Big Band Bash

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...

Hello and welcome to another edition of Big Band Bash. Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to fans of the Big Bands. The show today is an encore presentation of Big Band Bash that I put together for Christmas 2011. The first half features songs of the season and the second half is about a very special Christmas Eve in America. The are a couple of clips telling about that special day and a 12 minu...

This week I've gone into my collection to pull out two radio remotes from Benny Goodman and his Orchestra. The first was recorded at the Congress Hotel in Chicago December 23, 1935 and the second was recorded December 22, 1937 at the Madhattan Room of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. We'll get to hear some vocals by Helen Ward plus lots of Goodman clarinet. I don't do much talking which mi...

This coming Wednesday, December 7th, is the 75th anniversary of the surprise attack and bombing of Pearl Harbor. We look back at this very important date in American history with some of the music from that time period. I couldn't find any playlists of music from that date so I elected to have a countdown of the top 16 songs from 1941. I am also going to interject some facts from that fateful day....

I'm back this week with a new program celebrating the birthday of vocalist June Christy. June achieved her first fame with the Stan Kenton Orchestra of the 1940's. She went on to a very successful solo career in the 1950's and 60's. All of the recordings today feature June with the Kenton orchestra. I hope you enjoy these great recordings as we celebrate the birthday (November 20th) of the late Ju...

This week we pay a tribute to Kay Starr who passed away on November 3rd at the age of 94. Ms. Starr, whose career began when she was a teenager and continued into her 80s, was a rarity: a singer who blossomed in the big-band era of the 1930s and 1940s, hit it big as a pop and country artist, and scored one of her biggest hits in the emerging rock scene of the mid-1950s. I'll be playing many of the...

On Part Four of the Dorsey Brothers we conclude the series with a live broadcast of the reunited brothers. The late 1940's was a hard time for the big bands with Tommy disbanding his band in 1946. But he couldn't stay away and was back with a new group. Jimmy gave up his band and the new group was billed as The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Jimmy Dorsey. They remained together until Tommy's dea...

On Part Three of the Dorsey Brothers we will turn our focus to the band of Tommy. When Tommy split from his brother Jimmy he took over the Joe Haymes orchestra. Molding it into the kind of band he wanted Tommy was soon recording many of his hit songs. I tried to pick out many of TD's hits and we will also learn about his career apart from Jimmy. In part four we will conclude the series with the re...

On this the second part of my four part series on the Dorsey Brothers we will be focusing on Jimmy's orchestra. Jimmy was the older of the two brothers and after Tommy walked out on their combined orchestra, Jimmy continued the band under his name. He had many hits during the swing era and we will be playing many of them today. His biggest hits featured vocalists Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell. Ne...

Today I am starting a four part series on the Dorsey Brothers, Tommy and Jimmy. Together and separately they recorded some of the biggest hits of the big band era. We will be starting with some of the early original recordings of the Dorsey Brothers orchestra. Then in part two, I will be focusing on Jimmy's orchestra. In part three we will look at Tommy's orchestra and in the final part we will lo...

We continue this week with a show I produced in the summer of 2015. This is Part 2 of Artie Shaw Revisted. There are a couple of more interview segments with Artie from the series "The Mystery of Artie Shaw". Most of the music in this show is from 1940 on. The Big Band puzzler is gone this week to make time for the interview segments. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Welcome to an encore presentation of a show I did in the Summer of 2015 on Artie Shaw. Here are the notes from that show: Artie Shaw has always been one of my favorite clarinetists. Since it has been a while since I did a program on Artie, I thought now is a good time. I have picked out many of Artie's hit records. In addition I'll be playing a few interview excerpts from the series "The Mystery o...

This week we continue our look at the arrangers. The arranger has a vast store of musical knowledge and uses it to take 15 to 20 musicians and create a musical masterpiece. They decide who plays when, what section is playing, who takes a solo and much more. Benny Goodman had a lot of the great arrangers working for him in the 1930's so I thought it would be interesting to focus on his band's hits...

This week we take a look at one of the most important members of the big bands - the arranger. The arranger has a vast store of musical knowledge and uses it to take 15 to 20 musicians and create a musical masterpiece. They decide who plays when, what section is playing, who takes a solo and much more. It is an art and we will take a look at some of the great arrangers and listen to some of their...

This week's program is an encore presentation of a show I did a couple of years ago. The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands was the Coca-Cola Company’s big band legacy and its contribution to the war effort. An outstanding collection of 25 of America’s most popular big bands broadcasting live from military bases and defense plants from coast-to-coast during World War II. This week we will listen to...