Tommy Dorsey (2)

Battle of the Bands

I was having a discussion about bands and was about to state who I thought had the best 'all around' dance band of the Swing era. My friend thought I was going to cite Glenn Miller, but I named Tommy Dorsey as my number one choice in the "sweet/swing" category (as Metronome Magazine used to term it). I don't think any other band handled both styles of music, sweet and Swing, as well as T. Dorsey's band did. Essentially, he never fails. His sweet numbers were the height of taste and musicality and his Swing numbers rocked the house. To quote Charlie Barnet out of context, for Tommy Dorsey, musically, 'the best was adequate'. By the time he hit his peak in the years of 1940 - 1945, he had been on top so long, that money was no object. He hired the best in every category. Instrumentalists, vocalists, arrangers, song writers. Music was his life. He owned one of the first hi-fi sets in the country and one of the best bands in America.

Dorsey in the 30s vs Dorsey in the 40s.

In 1939, Tommy Dorsey began to totally re-vamp the style of his band. This was a daring move as it required him to let go two very popular vocalists and any number of sidemen and taking on a new principal arranger (Sy Oliver) and six (!) new vocalists: Frank Sinatra and Connie Haines (both out of Harry James' then-flagging band) and Jo Stafford plus the three man vocal group, the Pied Pipers.

His sweet style went from the most sophisticated sounds of the 30s to a bit more robust sound suited to the times. Many Dorsey ballads of the 40 - 45 period have a kick to them in the first chorus or final chorus. Example: Just when one might think that "Be Careful, It's My Heart", which begins with a stunning string section intro and trombone solo, is going to be a somewhat sedate side, the entire band comes in with a glorious use of dynamics and syncopation and a sound that fills the room with it's presence.

Tommy Dorsey's Swing style went through an even more dramatic change. Much of his Swing and Jazz had been 'Dixieland' based, but once he hired Sy Oliver away from Jimmie Lunceford, the Dorsey style went Sy Oliver's way. The 30s Dorsey swing/jazz had been fine and exciting, with the best of it at the top of its form. Sy Oliver brought it into the 1940s. With the new personal and attitudes and arrangements, the entire band took on a new edge and excitement. The Dorsey pop tunes took on a new type of pulse with lots of Swing touches and the pure Swing charts are completely hot as hell, almost manic at times. They wail, they blast, they just knock you over or make you dance with a fever.

All this good stuff continued through the end of WW2 and beyond, but soon began to change as the tempo of the times changed once more. Dorsey was still the king offering the best to his musical subjects, but the audience had begun to migrate in a different direction.
Poor Tommy. He still cared, but few others did.

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John Cooper is the owner of John Cooper's Starlight Roof website as well as moderator of the Swingland! discussion group dedicated to swing music. He has written liner notes for releases by the Modernaires and Buddy Clark as well as other work on the music of the swing era.