Big Band Bash

This week I am going back to the first of a couple of programs I produced several years ago. The music comes from a CD set called Big bands live. Each CD had five or six 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...

This week I'm continuing with a listener's request from a few months ago. He wanted me to do a few shows on some of the Big Band arrangers. A few months ago I did a show on Sy Oliver and today we are focusing on Eddie Sauter. Eddie wrote some fantastic arrangements for Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Ray McKinley and a few others. Sometimes Eddie's arrangements were too sophisticated and Benny would al...

On February 11, 2018 Vic Damone passed away. Vic was one of the great vocalists from the late 1940's on who sang songs from the great American Songbook. To remember Vic on the show today, I thought I would play some of his early hit records and then a few songs from a live performance at Basin Street East which was in New York City. The great vocalists are quickly passing away but at least we can...

In all the time I have been producing Big Band Bash, I have never done a program on the late Mary Lou Williams. It is always a challenge coming up with ideas for new programs. I try not to repeat myself so it was surprising to me that I had never done a program on Mary Lou. She was an exceptional pianist, arranger and composer. I learned a lot about her career and hope you will enjoy this look at...

This week I am following up with Part 2 of the Time-Life series, "The Swing Era", with the second half from the years of 1944-1945. I had so much fun tracking down the originals in this series. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings and following along with the playlist from this set. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Go...

This week we return to the Time-Life series, "The Swing Era", with the volume from the years of 1944-1945. These were still the war years but there were still some great recordings made. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Les Brown and more. There are a few more...

George Gershwin has always been one of my favorite composers. I thought it would be fun to learn about his career as we listen to different bands playing his music. Some of the bands we'll be hearing include Artie Shaw, Benny Carter, Larry Clinton, Stan Kenton and Jimmy Dorsey. I hope you enjoy this look at one of America's great composers, George Gershwin. Please visit this podcast at http://bigb...

As we begin the new year, I would like to honor a listener's request. He asked me to do a couple of shows on the big band arrangers. So today we are going to be listening to some of those fantastic arrangments by Sy Oliver. During the Big band era, Sy spent his career with two bands, Jimmie Lunceford and Tommy Dorsey. I decided to play a lot of the hits of Sy's from those two bands. So we start to...

Well, the New Year is upon us. Every year for the past several years I have usually played a special big band show called 1945 - 1946 New Year's Dancing Party. I ran this last year and it is still available. I didn't want to run this again so I am going to repeat a show from 2014. Back in November, Hoagy Carmichael had a birthday. Since there were other things going on, I missed doing a show on hi...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone. Welcome to Part 2 of my 1940's Christmas Traditions show. Last time in between the music I read some holiday traditions started in the 1940's. On the show today, I am going to be reading some Stocking Stuffers from the Associated Press. Stocking Stuffers is a series produced by the Associated Press that consists of about 50 segments on various holiday...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. This is part one of a program I call 1940's Christmas Traditions Part 1. Many of the ways we celebrate Christmas were started in the 1940's so I thought it would be interesting to learn how some of these traditions started. I am going to start the show with a segment from Franklyn D. Roosevelt's 1940 lighting of the Christmas tree speech and then we'll...

December 15th is the birthday of the late Stan Kenton and it has been awhile since I presented a program on Stan and his band so I wanted to go back and revisit his music again. As a musician it was his band from the 1950's that I enjoyed listening to the most. However, on today's show I'm going back to those great Kenton classics from the 1940's. I have really come to enjoy the vocals of Anita O'...

Born on November 2, 1908, this trumpeter, despite the brevity of his career and his all-too-short life, remains one of the most compelling trumpet players in the history of music. Do you know who it is? If I said his initials were BB and his first name was not Bix then you would say I was speaking of the great Bunny Berigan. Today we pay a birthday salute to one of the most exciting trumpet player...

This week wraps up our look at the songs that were the hits from the 1940's as played on the radio show, Your Hit Parade. Today's show will feature songs from the years of 1948 and 1949. All the songs on this series came from a 10 CD set which, unfortunately, is no longer available. I have some new shows coming in the weeks ahead so I hope you'll keep downloading and tuning in. Thanks so much for...

Welcome to part four of my five part series on the radio program Your Hit Parade. I am back to my old self so this week's show is one that I have rerecorded. Back in 2009, I produced the original series from a ten CD set that featured songs from Your Hit Parade. In the set, each CD was devoted to a particular year and there were more songs than I could play in an hour. Today's show features songs...

This week I am going to continue with more music that was featured on Your Hit Parade during the years of 1944 and 1945. I am still a little under the weather so I am going back to the Big Band Bash vaults to pull out the original program in this series. I recorded a little introduction which you'll hear where I explain that this was originally aired in 2009. The theme is a little slower - it was...

We continue with our look at the songs that were being played on Your Hit Parade during the years of 1942 and 1943. I apologize for the way my voice sounds on the introduction. I had prerecorded all the other spots and just needed to record the intro. Yesterday, I came down with a bad cold and woke up this morning sounding like a bull frog. Rather than substitute in a rerun I elected to record a s...

A few years ago I did a series of programs on the radio show Your Hit Parade. The songs came from a ten CD set that I have. Each CD features the songs from a certain year that were featured on Your Hit Parade. There were more songs on the CD than I could play in an hour show so I have decided to revisit this set and pick out different songs. Each show combines two years so today's show will featur...

She was one of the greatest singers of the big band era. She sang with three of the most popular big bands. Her name is Helen Forrest and she was born on April 12, 1917. I missed her birthday back in April so today we are going to be listening to some of the many sides that Helen recorded with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. When she left the James band Helen went on to a very successf...

We lost another Big Band leader a few weeks ago. Larry Elgart was 95 when he passed away at his home in Florida. Larry, who led a big band with his brother, was a fine alto saxophonist and composer. He had a big hit in 1982 with a medley of big band hits set to a disco beat. It was called Hooked On Swing, a companion piece to Hooked on Classics. I'll be playing one of these selections at the close...

This week I'm going to step into the vault of past shows to pull out an encore presentation of Big Band Bash. This show was one I produced back in 2015 and was a birthday salute to the late Bob Eberly one of the greatest of the big band vocalists. Although he recorded some songs under his own name, all the songs on our show today feature Bob when he was a member of Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra. There...

This week on the program, we will be paying a tribute to the late vocalist Bea Wain who passed away August 19th at 100 years of age. She spent most of her big band years with Larry Clinton and his orchestra so I have several of those recordings on the show. I was planning to do a 100th birthday salute when I discovered she was still living but by the time I got the how produced she had passed away...

Today's show is kind of a nostalgic program for me. The first time I heard a live big band was when the Glenn Miller Orchestra played at a local high school. I was just a high school senior but I was interested in the big bands so I bought a ticket. I don't think I was supposed to be taping the performance but no one said anything so I stood off to the side of the bandstand and took in the sights...

Well, we have come to the end of our look at the music in the Smithsonian Institution's 4-CD set "Swing That Music". On the show today we will be listening to some of the music from the latter half of the 1940's. We will be hearing such artists as Boyd Raeburn, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, and Woody Herman. I have really enjoyed picking out the music for these programs the last 5 weeks and hope...

This week on Big Band Bash, I am continuing with music from the CD box set "Swing That Music." This is a great set which, unfortunately, is no longer available. I have to acknowledge a mistake that I have made on the previous three parts. A listener pointed out that I have been calling the producers of the set the Smithsonian Institute when, in fact, their correct name is the Smithsonian Instituti...