They were bombed or strafed 17 times by Japanese aircraft. Shaw remembers being overwhelmed by the enormous roar of applause that greeted him and his troupe when they played aboard the USS Saratoga . And the music had that effect, I suppose. Even something as tranquil as post-war suburbanization and the coincident rise of television profoundly influenced jazz. Many urban night clubs popular in the 30s and 40s saw their audiences move to the burbs in the 50s, where they passed up Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon to watch Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, and the adventures of the Ricardos and the Mertzes from the comfort of their living rooms.
Burns also illustrates how good luck and happenstance inspired key developments in jazz.
When he dropped his lyric sheet, the producer instructed him to carry on. So, Satchmo invented a series of upbeat sounds to replace the words lying on the floor. A teenager named Ella Fitzgerald became one of the greatest scat singers and, indeed, finest vocalists of the 20th century after catching her own lucky break. She entered a talent contest at Harlem s Apollo Theater in November 1934. Hearing that two notable dancers already had competed, she instead took a shot at singing.