Big Band Bash

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...

Part three of Swing That Music has a lot of hits from the golden age of the big bands plus three songs that were unknown to me until I listened to this set. Billie Holliday was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra from March 1937 until February 1938. During this time she was not on any of the studio recordings made by the Basie band. It was a simple explanation - she was under contract to Brunswi...

This week I am going to continue with part two of Swing That Music. This four disc set was produced by music crtitc and writer Martin Williams for the Smithsonian Institute. Released in 1994, this set focused on the Big bands between the years of 1928 and 1950. Today we will be hearing from Benny Goodman, Harry James, Jack Teagarden, and Jimmy Dorsey to name a few of the bands. I hope when I am fi...

Throughout the years, The Smithsonian Institute has produce some great collections of Jazz and Big Band music. My first three sets were collections of Duke Ellington's music from the years of 1938, 1939, and 1940. The liner notes were very extension along with the nice packaging. While looking through the music library at the radio station, I came across a set that I haven't seen in a while. It wa...

This June 6th, 2017 is the anniversary of the invasion of Normandy better known as D-Day. It was a day that many American service men lost their lives. To pay tribute to those who served during that fateful time I would like to present some music from Glenn Miller and his Army Air-Force Orchestra. In order to get the timing right I've picked four numbers and two live radio remotes. Glenn's show wa...

This week on Part Two of our birthday salute to Artie Shaw, we pick up with his band from the mid 1940's. On the tribute I tried to pick out many of his hits. These were also chosen for Artie himself for a 5 disc set called "Self Portrait". May 23rd, 1910 is the birthday of the late Artie Shaw and I wanted to present those great sides of his as we learn about his career. These are the original rec...

When I was in the high school band, I played the clarinet. I first discovered the great music of Benny Goodman then a year or two later I discovered Artie Shaw. Artie's band was different than Benny's. I am not going to choose sides because I like them both. May 23rd, 1910 is the birthday of the late Artie Shaw and I wanted to present those great sides of his as we learn about his career. All the...

Frank Sinatra's second stint with a big band was with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Together, they recorded many of the classic songs of the big band era between the years of 1940 and 1942. Recently, I played saxophone in a big band that backed up a gentleman who put on a Frank Sinatra show. It was such fun playing many of the Sinatra classics. This prompted me to put together the show today as I re...

On the show this week we will be learning about and listening to the music of the late Larry Clinton. Larry was a trumpet player who was also a gifted arranger and composer. Along with vocalist Bea Wain his band was one of the most popular of the late 1930's. Some of his originals include, A Study in Brown, The Dopsy Doodle and My Reverie. Clinton's band was predominantly a recording group that al...

On the show today we continue with our birthday salutes this time it is to trumpeter Roy Eldridge. Roy was born on January 30th, 1911. Last time I featured music from Gene Krupa and since Roy was a member of Gene's band I've left those recordings for today's show. I also have some recordings when Roy was a member of Artie Shaw's band and to conclude the show a few songs released under his own name...

This week I would like to celebrate two Big Band stars who have a birthday in the month of January, Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge. Gene was born on January 15th and Roy was born on January 30th. Part one features the music of Gene Krupa and part two features Roy. Since Roy was a member of the Krupa band I have reserved those recordings for Part two. Gene's band recorded some of the Big Band era's bi...

Merry Christmas and Happy Hew Years to everyone. Welcome to my annual holiday edition of Big Band Bash. Today we are going to celebrate the season with a lot of songs from the 1940's. Interspersed between the music I will be reading from a set of scripts from the Associated Press called Stocking Stuffers. These were distributed to radio stations several years ago to be used as throw ins. Each Stoc...