Big Band Bash

Well, this is week four and the last in the series The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw. These recordings were made in the years of 1944 and 1945 when Artie was living in California after his discharge from the US Navy. After these recordings were made, Artie signed with the MusicCraft label and never recorder for RCA again. There are some great recordings here as Artie liked to make r...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well, I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part three of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. We are now in Volume 5 which includes the period shortly before t...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part two of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. Some of the songs we will hear inclue Out of Nowhere, Day In, Day Ou...

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. When RCA started it's Complete Bluebird reissues, I bought them from a record store that wasn't having much success selling them. They put them in the cutout bi...

Happy New Year to everyone as we welcome in the New Year. On the show today is a repeat of program I produced in 2016 called New Year's Radio Dance Party 1945-1946. The Armed Forces Radio Service gave a real treat to American troops still stationed around the world in the aftermath of World War II---live performances, by remote hookups from their respective New Year's Eve hotel and/or ballroom per...

Merry Christmas everyone. I am sorry that I am a little late in getting this weeks show posted. This is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011. There are a couple of segments on Christmas Eve of 1941. Also, I have the only radio remote from that date that I could locate which featured Glenn Miller's band. In addition I have some assorted big bands with holiday favorites. I hope everyone had a nice...

For the next few weeks, I am repeating a couple of shows that I produced almost ten years ago. This first one was called A 1940's Christmas. I tried to pick out as many songs from the Big Bands that were recorded during the 1940s as I could find. Today, there are lots of songs about Christmas but back in the forties there were not that many. I tried to put all of the forties Holiday songs in this...

Hello everyone. This episode of Big Band Bash is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011 where we paid tribute to the men and women who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Also, I pay tribute to Major Glenn Miller who dissappeared in the plane he was flying in across the English Channel on December 15, 1944. I always like to remember those events as they were very...

Hello everyone. This week concludes our salute to the late Tommy Dorsey. We will be looking at his career and music from about 1939 to 1956 when he passed away. We will be listening to a lot of the Sinatra - Dorsey classics from that era. He really didn't have many hits after 1946 when many bandleaders disbanded, the result of effects from World War 2. So I hope you enjoy this tribute to the late...

Hello everyone. November 19, 1905 is the birthday of the late bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey. He also passed away on November 26, 1956. Since both these date occur in the month of November, I though I would like to revisit the music and career of the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, Tommy Dorsey. I decided to play many of the classic Dorsey hits so I hope some of your favorites are on today...

Well, we're down to the last part of this series highlighting songs composed during the 1930's. We are highlighting the years of 1938 and 1939. There were some nice songs composed in these years and unfortunately I had to omit a few as there were more songs than I could fit in the amount of time. I have enjoyed researching and choosing songs for this series. As always, thank you for listening and...

There were some fantastic songs composed in the years of 1936 and 1937. Composers Gershwin, Rogers, Kern and Duke wrote many hit songs that are still being played today. Benny Goodman's big hit Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded in 1937 and I have included both parts. There was one song I didn't have time for but I only found one big band version. Someday My Prince Will Come is a popular jazz standard...

The 1930's was a time in popular music that saw many changes. Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. In the 1930s, swing jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music. Today, we focus on the years of 1934 and 1935. The number of hit songs from these two years had dwindled down in part beca...

The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. This is part 2 in the series as we examine those catchy songs from 1932 and 1933. The Great Depression was gathering momentum and it affected the song writers of Tin Pan Alley. The number of hit songs started to decrease as we'll see...

The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. While putting this show together I tried to use recordings by bands that were not as popular as the ones who recorded the definitive version. On the show today we'll be listening to songs composed during the years of 1930 and 1931. Th...

It has been awhile since I presented a program on the late Stan Kenton so I wanted to go back and revisit some of 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'day and June Christy when they were the vocalis...

This week we will be celebrating the birthday of bandleader Bob Crosby. He was born on August 23, 1913 and led one of the most popular big bands during the dance band era. He had some very exciting sidemen in the band. Musicians like Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc, Eddie, Miller, Irving Fazola, and Yank Lawson were some of the people who passed through the band. Bob was not an instrumentalist but rather...

This week's show is a look at some of the Big Band Theme Songs. Just as today's television theme songs identify the show, a big band's theme song helped to identify the band that was on the radio. Some theme songs were originals and some were borrowed from others. We'll be hearing lots of theme songs today on our show so I hope some of these are your favorites. Please visit this podcast at http://...

August 24, 1904 is the birthday of the late bandleader William Count Basie. To celebrate his birthday, I have pulled out a program I produced back in 2013. I decided to focus on the year of 1939 and play many of the songs recorded by the Basie band during that year. I am a big fan of the Basie band as my father had a couple of his records and as I grew older I began to explore the history and reco...

Hello everyone. 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 four of these live radio remotes featuring the bands of Les Brown, B...

Hello everyone. I am working on some new shows that are not quite finished. So here is a show i produced back in 2013 and it features the vocal groups from the big band era. Some of the groups were solo acts and others sang as part of the band. Who could forget groups like the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, the Pied Pipers and the Modernaires? In addition, I tried to give a li...

Hello everyone. August 10, 1908 is the birthday of the late bandleader Claude Thornhill. It has been awhile since I have played some of the great recordings made by the Thornhill orchestra, so to remember Claude on his birthday here is a show I produced about ten years ago remembering Claude on his birthday. I had never heard of Claude when a fellow Big Band lover asked me if I had ever listened t...

Back during World War Two, it took a lot of money to produce the materials, grow the food and make all the things that the soldiers needed to use in combat. So to help raise money, the United States Government sold bonds. A simple example is that you bought a bond for $10 and waited until it matured and then the government would give you back $11. You made interest for loaning the government money...

Hello everyone. On July 21, 2023 the vocalist Tony Bennett passed away in his Manhattan apartment. He was 96 years old. Tony was a great singer and an interpreter of the Great American Songbook. He recorded in many genres and even made some recordings with big bands. On the program today, I would like to remember Tony with some of his early hits and some recordings with some big bands and some ass...

Hello everyone. Today's program features the great big band of Harry James. The selections were taken from various radio broadcasts between the years of 1943 and 1953. There are a lot of great performances in this set from the James band. I don't do much talking on the show as all the songs are introduced by the announcer present at the broadcasts. So sit back, and relax and enjoy the sound of Har...