Big Band Bash

This week we continue with more of the Big Band vocalists. This will be a potpourri of many different vocalists from many different bands. I tried to limit each singer to one song so we could hear as many of the different styles as time permitted. Some of the vocalists on this show include Jack Leonard, Helen Ward, Dick Haymes, Louis Armstrong, Helen O'Connell and others. I hope I play some of you...

Today's show is from the Big Band Bash archives and is one that I did on the popular vocalists who sang with the big bands. Most big bands had at least one singer and some had two. If you were a really popular band then you might have a vocal quartet. I've tried to present quite a few different vocalists and there were so many good ones that I had enough for two shows. So it's a singer potpourri f...

On Part 2 of the Birth of Swing, I would like to play some recordings by some of the other big bands that were recording and playing between 1934 and 1936. Some of the bands that were together during those years include The Casa Loma Orchestra, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, The Dorsey Brothers, and Andy Kirk. This is just a sample and if I have missed a certain band I will probab...

August 21, 1935 is sometimes referred to as the birthday of Swing. It was on this date that the Benny Goodman orchestra, after traveling across the country, opened their engagement at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, California. They started the night playing it safe with stock arrangements but when they started playing their special arrangements, the kids went wild. These were the numbers the...

This week we celebrate the birthday of the multi-talented Benny Carter. He was a composer, arranger, saxophonist, and he played the trumpet too. He was also a great bandleader. He was born on August 8, 1907. My title comes from a cd that Benny recorded with fellow saxophonist Phil Woods. It was a double CD set and each musician wrote a song and dedicated it to the other. Benny's song was called My...

Every week on Big Band Bash I try to present a variety of bands and formats. Sometimes the leaders are well known and sometimes they are not but I always try to present good music from the bands of that era. Today's show is on an excellent trumpet player who led a big band but who didn't quite achieve the fame of some of the other leaders. Today we are going to spotlight the band and trumpet of So...

During the swing era, many of the record companies and music publishers kept track of a song's weekly standings in the polls. Just as they do today, bandleaders hoped that their recordings would reach the number one spot in the lists. But, sadly, some only made it to the number two position and then no higher. On the show today, we are going to be listening to songs from the years of 1940 and 1941...

On this week's show, instead of focusing on bandleaders or musicians, I would like to take a look at the career of one of the greatest of the American lyricists Johnny Mercer. John Herndon Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He was also a record label executive, who co-founded Capitol Records. He is best known as a tin pan alley lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also...

On this week's show I am going to take a look at the area of New York City known as Harlem. There have been many songs written about that particular area so I thought it would be interesting to learn about it and explore some of the many songs that have Harlem in the title. Some of the bands we'll be hearing from include Duke Ellington, Mildred Bailey, Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Bunny Berigan, and E...

This week I am going to continue with Part-two of "Into the 50's" from the Time Life series "The Swing Era". Today's show focuses on songs from the the late 1940's and early 1950's. There are only a couple more volumes in this set and the producers of the series stopped using individual years and lumped several years together. So today, we'll be hearing from the bands of Benny Goodman, Ralph Flana...

This week I am going back to another set in the Time Life series "The Swing Era". Today's show focuses on songs from the the late 1940's and early 1950's. There are only a couple more volumes in this set and the producers of the series stopped using individual years and lumped several years together. So today, we'll be hearing from the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller, Harry James,...

Because we celebrated our nation's birthday this week, I went back to the Big Band Bash archives to pull out a show I recorded back in 2011. I think it is an interesting show and doesn't feature any one band. It was a show I did on some of the famous ballrooms that the big bands played at. Some of them were quite famous and a few are still around today. I have quite a few air checks in my collecti...

1939 was a great year for the Count Basie orchestra. This was the last year of their three year contract with Decca records where they would record many of their hits. He still had Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Jimmy Rushing and other original members in the band. He also had a great female vocalist in the band named Helen Humes. I have been listening to the Count Basie band since I was a teenage as...

Ray Anthony has led a big band for many years starting in the late 1940's. He played trumpet in the original Glenn Miller orchestra and after the war started his own band. He has had a lot of first class musicians play in his band throughout the years. On the show today I found a remote which was part of the One Night Stand series. It was recorded at the Hollywood Palladium in the early 1950's. Th...

Richard Rodgers was an American composer of music, with over 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals, leaving a legacy as one of the most significant composers of 20th century American music. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His music has been recorded by many different artists throughout the last century and into this one. On th...

In 1934 the Chick Webb orchestra was looking for a new singer. They hired a very young girl who had no big band singing experience. She developed into one of the greatest jazz singers in the world. On the show today I am going to be playing from a Mosaic records collection that feature all the recordings that Ella Fitzgerald made with the Chick Webb orchestra from 1934 to 1941. This is a fabulous...

When a band records a song that was made popular by another band the second band is said to be covering that song by the first band. For example when Benny Goodman recorded Frenesi that is a cover since it was a hit by Artie Shaw. Covers were very common in the big band years and I pulled out several that I found in my collection. There were many more available but I think you'll find it interesti...

Will Bradley along with drummer Ray McKinley led a very exciting band from 1939 to 1942. The Bradley band became well known for boogie-woogie, particularly its hit record, "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" In 1942, McKinley departed to form his own band. Bradley hired trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelly Manne, but many members wound up in the military due to the draft, and the band dissolve...

April 29, 1899 was the birthday of the pianist, composer and big band leader Duke Ellington. I've gone back into the Big Band Bash vault and pulled out a program featuring other bands playing Duke's music in honor of his birthday. It is interesting to hear songs that Ellington composed played by other bands. I produced this program about six years ago and haven't listened to it since then. I hope...

This week's show is part two of the Time-Life Swing Era set, "The Postwar Years". We are winding down this great set as there are only a few more volumes in the series. On the show today we will be hearing the bands of Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Nat King Cole and others. After World War Two ended the big bands became less popular and vocalists seemed to gain in popular...

This week I am going back to another set in the Time Life series "The Swing Era". Today's show is called "The Postwar Years" and features songs from the years after World War II. There are only a couple more volumes in this set and the producers of the series stopped using individual years and lumped several years together. So today, we'll be hearing from the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Le...

One of the most popular songs from the 1940's was Sentimental Journey. The band that recorded it was Les Brown's and the vocalist was a young Doris Day. Doris recently celebrated her 96th birthday. In order to celebrate her birthday I referenced a box set that I have called "Doris Day 1947-1950". Included in this set are many of the recordings she made for Columbia records when she was starting ou...

The first song I ever heard Miss Peggy Lee sing with a big band was "Why Don't You Do Right" when I was back in college. I have been trying to do right ever since by listening to as much of her music as I could. I haven't produced a show on Peggy Lee so I wanted to go back and listen to some of those great recordings she made with Benny Goodman's band and on her own. She had a very long career so...

Our show this week is a look at bandleader Erskine Hawkins. He is mostly known as the composer of the hit Tuxedo Junction. But in addition to composing, he was a fine trumpet player and a well liked and respected bandleader. Some of the band's hits include Tippin' In, After Hours and Bicycle Bounce. His nickname was "The 20th Century Gabriel" which some of the music critics of the day did not like...

This week we are continuing with Big Bands Live Part 2. The music comes from a CD set called Big bands live. Each CD had 5 or 6 selections from different bands recorded live while they were appearing on location. I produced these two shows about nine years ago so if the introductions sound a little strange that's why. But introductions aside, there is some really nice recordings in this set and lu...