Big Band Bash

On this week's show I would like to honor a request. A listener asked for some big band remotes that took place during World War 2. Most of the remotes I have during that era are from the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands program. I found four 15 miniute shows so on the program today we will be listening to the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Bob Chester, Benny Goodman, and Les Brown. Three of the shows ar...

This week we will be listening to and learning about two bands that I've never recently covered before: Bob Chester and Teddy Powell. This is a rebroadcast of a show I produced back in 2012. Bob had a great band that was heavily influenced by Glenn Miller. Teddy's band had a great start in New York but had trouble sustaining that popularity outside of the Northeast. These are the original recordin...

This week we take 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 podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.bl...

This is part two of the Time Life records set I started last week. These records were originally recorded in 1971 by Billy May and His Orchestra/Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra. Those were recreations featuring many of the musicians who were on the original recordings. Today's program features the music from the set of 1938-1939. I have this box set and thought that instead of hearing the recreati...

This is another volume in Time Life records ambitious project called "The Swing Era". It was a ten volume set with three records included in each volume. Today we turn to the years of 1938-1939. The songs were rerecorded by the bands of Billy May and Glen Gray. I have this set and thought that instead of hearing the recreations that it would be interesting to listen to the originals. So I'm borrow...

Hello everyone. This week is a continuation of the two part series I started last week on the Dorsey brothers. This was a show I produces several years ago and am rebroadcasting. There are many of your favorite Dorsey hits and the Puzzler is back. I am in the process of producing some new shows and hope to start presenting them next week. Until then, thank you for your continued listening and supp...

This week I have gone back into the collection and pulled out two shows that I did on Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. There is a lot a good music in these shows. We'll being this week with a look at Jimmy and follow next week with Tommy. I would like to dedicate these two shows to the memory of my mother, Evelyn Earlene Miller. I hope you enjoy the music. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm....

Welcome to the second part of our Glenn Miller birthday celebration. March 01, 1904 is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller and to celebrate I've picked out some recordings that ia a mixture of his songs. These are all live recordings and in addition we'll be listening to a radio remote recorded on May 17, 1939 at the Glen Island Casino. This is a great program of Glenn Miller music. Please visit...

March 01, 1904 is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. Join me on this program as we celebrate his birthday. I've picked out some recordings that are very pretty mixed with some of his hits. In addition we'll be listening to a radio remote recorded on March 26, 1939 at Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook Ballroom. This is a great program of Glenn Miller music. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandb...

We conclude our celebration of Black History Month this week with a look at the big band of Jimmie Lunceford. Jimmie Lunceford's band differed from other great bands of the time because it was better known for its ensemble than for its solo work. Additionally, he was known for using a two-beat rhythm, called the Lunceford two-beat, as opposed to the standard four-beat rhythm. We'll be playing many...

We wind up our celebration of Black History Month with some more assorted artists. The performers today are ones that I didn't get to on the previous shows. Some of the artists on the show today include Charlie Christian, John Kirby, Russell Procope, Buster Bailey, Charlie Shavers, Louis Armstrong, The Ink Spots, Benny Moten, and Chu Berry. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-A...

We continue our celebration of Black History Month this week with more assorted bands and vocalists. Some of the artists on the show today include Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Fatha Hines, Duke Ellington, Ivy Anderson, Roy Eldridge, Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Rushing, and Helen Humes. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-American Bands from the swing era. Please visit this pod...

We start our celebration of Black History Month this week. Rather than focus on any one band or bandleader I have put together a sampler of bands. We start with the band of Fletcher Henderson. Other bands heard today will be Andy Kirk, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb, Count Basie, and Erskine Hawkins. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-American Bands from the swing era....

January 16th 1938 is the date of the Benny Goodman concert at Carnegie Hall. This was the first concert given in the respectable concert venue by a swing band. We are very fortunate that the concert was recorded. Since the recording date was during the infancy of recording, the sound quality is not as good as today's recordings. The concert was originally issued in a two-LP gatefold album in 1950,...

Hello everyone. I have to correct myself. There were four parts to this series. So, this week we are going to conclude the series from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. Back in the 1960's and 70's Reader's Digest used to put out vinyl album sets on different topics. My parents had a couple in their record collection and we have some at the radio staion where I work. I was lucky t...

Hello everyone. This is part two of a program I did on the great bandleader, Les Brown. Les passed away January 4, 2001. Since we just passed the anniversary of his death I would like to play a program that I produced two years ago and feature those great les Brown recordings. I have included in the show snippets of an interview that Les gave in 1990 to Chris Neilsen. Chris is no longer with us bu...

As we return from the holidays, I want to feature the big band of Les Brown. Les passed away January 4, 2001. Since we just passed the anniversary of his death I would like to play a program that I produced two years ago and feature those great les Brown recordings. I have included in the show snippets of an interview that Les gave in 1990 to Chris Neilsen. Chris is no longer with us but when he w...

This week we pay a birthday salute to Martha Tilton who was born on November 14th, 1915. After singing with the quartet Three Hits and a Miss, she joined the Myer Alexander Chorus on Benny Goodman's radio show, Camel Caravan. Goodman hired Tilton as a vocalist with his band in August 1937. She was with Goodman in January 1938, when the band performed at Carnegie Hall. She continued to appear as Go...

Hello everyone. This week we are going to conclude the series from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. Back in the 1960's and 70's Reader's Digest used to put out vinyl album sets on different topics. My parents had a couple in their record collection and we have some at the radio staion where I work. I was lucky to come across this set as it has a wide variety of bands in it. I tr...

Hello. This week we are going to continue with more selections from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. I tried to put together a varied show full of your favorite bands. So join me as we bring back Memories of the Swing Era with this great multi-album set from Reader's Digest Records. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

I recently came across a set of records in a Box Set from Reader's Digest Records called Memories of the Swing Era. There were several compilation sets from Reader's Digest that were released and I am fortunate to have this one. So for the next few weeks, I have gone through and selected many of the recordings from this set to make three different shows. I tried to pick a wide enough variety of se...

This week I am returning to a program I produced a few years ago. It was a program to honor a listener's request. It had been awhile since I featured the singing of Anita O'Day so I put together this program of some of her early big band recordings. She achieved her first fame with the Gene Krupa orchestra and then went on to sing with Stan Kenton. Most of the recordings on the show today are thos...

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...

Greetings everyone. This week we conclude this series with part four of a potpourri show as I go through my collection by first names. I have quite a collection of bands so I hope you enjoy this assortment of bands and songs on the final part of 64 Assorted Songs. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Well hello everyone. This week we continue with part three of a potpourri show as I go through my collection by first names. I have quite a collection of bands so I hope you enjoy this assortment of bands and songs on part three of 64 Assorted Songs. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com