^[3][4]

1930: Birth of swing[link]

Compared to the styles of the 1920s, the overall effect was a more sophisticated sound, but with an exciting feel of its own.^{[citation needed]} Most jazz bands adopted this style by the early 1930s, but "sweet" bands remained the most popular for white dancers until Benny Goodman's appearance at the Palomar Ballroom in August 1935. Swing's birth has been traced by some jazz historians to Chick Webb's stand in Harlem in 1931, but they noted the music failed to take off because the onset of the Depression in earnest that year killed the nightclub business, particularly in poor black areas like Harlem. Fletcher Henderson, another bandleader from this period who needed work, lent his arrangement talent to Goodman. Goodman had auditioned and won a spot on a radio show, "Let's Dance," but only had a few songs; he needed more. Henderson's arrangements are what gave him his bigger repertoire and distinctive sound. The show was on after midnight in the East and few people heard it, but unknown to them, it was on earlier on the West Coast and developed the audience that later led to his Palomar Ballroom triumph. The audience of young white dancers favored Goodman's "hot" rhythms and daring swing arrangements. "Hot Swing" and Boogie Woogie remained the dominant form of American popular music for the next ten years.

Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame.

With the wider acceptance of swing music around 1935, larger mainstream bands began to embrace this style of music.^{[citation needed]} Up until the swing era, Jazz had been taken in high regard by the most serious musicians around the world, including classical composers like Stravinsky; swing on the contrary, with its "dance craze", ended being regarded as a degeneration towards light entertainment, more of an industry to sell records to the masses than a form of art. Some musicians, after failing at serious music, switched to swing.^[1]

In his autobiography W.C. Handy wrote, "This brings to mind the fact that prominent white orchestra leaders, concert singers and others are making commercial use of Negro music in its various phases. That's why they introduced "swing" which is not a musical form."^[5]

Large orchestras had to reorganize themselves in order to achieve the new sound. These bands dropped their string instruments, which were now felt to hamper the improvised style necessary for swing music. This necessitated a slightly more detailed and organized type of composition and notation than was then the norm. Band leaders put more energy into developing arrangements, perhaps reducing the chaos that might result from as many as 12 or 16 musicians spontaneously improvising. But the best swing bands at the height of the era explored the full gamut of possibilities from spontaneous ensemble playing to highly orchestrated music in the vein of European art music.

A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind, brass, and later, in the 1940s, string and/or vocals sections. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect at any one time varied depending on the arrangement, the band, the song, and the band-leader.

The most common style consisted of having a soloist take center stage, and improvise a solo within the framework of her or his bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists would be expected to take over and individually improvise their own part; however, it was not unusual to have two or three band members improvising at any one time.

Peak and decline[link]

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Frank Sinatra

Swing jazz began to be embraced by the public around 1935. Prior to that, it had had limited acceptance, mostly among black audiences. Radio remotes increased interest in the music, and it grew in popularity throughout the States. As with many new popular musical styles, it met with some resistance from the public because of its improvisation, fast erratic tempos, lack of strings, occasionally risqué lyrics and other cultural associations, such as the sometimes frenetic swing dancing that accompanied performances. Audiences who had become used to the romantic arrangements (and what was perceived as classier and more refined music), were taken aback by the often erratic and edginess of swing music.

German swing bands, virtually unknown to British and American swing band followers, thrived in the early 1940s in spite of an official Nazi campaign against "decadent Western music".^[6] German authorities in fact created a Swing band called "Charlie and His Orchestra" to record hot Swing and dance music. Some songs included lyrics ridiculing and abusing the leaders and people of Allied nations. Records were dropped over "enemy" lines by parachute.^[7]

In the US, by the late 1930s and early 1940s, swing had become the most popular musical style and remained so for several years, until it was supplanted in the late 1940s by the pop standards sung by the crooners who grew out of the Big Band tradition that swing began. Bandleaders such as the Dorsey Brothers often helped launch the careers of vocalists who went on to popularity as solo artists, such as Frank Sinatra.

Swing music began to decline in popularity during World War II because of several factors. Most importantly it became difficult to staff a "big band" because many musicians were overseas fighting in the war. Also, the cost of touring with a large ensemble became cumbersome because of wartime economics. These two factors made smaller three- to five-piece combos more profitable and manageable. A third reason is the recording bans of 1942 and 1948 because of musicians' union strikes. In 1948, there were no records legally made at all, although independent labels continued to bootleg records in small numbers. When the ban was over in January 1949, swing had evolved into new styles such as jump blues and bebop.

Cross-genre swing[link]

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Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli

Many of the crooners who came to the fore after the swing era had their origins in swing bands. Frank Sinatra used the swing-band approach to great effect in almost all of his recordings and kept this style of music popular well into the rock 'n' roll era.

In country music, artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican and Bob Wills introduced many elements of swing along with blues to create a genre called western swing. Like Sinatra did, Mullican went solo from the Cliff Bruner band and had a successful solo career that included many songs that maintained a swing structure. Artists like Willie Nelson have kept the swing elements of country music present into the rock 'n' roll era. Nat King Cole followed Sinatra into the pop music world bringing with him a similar combination of swing bands and ballads. Like Mullican, he was important in bringing piano to the fore of popular music.

Gypsy swing is an outgrowth of Venuti and Lang's jazz violin swing, the style emerging in its own right in Europe with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. The repertoire overlaps that of 1930s swing, including French popular music, gypsy songs, and compositions by Reinhardt, but gypsy swing bands are formulated differently. There is no brass or percussion; guitars and bass form the backbone, with violin, accordion, clarinet or guitar taking the lead. Gypsy swing groups generally have no more than five players. Although they originated in different continents, similarities have often been noted between gypsy swing and western swing, leading to various fusions.

Rock 'n' roll era hitmakers like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley also found time to include many swing-era standards into their repertoire. Presley's hit "Are You Lonesome Tonight" is an old swing standard and Lewis' "To Make Love Sweeter For You" is a new song but in the old style. Domino made the swing standard "My Blue Heaven" a rock 'n' roll hit. Among the critically acclaimed band leaders of the 1930s and 1940s whose performances included elements of both "Sweet Band" music and traditional swing music was Shep Fields.

Late 1990s: Swing revival[link]

Caro Emerald

Although ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Stan Kenton Orchestra survived into the 1950s by incorporating new musical styles into their repertoire, they were no longer the hallmark of American popular music. In the late 1990s (1998 until about 2000) there was a short-lived "Swing revival" movement, led by bands such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, the Lucky Strikes, Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades, and Brian Setzer. Many of the new bands of this period played a style of music — oftentimes referred to as neo-swing — that combined swing jazz with contemporary styles of music such as Rockabilly, Ska, and Rock music. The style also accelerated the revival of swing dancing, both in a traditional style, and in hybrid approaches which blended 1930s dancing with 2000-era dance styles. A similarly hybrid approach to musical genre can be seen with superswing music, a style that can be seen to have its origin in The Fabrics' 2002 classic 12" single on Switch Music, Cassawanka.

In 2001 Robbie Williams released his fifth studio album consisting mainly of popular swing covers titled "Swing When You're Winning" which proved to be popular in many countries selling more than 7 million copies worldwide.

In 2006, the singer Christina Aguilera released her studio album "Back to Basics" when she mixed several different styles including swing, jazz and blues. The album was another commercial success for Aguilera's career.

In recent years Swing music has become fairly popular in Germany. Singers Roger Cicero, Tom Gaebel, and Thomas Anders have attained large followings both in their native country and world wide. Cicero’s style is predominantly that of 1940s and 1950s swing music, combined with German lyrics; he became Germany's participant for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.

Early 1990s to early 2010s: Swing House and Electroswing[link]

Another modern development consists of fusing swing (original, or remixes of classics) with hip hop and house techniques.

"Swing house" was particularly popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Influences incorporated into it include Louis Jordan and Louis Prima.

Electroswing is mainly popular in Europe, and electro swing artists incorporate influences such as Tango and Django Reinhardt's Gypsy Swing. Leading artists include Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar

Both genres are connected with a revival of swing dances, such as the Lindy hop.

Notable musicians[link]

• Band leaders: Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Chick Webb, The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington, Glenn Gray, Erskine Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, Tiny Hill, Earl Hines, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Gloria Parker, Harry James, Louis Prima, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan, Hal Kemp, Kay Kyser, Buddy Rich, Fred Rich, Jack Teagarden, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Gordon Goodwin.
• Clarinet: Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Peanuts Hucko,
• Saxophone: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Sam Butera, Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Gray.
• Trumpet: Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Cootie Williams, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison, Louis Prima, Hot Lips Page
• Trombone: Tommy Dorsey, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Fred Rich
• Bass: Jimmy Blanton, Milt Hinton, John Kirby, Walter Page, Slam Stewart
• Vibraphone: Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo
• Marimba: Gloria Parker
• Piano: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Jess Stacy, Nat Jaffe, Nat King Cole
• Drums: Sonny Greer, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Chick Webb
• Guitar: Charlie Christian, Freddie Green, Oscar Aleman, Django Reinhardt
• Violin: Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Ray Nance, Stephane Grapelli, Svend Asmussen
• Accordion: Art Van Damme, John Serry Sr.
• DJ/Producer: Parov Stelar, St Germain.

See also[link]

• Big band
• British dance band
• Category:Retro-swing musicians
• Category:Swing musicians
• Continental Jazz, swing of continental Europe
• Gypsy Jazz
• List of musical genres
• Swing (dance)
• Swing (jazz performance style), a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive
• Swing Revival

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Scaruffi, Piero. [2003] A History of Jazz Music, 1900–2000, chapter on Bebop (2007) ISBN 978-0-9765531-3-7

Further reading[link]

• Erenberg, Lewis A. Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture (1998), a history of big-band jazz and its fans.
• Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s (1987), on the emergence of bop from big-band swing.
• Hennessey, Thomas J. From Jazz to Swing: African-Americans and Their Music, 1890–1935 (1994).
• Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945 (1991), a musicological study.
• Spring, Howard. "Swing and the Lindy Hop: Dance, Venue, Media, and Tradition ". American Music, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 183–207.
• Stowe, David. Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America (1996), a musicological study.
• Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift: 'All-Girl' Bands of the 1940s (2000)
• Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-600-9. 
• Milkowski, Bill (2001). Swing It: An Annotated History of Jive. Bob Nikard, ed., and Alison Hagge, ed.. New York, New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7671-7. 

External links[link]

• Swing era entry at the University of Virginia's Jazz history site.
• SwingMusic.net forum with big band and mainstream jazz discussions.
• Swing & Big Band Internet Broadcast Schedules
• Swing: Last.FM Group
• The Retro Lounge