Big Bands and Memory

danceDid you really hear that?

When I was in high school, I was a pianist for a swing band. A real dance band filled with terrific adult musicians that played at country clubs and grown-up parties.

This is where I learned my Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and a bunch more tunes. And it’s also where I learned something about the power of suggestion when it comes to music.

The choice of tunes regulated the whole atmosphere. Sometimes the bandmaster would spot two people on the floor clearly in need of a love song, or itching for a tango. After all these decades, I still remember how the music would make them smile.

But occasionally someone was a little obnoxious. When a guy demanded to hear Satin Doll for the fifth time, our bandleader Ralph would smile sympathetically and say, “Gosh, we just played that two tunes back.”

It always worked. Because people didn’t remember what they’d heard. Not when they were swinging hard on those sparkly 1960s dance floors.

Do we really listen to what we hear? That’s a question we ask a lot here at Professor Carol. We’re bombarded by sound all day long. Leaf blowers – that’s my favorite – buses, trains, and planes, coffee-bean grinders, and video games. And a lot of random, electronic, music that can border on noise. And, of course, music itself is used these days to mask other sounds and adds to the already overwhelming volume. All of this surely dulls our listening abilities.

Let us help you slow down in your listening and find new ways to remember and enjoy what you hear. Music becomes memorable when you surround it with the sparkle of its era. The more you know about the time and place that brought the music into being, the more vivid and rewarding your listening experiences.

It’s a challenge. But it’s almost as fun as getting on a bandstand and cranking up a crowd.