Big Band Bash

This week's show is part 6 of my revisited series. We are going to revisit the music of the late pianist and composer Claude Thornhill. His band was not as driving or swinging as some of the others but he produced some beautiful songs that are some of my favorites from that era. August 10 is also Claude's birthday so most of this show is from a birthday salute I did for Claude several years ago. I...

The Revisited series continues this week with part 5 featuring music from the band of Bob Crosby and the Bobcats. Bob was the younger brother of Bing Crosby and a fine vocalist in his own right. But he became a band leader when he was picked to lead members of the disbanded Ben Pollack orchestra. He was the front man and saxophonist Gil Rodin was the man who ran the band. They had quite a few hits...

The Revisited series continues this week with a look back at the music and career of Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra. He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" (1939) with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson. The song became a hit during World War II, rising to No. 7 nationally (version by the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra) and to No. 1 nationally (version by the Glen...

The Revisited series continues this week with a look back at the music and career of Glenn Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. As an orchestra they predated Benny Goodman and the start of the swing era. They had some excellent musicians and had a few big hits in the 30's and 40's. I'll be playing some of these numbers as we look back at the career of the Casa Loma Orchestra. Please visit this podcas...

This week I am continuing with part two of a ten week series I call Revisited. I am going to revisit some bands from the 30's and 40's that I enjoy and that were not the Number One bands at that time. I started the series with a look at Will Bradley's band and this week we will look at the music and career of Larry Clinton. Larry had a very good band and wrote a couple of hits for other bands name...

This show is a repeat of the show I produced last year. Here is the copy from that show and I hope you enjoy the program as we celebrate Independance Day here in America. July the 4th is an important day for us here in the United States.  We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. I trie...

In looking back over some of the programs I have done in the past, I decided to revisit about 10 of the lesser bands. Today I am going to revisit the Will Bradley-Ray Mckinley Orchestra.  They had a hit with Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar and produced several other boogie woogie numbers. We'll take a look at the career of Will Bradley on the show. The Puzzler is back too. I hope you enjoy revisiti...

This week I am going to continue our observance on June 6th 1944 by playing the songs that were in the number one spot in the United States during the years of 1944 and 1945. These were the songs that reached number one in the jukeboxes or on the radio. There is a wide variety of artists on this program and I hope your favorites are among them. In honor of all the men and women who fought and were...

June 6, 1944 was an important day in the history of World War 2.  It was called D-Day because it marked the invasion of Normandy, France. Since we just passed June 6th, I thought I would revisit  some of the music from 1942 - 1945. I did a little research and took note of all the songs that were in the number one spot either on the jukeboxes or the airways (radio). Today we will be listening to nu...

May 25, 1917 is the birthday of another big band clarinetist. His name is Jimmy Hamilton. Jimmy achieved his greatest fame as clarinetist with Duke Ellington for 25 years. I have picked out about six songs from a few cds in my collection that Jimmy plays on. They are a little longer in length but you will still get an idea of what a fantastic musician Jimmy was. Our last clarinetist is from a late...

May 16, 1913 is the birthday of another big band clarinetist. His name is Woody Herman. I would like to celebrate Woody's birthday by presenting two radio remotes. One is from 1945 at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City New Jersey and the other is from 1940 recorded at the Famous Door on Fifty Second Street in New Your City. The 1945 remote has a few vocals by Frances Wayne and Woody has a few vocals...

On part-two of our May clarinetists birthday celebrations, we pay a birthday salute to Artie Shaw who was born on May 23, 1910. I have done birthday shows for Artie in the past and you can find them in older podcasts, but today's show is a little different. I have a three disc set of all the numbers that Artie did while he was on the Melody and Madness show. I have picked out several of those numb...

In the month of May, several jazz and big band clarinetists were born. Here are some that I know of: Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Jimmy Hamilton, Edmond Hall, and Ken Peplowski, who is still with us. So as I usually do, I will be presenting music by these great players and band leaders. Our first birthday celebration is for Benny Goodman. He was born May 30, 1909. I thought it would be...

There were a couple of big bands in the 1940's there weren't satisfied with the typical big band sound. One was Stan Kenton and the other is the subject of our program today. Boyd Raeburn started with a dance orchestra but became dissatisfied and hired arrangers to create some non-typical big band sounds.  Now a days they sound fine but back then his band played some wild and exciting music. We'll...

Duke Ellington was born on April 29th, 1899. This week we celebrate Duke's birthday by playing some of his hits from a four disc set called The Essential Duke Ellington.  Also, instead of telling his biography again I elected to disclose some trivia about Duke and read from an article about Why Duke Ellington is Famous. If you are an Ellington fan as I am then you are sure to enjoy this show. Than...

I call this program A Salute to Doc Severinsen. It is my salute after viewing the PBS Special Never Too Late: The Doc Severinsen Story.  Doc is a first class trumpet player who has played in many big bands throughout his career in addition to leading The Tonight Show big band for 25 years. I have picked out a couple of songs from the many Severinsen albums in my collection and we'll also hear a fe...

This is a show that I produced several years ago. It is on bandleader and record label owner Enoch Light. Enoch started a few record labels during his career as well as lead a sweet band in the 1940's. He started the Command record label as well as one called Project 3. He produced a wonderful set of  big band recreations with many of the original musicians taking part. We will be listening to man...

Bill Savory was a noted sound engineer who enjoyed jazz and swing. He recorded many bands off the air and kept them for his own enjoyment. After he passed, his son contacted The National Jazz Museum of Harlem to see if they were interested in the recordings. They also licensed some of them to Mosaic Records who created a six disc set of these never heard before treasures. I bought the set so today...

There is a new movie out called The United States versus Billie Holiday. It is getting very good reviews so that prompted me to do a show on her life and music. In the 500 plus shows of Big band Bash I have done I have never produced one on Billie Holiday. Starting with some of her early recordings with Teddy Wilson, I have tried to play many of her hits. I hope you enjoy this look at the life and...

To celebrate the beginning of Spring and to play some songs that might be associated with the Spring season, I have put together a show in which all the song titles have the word Tree in it. I wondered how many I could find and as it turns out there was enough for a whole show.  There are lots of different bands on the show today and lots of different songs. But a common thread tying each song tog...

This is part three of my Black History Month Celebration. As in the other parts, I have chosen about eight bands or singers and played two songs from each of them. It has been a labor of love choosing the different bands and then trying to decide which songs to play. I decided to change up the Big Band Bash puzzler this week. Instead of a question on bands I decided to wrap up Black history month...

This past week in Texas saw some of the worst weather that we ever experienced. I was snowed in until Sunday and ths was unable to produce a new Big Band Bash. I have pulled out a show that I ran about five years ago until I can produce a new show. This is one on Duke Ellington as we continue our Black History Month Celebration. I apologize for the disruption but it could not be helped. I hope you...

Our Black History Month Celebration continues this month with eight different bandleaders, small groups, and vocalists. To recap my plan,this year I decided to do a potpourri of bands on each show. I found that if I do eight bands per show with two songs by each band that I could cover twenty four bands in three shows. With some interesting facts thrown in between bands, we will get to hear and le...

The month of February begins the start of Black History Month. This year I decided to do a potpourri of bands on each show. I found that if I do eight bands per show with two songs by each band that I could cover twenty four bands in three shows. With some interesting facts thrown in between bands, we will get to hear and learn about these great African-American bands. I hope you'll tune in for pa...

January 20, 1921 is the birthday of big band vocalist Connie Haines. Since this is the 100th anniversary of her birth I would like to pay her a birthday salute by playing some of those great big band sides she recorded with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. We'll also take a look at her career. I hope you enjoy this look at the career of Connie Haines as we celebrate her 100th birthday. Please visit t...