I n its 2009 predictions, businessinsider.com made a list of “21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade.” First on the list were personal digital assistants, or PDAs.

“Remember that trusty stylus?” the website asks. “The once-awesome Palm Pilot had no chance with the advent of the Blackberry, and then, of course, the touch-screen smartphone.”

According to businessinsider.com, PDAs are obsolete, destined to join the trash heap of history. One might say that they’re as passé as the Pac- Man video game of the 1980s, or as ancient as the Pet Rock of the 1970s, or as outdated as the big band music of the 1930s and 40s.

But maybe those comparisons aren’t completely accurate. After all, i-Star Entertainment is selling new species of Pet Rocks, and Pac-Man is popular enough to inspire a new reality television show.

As for big band music, some, like 19-year-old Chris Alberi, believe that “big band music is not entirely a dead breed.” Alberi, a freshman from Otisfield who attend Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, enjoys big band music. Alberi’s musical tastes place him in a small crowd among his age group: Big band music may not be dead, but it is certainly not as popular as it was during its heyday 80 years ago.

From popularity to neglect

“(Big band music) began as dance music, and that’s really what it was — it was music that got any age together in a grange hall or dance hall, so you had teenagers and people in their 70s all coming together and dancing together to the music,” said Mark Tipton, trumpet professor at Colby College and director of the University of Southern Maine Lab Band.

According to Tipton, big band music is defined not by a certain style of music, but by the instruments that play the music. Big bands are typically made up of a certain number of saxophones, trumpets and trombones, along with a piano, guitar, bass and drums, but there is room for variation; some big bands include French horns, tubas and even string instruments.

Since its origin around 90 years ago, big band music has been both immensely popular and widely neglected. It was at the height of its popularity during the 1930s and ’40s, when musicians like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Kay Kyser — and their orchestras — captivated America’s attention.

Tipton believes that the greatest reason for big band’s popularity was the swing dancing that naturally accompanied such music. In addition, big band “was music that appealed to all ages. It was popular music on the radio that had simple melodies and catchy lyrics, and it was very family-friendly. There wasn’t much that was offensive, if anything, about it.”

Angela Green, a board member of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society in Clarinda, Iowa, believes that another reason for big band’s popularity was the era in which big band entered the musical scene.

“(The music) was just appropriate to (that) generation,” she said. Big band music especially meant a lot to American soldiers serving in World War II — “it was like a piece of home that they could listen to.”

However, near the end of the 1940s, America’s music began to change.

“In the late 1940s into the 1950s, the music union nationwide had a lot of problems,” said Tipton. “It actually was on strike entirely during that decade, and people had to look for new employment as a musician. … Clubs weren’t willing to hire a large group anymore, generally.”

Without venues in which to perform, big bands began to be replaced by new, smaller jazz groups. At the same time, “there were other styles of music that came along, like bebop … and doo-wop — and big band just didn’t fit into those other styles as well at first,” Tipton said.

In Europe, big band music adapted to the new styles and continued as a popular art form. In America, however, big band steadily declined in popularity — but never completely died out. Big band music still exists today, although it does not always sound identical to its 1930s ancestor.

According to Tipton, modern big band music has branched outside of its traditional “period” jazz style.

“There’s a lot of very classical elements and rock and R&B and even experimental avant-garde elements, so it’s not really necessarily just jazz anymore,” he said.

Tipton calls modern big band music an “art form.… There are composers who are very serious about their compositions, not for dancing.”

Nevertheless, the demographic that was most attracted to big band music at the height of its popularity — “early to late teens and early 20s,” according to Green — is today mostly unfamiliar with the style.

Tipton, who cofounded the Fogcutters Big Band in Portland, said that when the band performs, “we have audiences that have never heard a big band in their life.”

A dedicated few

That’s not to say, though, that young people have uniformly abandoned big band music. Although they are in the minority, some children and young adults remain dedicated big band enthusiasts.

“I just think it’s absolutely the best music out there,” said Chris Alberi, the 19-yearold from Otisfield. Alberi, whose high school band director first encouraged him to listen to big band music, admires the “pure musicianship” of big band music, especially the musicians’ improvised solos.

“To me, (improvisation is) really interesting just because the musician gets to show who he or who she is,” he said. “At the same time, (the musicians) still really have to get into the groove and swing together. … (It’s) the combination of the individual and the collaborative effort that really interests me the most.”

Alberi isn’t fazed when he compares himself to his peers who don’t listen to big band music: “I always feel slightly enlightened, really, that I’m able to appreciate this type of music that’s indisputably the best type of music ever,” he said.

He also believes that today’s teenagers can learn to love big band. “I think everyone has the capacity to enjoy big band music,” he said. “It’s just that they haven’t been exposed to it.”

Jake Ziff is an 11-year-old trombonist from Ramsey, N.J., whose dad introduced him to big band music by singing classics like “I Know Why” to him at night.

“I love music in general; big band music is just one that gets me going,” he said.

Ziff is a fan of Glenn Miller’s music, especially “Moonlight Serenade,” Miller’s theme song and one of his earliest pieces. One reason that Ziff likes “Moonlight Serenade” is its departure from the typical big band model.

“Big band is usually up and jumpy,” he said — “‘Moonlight Serenade’ is one of the big band songs that are really slow.”

The future of big band

Ziff is also one of the youngest members of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society, an organization founded to “honor (Miller) and keep his music alive,” said board member Angela Green.

The society’s biggest event is its annual Glenn Miller Festival, a four-day event held in Miller’s birthplace in Clarinda, Iowa, that features musical scholarship competitions, panel discussions, swing dancing and performances by big bands from across the country and around the globe. At the most recent festival in June, a crowd of people attended from places as diverse as Florida, the Netherlands, Colorado, Japan, Maryland, Australia, Kansas and South Africa.

Nevertheless, Green notes that “we don’t get many (young people) at the festival;” although some students like Ziff and Alberi are enthusiastic about big band music, most young people apparently care more for contemporary music.

Does that mean that big band music is in danger of dying out with the older generation who grew up with it?

Tipton doesn’t think so. “I think it will always continue in some way because it’s such an American art form, and there are nonprofits that are keeping it alive, like the Lincoln Center,” he said.

Tipton also noted that big band music has become popular as an educational tool.

“The litmus test of a good public school program is (that) if they have a big band then they’re doing well, it’s a healthy program,” he said. In addition, “the fact that (big band music is) in every serious college jazz program means that it will somehow continue to exist, even if it’s not mainstream.”

Alberi doesn’t believe that big band music is on its deathbed, either. He pointed to modern big band groups such as the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and others, that perform new compositions and play classics from big band’s heyday with “a new, modern spin and perspective.”

“Big band music isn’t dead. It’s still alive and it’s still a vibrant part of our culture, really,” he said.

HARRISON OTIS is a freshman at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va. He grew up in Freeport, Maine, and can be reached at word@timesrecord.com.

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