2. “It Don’t Mean a Thing IF YOU AIN’T GOT THAT SWING” BY: ALLISON BRATTON

3. History “It Don’t Mean a Thing, If You Ain’t Got That Swing” was composed by Duke Ellington in 1932 It quickly became a jazz standard This version is was performed in 1961 Louis Armstrong sang and played the trumpet and Duke Ellington played the piano in this recording

4. This is a picture of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington Around the time that this song was recorded.

5. Analysis  4/4 time  2 measures of piano and percussion and bass  Trumpet solo starts and continues for 14 and a half measures  Singing starts on Pick up to measure 17 and trumpet stops back to the original piano and percussion with a little variation.  The Verse continues for 2 measures, chorus for 9, bridge for 5 and back to chorus for 4.

6. Analysis continued  Louis Armstrong then sings the chorus with variation and adds scat for 9 measures, and then does the same with the verse for 4 and ends with the chorus for 4.  Horn and clarinet go back and forth for 9 measures  Piano solo for 4  And the songs ends with the horn and clarinet have a chase for 25 measures.

7. Timbre  This is a song that encourages dance. The feeling and movement of the song communicate that clearly!  The instruments play in according to the lyrics. Louis Armstrong say “swing” a horn “swings” Louis says sing and a clarinet “sings”  At the beginning the bass starts as a steady back-beat and than evolves to a quicker moving pace as the song gets more in intricate and involved. It helps create interest and that “swing” motion in the song.

8. Timbre continued  Something that makes this version unique is Louis Armstrong's unique style of trumpet playing  The added clarinet to the song adds a great dialogue in addition to the trumpet

9. Resources  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qGa4Yh2qs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qGa4Yh2qs  http://direct.rhapsody.com/imageserver/v2/imagesets/imgs.106221 198/images/500x500.jpg http://direct.rhapsody.com/imageserver/v2/imagesets/imgs.106221 198/images/500x500.jpg  http://www.jazz-on- line.com/pageinterrogation.php?keyword=mean+a+thing&label=& matrix=&B1=Submit http://www.jazz-on- line.com/pageinterrogation.php?keyword=mean+a+thing&label=& matrix=&B1=Submit  http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R4YFBYG3L.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R4YFBYG3L.jpg