How Musicians Helped Integrate The Silver Screen : Code Switch : NPR: Swing was sweeping the country in the 1930s, long before schools, buses, baseball or even the military felt any pressure to integrate. Back then, every expert had his own definition of swing, but none saw what seems so obvious today: When orchestras started to swing, millions of young, white, middle-class fans suddenly began listening to the same music black audiences had been hearing for years.
African-American musician had been playing "Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day" in Harlem since 1933, but it wasn't until five years later, in white musician 's hands, that the whole country started hearing it.
Goodman became a national sensation, and he capitalized on stardom fearlessly. He made vibraphonist and pianist Teddy Wilson, both black musicians, part of his quartet because they were unique. A decade before Jackie Robinson would integrate Major League baseball, Hampton and Wilson integrated American popular music.
