Big Band Bash

On Big Band Bash this week we will continue with part 2 of the "Music of World War 2". Some of the artists we'll be hearing from today are Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Kay Kyser, Nat King Cole, Freddy Martin, Jimmy Dorsey, and Charlie Spivak. These were the songs that our men in the service were listening to as they headed into battle. World War 2 changed the big bands. During this time there were r...

A few months ago I had a request to do a program on the music of World War II. I did a program on this several years ago so I went into the Big Band Bash vault and pulled out this two part program. Produced in 2011, this program has some great songs from the years of 1940 to 1945. This was before I started the Big Band puzzler so that will be back soon. I hope you enjoy this nostalgic look at some...

Jimmy McHugh was an American composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is credited with over 500 songs. One of the most important songwriting partners McHugh had was lyricist Dorothy Fields, with whom he wrote "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" (1928), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), and "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935). We will be taking a look at...

The Bandleaders from the swing era led an exciting life or so I thought. Living their lives on the road was a perilous existence. Some died in car crashes while other developed illnesses while they were still young. Today's program focuses on bandleaders who passed from the scene much too soon. We'll be learning about Hal Kemp, Bennie Moten, Jan Savitt, Bunny Berigan, and others as we play a coupl...

Freddy Martin was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist. He led a band for many years in the 1930's but his real success came in 1941 with an arrangement from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb Minor. Martin recorded the piece instrumentally, but soon lyrics were put in and it was re-cut as "Tonight We Love" with Clyde Rogers' vocal – becoming his biggest hit. Ru...

Randy Brooks was a phenomenal musician. At the age of 12, he was the winner in a competition of 2000 young trumpet aspirants. Two years later, he was asked to join Rudy Vallee's popular radio show. There Randy dazzled audiences with his superb classical trumpet solos. His real fame began when he joined the world famous Les Brown orchestra. When he started his own band, he set a long-run record at...

Today's show is a look at two bandleaders from the swing era that were named Jan. Jan Garber was known as "The Idol of the Airwaves" in his heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, playing jazz in the vein of his contemporaries. Jan Savitt was known as "The Stokowski of Swing", from having played violin in Stokowski's orchestra, was an American bandleader, musical arranger, and violinist. He was one of the...

This week I am going to pay a tribute to the late Fran Warren. She was born and passed away on the same day, March 4th. She was born as Frances Wolfe to a Jewish family in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City. After some time on a chorus line at New York's Roxy Theater, she auditioned with the big band of Duke Ellington at age 16; though she never made it onto Ellington's band, she soon beca...

My thanks go out to listener Karl Wingruber for his suggestion to do a show on Louise Tobin since she turned 100 years old back in November. I tracked down as many of her recordings as I could find and had fun doing it. She sang with Benny Goodman in 1939 and also with Will Bradley and various other bands. While married to Harry James she brought Frank Sinatra to his attention whom James eventuall...

Every year at this time I like to play some of the recordings from the Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. This was an important concert because it was the first time a jazz or swing band appeared there. I have done shows in the past but the concert was a couple of hours long so I always had to leave some songs out. Today's show features some of the songs I left out. Since I prepared this sh...

David Goldin established Radio Yesteryear in 1965 as a mail order company offering tapes of classic radio broadcasts to collectors. In 1970, after much success in packaging these materials for release by other record labels, he created Radiola Records as the first label devoted to reissuing radio broadcasts. Radiola, and its sister label Sandy Hook Records, went on to issue more than 300 releases...

When Wally Heider the recording engineer, learned that the Big Bands had made recordings specifically for use on radio broadcast only-and that these recordings had never been commercially released-he made it his business to track them down. It took him years, as part of his quest included getting permission from the band leaders or their heirs to release the recordings, he finally amassed a superb...

One aspect of the big bands that we are going to explore on this week's show is the small groups. They could be any size from a trio to a sextet. Each band seemed to have a featured small band and some of them had colorful names. We'll be hearing from groups such as the Gramercy Five, the Clambake Seven, the Bobcats, the Woodchoppers and others. There is some great music on today's program and I h...

The year was 1973. I was starting my senior year of high school when I tuned into the nightly jazz program on a local AM radio station. The host had just anounced that jazz drummer Gene Krupa had passed away and that he would be playing Krupa recordings for his entire show in memory of Gene. Luckily, I had a tape recorder and I taped the show so I could listen to those great sides. That was my int...

Happy Holidays everyone as we continue this week with "A Fireside Big Band Christmas Part 2." As in Part One, I tried to present holiday songs from the 1930's and 40's. There are many of your holiday favorites on the show along with this week's Big Band Puzzler. So from all of us here at KTXK Radio in Texarkana, Texas I want to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please visit...

This week on the show, I invite you to come in out of the cold and pull up a seat next to me over here by the fireplace as we enjoy some 1940's holiday favorites. This is part one of a show I call A Fireside Big Band Christmas. I tried to play many of the holiday songs from the 1930's and 40's as I could find. Many of your favorite bands are on the show today as we get into the holiday season. And...

This week on Big Band Bash I'll be taking a look at many of the vocal groups that sang with the big bands and on their own. There were several popular groups back then and we'll be hearing from The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, The King Sisters, and The Pied Pipers. In addition to recordings, I'll be giving a short history of each group many of which are quite interesting. I...

This week's show is a special program that I've had in my collection for many years. I played it on Big Band Bash a long time ago and I thought I would play it again this week. I don't have the exact date on when this show was produced or aired but it is called "Sounds of the Swinging Years." It was hosted by Ronald Reagan a long time before he became president. He explains about the swing bands a...

This is the last part of my series on bandleaders who played the same instrument. Today we wind up with the trombonists and these were some of the most popular bands. We'll be hearing from Tommy Dorsey, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Buddy Morrow, Will Bradley and a few others. It is a good program with some toe-tapping music. I hope you enjoy this program especially if you are a fan of the trombon...

On Part Four of my series on band leaders who played the same instrument, I'll be looking at the trumpet playing band leaders. There were a lot of them so I'll be playing some recordings by some of the famous trumpeters in addition to the not so famous. Some of the band leaders will be hearing from include Harry James, Bunny Berigan, Charlie Spivak, Sunny Dunham, and Randy Brooks. If you are a fan...

This week's show is a continuation of the theme started two weeks ago. We are going to be listening to some of the Big Band Leaders who played the piano. There were many bandleader-musicians that were pianists and after I listened to this show I realized that I forgot to include Stan Kenton. I will try to include some of his music in a later show. Today's show is one that I put together back in 20...

This week on our program I am revisiting a series I did way back in 2011. I got the idea from a fellow big band broadcaster from North Carolina whose show I happened hear. His series was about a group of bandleaders who played the same instrument. Last time we heard some of the bandleaders who played the clarinet and today we will be exploring those leaders who played the saxophone. Some of the ba...

On our show this week, I am going back to the Big Band Bash vault to pull out a series of shows I did way back in 2011. Back then I produced a 5 part series grouping each show by the bandleader's instrument. Today we will be listening to the clarinet playing bandleaders. Then in the weeks to come, we'll be focusing on the trumpeters, the saxophonists, the pianists and finally the trombonists. Ther...

When Major Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel in December of 1944, his Army-Air Force Orchestra continued to perform. On the show today, I will be presenting the last two performances by that great orchestra. The first is the last program of "I Sustain The Wings" from October 1945 and the final performance is from November of 1945 before a live audience. Sgt. Jerry Gray is the condu...

This week I would like to focus on a bandleader and orchestra that was not as well known as others but still produced some great music. Andy Kirk led a fantastic band and his band was almost a twin of Jimmie Lunceford's band. Although he was the leader of the band, he did not solo but instead utilized the talent in his band for the spotlight instead. Featured on many of the recordings is the fanta...