Over the past forty-plus years British film director Tony Palmer has established himself as one of the country's foremost directors of documentary and factual films. One of Tony Palmer's first successes was the film All My Loving, which was released in 1968. Some seven years later Tony had the idea, encouraged by John Lennon, to document the history of popular music. The result was the groundbreaking and award-winning series of films made for television under the title All You Need Is Love.
The full series of films was released in 2008 to great critical and commercial acclaim.
For this volume we turn our attention the musical genre known as swing. For most of its history, popular music has rarely been that which most people like. Jazz, for instance, has always been a minority interest. But in the era dominated by swing, the music and its popularity were equally matched. White musicians became bored with the asinine popular music they were expected to play, music pumped out by Tin Pan Alley, and tried to emulate the style and freedom of their black counterparts. Most of them were too intelligent as musicians to indulge in mere imitation.
What they created was the first white music based on black music that was not stolen from black music.
The episode includes interviews and performances from some of the main characters of the genre including Art Tatum, Cab Calloway, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Frank Sinatra
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