Changing technology has everything to do with the way music is made and enjoyed. For a powerful reminder, look no further than the current Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” whose climax is the pivotal moment when the folk icon traded his acoustic guitar for an electric. Another reminder — with live musical demonstrations on stage — is coming to Kiggins Theatre. As part of its ongoing History on Tap collaboration with the Clark County Historical Museum, Kiggins will present a talk and concert at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 focused on the earliest days of jazz, called “Ragtime to Swing and Everything in Between.” Vancouver bandleader and music historian (and public-programs manager for the museum) Sammuel Hawkins will give the talk, assisted on stage by his own meticulously authentic, 11-piece Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra. The band specializes in the “hot and sweet” ballroom jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. You’ll hear music by composers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. “This is going to be really fun,” Hawkins said. “You’re going to be able to hear how dynamic and rich this music is.”

Because of the special live appearance by the Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra, he added, this History On Tap program won’t include the usual local-history quiz and interview segments. This one will devote all its time to music. (Word to the wise: The ticket price of $5 advance or $10 at the door is substantially less than it usually costs to see this band perform.) Horns to ribbons Hawkins said his presentation will address the development of microphone technology between 1915 and 1940 and the way that influenced bands’ instrument choices and their overall sound. “With the start of recorded music, the machines they were using were picking up sound with musicians playing into big brass horns,” he said. Those horns were crude microphones, so the pop bands of the day shifted toward instruments with loud, bold voices.

“They went from double basses and guitars to tubas and banjos, which catalyzed the sound of the hot jazz era of the 1920s and 1930s,” Hawkins said. But those same loud instruments had to dampen their decibels when a singer was in front and trying to be heard, he said. Hawkins recently acquired a rare violin from that era, called a Stroh. Go to the Jan. 22 show and you’ll see just what a strange creature the Stroh violin is: It has no wooden body but it does have an onboard horn — a “reproducer” — that amplifies the sound of the strings. All of that changed in the 1930s when the big brass horn gave way to the vastly superior ribbon microphone (so called because it works by way of an electrically conducive ribbon), Hawkins said. Ribbon microphones allowed the sounds of singers and instruments to be recorded separately, and helped to launch the brassy sound of the big band era.

But labor issues brought that sound to an abrupt stop in 1942, Hawkins said, as the American Federation of Musicians went on strike against record companies. Union musicians still played live, went on tour and recorded for troops overseas — but not to sell records at home. That turned out to be a turning point in the history of jazz, Hawkins said. “It was the death of the big band era and led to the popularizing of solo singers and small bands,” he said.