Big Band Bash

Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 so to remember his birthday and to listen to some of his amazing music, I am repeating this show from 2013. There is lots of Ellington originals in this show as well as some information on his amazing life. I hope you will join me in celebrating the birthday of one of music's greatest composers, Duke Ellington. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandba...

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have produced their third series about World War Two called Masters of the Air. It is a nine part series about the pilots who flew the B-17 Bombers into Germany during WW2. There are several big band songs played throughout the series so I researched what songs were played and put together this show. There were only a couple of songs that I did not have so I don't th...

Copilot is the name of an artificial intelligence engine that is now included in Microsoft's Edge web browser. I posed this question to Copilot: could it pick out 16 songs from the 1930's and 1940's that were representative of the big bands of that era. After a couple minutes had gone by, Copilot displayed this list. It is a very interesting list and I had most of the songs in my collection and if...

Well, hello everyone and welcome to part four of our Glenn Miller Birthday salute. On today's show, as on the other three parts, we will be looking at the Band of the Allied Training Command. I have two radio remotes from the I Sustain the Wings series. That was a show of most patriotic music by the Army Air Force Orchestra. So I hope you will sit back and relax and listen to Glenn announce the nu...

Hello and welcome to this week's Big Band Bash. We are continuing our Glenn Miller Birthday Salute with a look at the Army Air Force Orchestra. Today's show features a live broadcast by that orchestra with Glenn doing the announcing. It is a great broadcast and is sure to stir up some patriotic feelings. Glenn was born on March 01, 1904 and it is his bands and orchestra we think of when we had so...

Hello everyone. I am a little late with this week's program. This week I am going to continue with our birthday salute to the late Glenn Miller. This is part two of a four part series I produced back in 2022. To celebrate Glenn's birthday that year I decided to put together a look at his Army Air Force Orchestra. The recordings come from a four disc set that I have in my collection. We will be lea...

Greetings everyone. March first is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. To celebrate his birthday, I am running a repeat of a four part series looking at Glenn's Army Air Force Orchestra. This comes from a four record set that i have in my collection. There is a lot of great songs in this set and I hope you enjoy the music. I apologize for being late. The radio statio where I work and produce Bi...

This past week we observed a leap day, February 29th. Born on February 29, 1904 was Jimmy Dorsey. To observe his birthday and pay tribute, I went through my cds and came across two that were recorded in the years of 1939 and 1940. There are some nice recordings in this set. I wanted to do something different rather than play all his hits which I have done on other programs. So we will learn about...

We wind up our celebration of Black History Month with a look at some of the many vocalists recording during the big band era. Some of the singers on the show today include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstein, Helen Humes and many more. I hope you enjoy this selection of the many talented African-American vocalists as we conclude Black History Month. Please visit this podcast at http:/...

Duke Ellington's band and music holds an important place among my musical heroes. I have been collecting records and cds by Ellington for many years. So I have decided to include him in our list of bands as we continue our celebration of Black History Month. I have narrowed our focus on Duke to the years of 1940 through 1941. This was a very productive period for Ellington and I am sure to play so...

We start our celebration of Black History Month with a look at the big band of Earl Fatha Hines. Earl was a very influential pianist in whose big band he had players such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Count Basie called him the greatest pianist in the world. He made a lot of recordings with small groups but we are going to focus in on his big band. I hope you enjoy this look at the career...

Well, this is week four and the last in the series The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw. These recordings were made in the years of 1944 and 1945 when Artie was living in California after his discharge from the US Navy. After these recordings were made, Artie signed with the MusicCraft label and never recorder for RCA again. There are some great recordings here as Artie liked to make r...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well, I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part three of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. We are now in Volume 5 which includes the period shortly before t...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part two of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. Some of the songs we will hear inclue Out of Nowhere, Day In, Day Ou...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. When RCA started it's Complete Bluebird reissues, I bought them from a record store that wasn't having much success selling them. They put them in the cutout bi...

Happy New Year to everyone as we welcome in the New Year. On the show today is a repeat of program I produced in 2016 called New Year's Radio Dance Party 1945-1946. The Armed Forces Radio Service gave a real treat to American troops still stationed around the world in the aftermath of World War II---live performances, by remote hookups from their respective New Year's Eve hotel and/or ballroom per...

Merry Christmas everyone. I am sorry that I am a little late in getting this weeks show posted. This is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011. There are a couple of segments on Christmas Eve of 1941. Also, I have the only radio remote from that date that I could locate which featured Glenn Miller's band. In addition I have some assorted big bands with holiday favorites. I hope everyone had a nice...

For the next few weeks, I am repeating a couple of shows that I produced almost ten years ago. This first one was called A 1940's Christmas. I tried to pick out as many songs from the Big Bands that were recorded during the 1940s as I could find. Today, there are lots of songs about Christmas but back in the forties there were not that many. I tried to put all of the forties Holiday songs in this...

Hello everyone. This episode of Big Band Bash is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011 where we paid tribute to the men and women who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Also, I pay tribute to Major Glenn Miller who dissappeared in the plane he was flying in across the English Channel on December 15, 1944. I always like to remember those events as they were very...

Hello everyone. This week concludes our salute to the late Tommy Dorsey. We will be looking at his career and music from about 1939 to 1956 when he passed away. We will be listening to a lot of the Sinatra - Dorsey classics from that era. He really didn't have many hits after 1946 when many bandleaders disbanded, the result of effects from World War 2. So I hope you enjoy this tribute to the late...

Hello everyone. November 19, 1905 is the birthday of the late bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey. He also passed away on November 26, 1956. Since both these date occur in the month of November, I though I would like to revisit the music and career of the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, Tommy Dorsey. I decided to play many of the classic Dorsey hits so I hope some of your favorites are on today...

Well, we're down to the last part of this series highlighting songs composed during the 1930's. We are highlighting the years of 1938 and 1939. There were some nice songs composed in these years and unfortunately I had to omit a few as there were more songs than I could fit in the amount of time. I have enjoyed researching and choosing songs for this series. As always, thank you for listening and...

There were some fantastic songs composed in the years of 1936 and 1937. Composers Gershwin, Rogers, Kern and Duke wrote many hit songs that are still being played today. Benny Goodman's big hit Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded in 1937 and I have included both parts. There was one song I didn't have time for but I only found one big band version. Someday My Prince Will Come is a popular jazz standard...

The 1930's was a time in popular music that saw many changes. Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. In the 1930s, swing jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music. Today, we focus on the years of 1934 and 1935. The number of hit songs from these two years had dwindled down in part beca...

The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. This is part 2 in the series as we examine those catchy songs from 1932 and 1933. The Great Depression was gathering momentum and it affected the song writers of Tin Pan Alley. The number of hit songs started to decrease as we'll see...