Big Band Bash

The disappearance of Glenn Miller 75 years ago has been the subject of many theories over the years. We will take a look at some of the theories and listen to some more of those great sides recorded by Glenn and the Army Air Force orchestra. Also, I have a live radio program from July of 1944 which is a little different than his I Sustain The Wings series.  I hope you'll find something enjoyable in this second of two parts on The Disappearance of Glenn Miller. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

On December 15, 1944 Glenn Miller got into an airplane with the pilot and another passenger. He was headed to Paris to make arrangements for a Christmas Day concert and also to see about moving his Army Air Force Orchestra over there. The weather was not good when the plane took off. It was cold and foggy two conditions not suitable for air travel. The plane left at 2:00pm and the three air travelers were never seen again. Please join me for a look at the events and history of Major Glenn Miller's disappearance. I'll also be playing some of the recordings made by the AAF orchestra. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week is a continuation of our look at the career of the late Stan Kenton. Stan's birthday is December 15th, 1911 so this seemed like a good time to go back and listen to some of the many exciting recordings he made for Capitol Records in the 1940's. Since this Mosaic Records set has a very informative booklet, I tried to give the dates and arrangers for each song. The Big Band Bash puzzler is back this week. Also, I continued with and wound up the biography of Stan that I stated last week. I hope you enjoy this look at one of the greatest and most controversial of the big bands, Mr. Stan Kenton. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week on Big Band Bash I will be presenting a two part show on the music and career of the late Stan Kenton. Stan's birthday was on December 15th so I thought now would be a good time to listen to some of those great, early recordings he made for Capitol Records in the 1940's. The music on the show comes from an out of print Mosaic Records Company set called "The Complete Capitol Studio Recordings of Stan Kenton." It was an eight disc set presenting his music in chronological order. Stan was a very controversial band leader so I have divided his biography into two parts. I hope you enjoy the music this week from band leader Stan Kenton. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, I wanted to put together a show for that day as I have never produced a Thanksgiving show before. It turned out a little more difficult than I thought. I could only find one song in my collection that had the title "Thanksgiving". I'm not sure why there were not more results because there are songs written about other holidays. So not to be deterred I searched my collection for the word "Thanks" and found about a dozen songs. So to finish the show I added some songs about autumn. I also threw in some Thanksgiving trivia. I hope you enjoy the show and I want to wish each of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Song pluggers back in the 1920's used to promote songs from just about everyone trying to get their songs played whether they were good or bad. One composer who's songs were always good and made it into many Broadway shows was the late Jerome Kern.  Today's show features the music of Jerome Kern as played by many assorted big bands. We'll be hearing from many of your favorite bands as we learn a little bit about one of the greatest composers whose songs are part of the Great American Songbook, Jerome Kern. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Last week I started part 1 of a collection by Columbia Special Products called Great Vocalists of the Big Band Era. This is a six vinyl album set that I found in our station's record library. This set is no longer available but it had a lot of those nice songs from the 30's and 40's. These are the original recordings. This week we continue with part 2. I hope you enjoy the music in this set. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Great Vocalists of the Big Band Era is a 6 LP set that I found while combing through our record library. This set is no longer available but it has a lot a varied songs and artists in it so a few months back I started digitizing the albums. Digitizing is a process by which the vinyl albums are recorded into a computer and then cleaned up by removing noise and clicks and pops. For the most part they turned out pretty good so for the next two weeks we'll be listening to some of the songs from this set. Since this collection was produced by Columbia Special Products all of the songs come from Columbia records. I hope you enjoy this set of Big Band potpourri as we listen to some of The Great Vocalists of The Big Band Era part 1. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Hal McIntyre was an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. Glenn Miller heard him play and drafted him as a founding member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, where he played from 1937 to 1941. Miller encouraged McIntyre to start his own group and starting in 1941 he put together his band where they played many major ballrooms throughout the United States, and played overseas for troops during World War II. This was one of the first shows I produced for Big Band Bash. I redid this show with new selections for this episode. I hope you enjoy this look at the great bandleader and saxophonist, Hal McIntyre. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 support. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Hello everyone. I apologize for missing last week and for being a little late with this week's podcast. My mother fell ill two weeks ago and passed away earlier th is week. Since I haven't had much time to produce a new show, 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.blogspot.com

In 2011 I bought two 8 disc sets from the Mosaic Record Company. The first was dedicated to the Columbia sides of Benny Goodman which I presented a show on a few weeks ago. The second is what our show today is about. This disc set featured the classic Bluebird recordings of Artie Shaw. For all the vocal fan listeners I have to apologize as this set only focus on the instrumentals. But what a collection of instrumentals. We start from the year of 1938 and Artie's great recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" and continue from there. Many of the arrangements are by Artie himself or Jerry Gray. This is a great set that is, unfortunately, not for sale anymore. I hope you enjoy part 1 of " The Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions." Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

From the Big Band Bash archives comes this show that I did back in 2012. It is a little rough as I was still learning how to produce BBB. There were many great songs that premiered in 1937 and I picked out some of them on this show as well as some interesting things that was going on in the world at that time. Some of the songs on today's show include Goodnight My Love, Once In A While, It's Delovely, Where or When and Caravan. There is a wide variety of bands today and I hope you enjoy this look at songs and events from 1937. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Last week I started a two part birthday salute to the late Count Basie. This week I am going to continue with more early recordings from 1936 - 1939. In addition, I discovered that singer Jimmy Rushing, who was a member of Count Basie's band from 1935 - 1948, celebrates a birthday on August 26. So for the last half of the show we'll hear some of the recordings he made with the Basie band as well as learn about the career of the man they called Mr. Five by Five. So I hope you enjoy this birthday celebration of one of the greatest of all bandleaders Count Basie. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

August 21st is the birthday of pianist and bandleader William Basie better know as the Count. I checked to see if I had done a birthday salute to him in the past and surprisingly I had not. So I hope you'll tune in and listen to some early Basie recordings from 1936 and 1937 as we learn about the career of one of the greatest of Big Band Leaders, Count Basie. The early 1936 band that the Count led was in my opinion one of his most exciting. Some of the players in this band included Jo Jones, Herschel Evans, Lester Young, Walter Page. There is some great music in Part One and next week we will continue with more music from the Basie Band and also celebrate the birthday of Jimmy Rushing and play some of the sides he recorded with Count Basie. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Irving Berlin was one of the most prolific composers in the history of American popular song. Starting with Alexander's Ragtime Band he composed hundreds of songs that performers are still singing today. I have gone through my big band collection and pulled out many of his songs performed by various bands. I regret that I ran out of time and didn't get to play a few of my favorites. But we'll hear some of his big hits as well as learn about his early life. I hope you enjoy this look at the great composer Irving Berlin. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

June Christy passed away on June 21, 1990. Since I didn't have a chance to remember her passing at that time I would like to do that on the today's program. I titled the program today, "June Christy Revisited" because I have already dedicated a show to her in the past. I thought we would play a few of those great Kenton sides and a few songs from the forties that she recorded on her own. We'll also take a look at her career plus the Big Band Puzzler is back this week. Please join me as we remember the late June Christy on her passing. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week we will be listening to selections from a Mosaic Record Company set that I have called the Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions. This is part one of a show I did back in 2012 and repeated almost three years ago in 2019. These are all the instrumental recordings that Benny did for Columbia and the Okeh record label. Unfortunately the producers of this set omitted all the vocals. But there is some fantastic music by the Goodman band starting in 1939 when he switched to the Columbia label. If you are a Benny Goodman fan then I hope you enjoy these two programs. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

For a change of pace on this week's show, I'll be presenting a show I did about ten years ago called Big Band Alphabet. We'll be listening to song titles starting with the letter "A" and going to "Q" as I didn't have time to go all the way to "Z". It is a mixed and varied show and I hope I play a song or two from your favorite leaders from the Big Band era. I put together another show on our radio station that airs Saturday afternoons so sometimes I don't always have time to put together a new show for Big Band Bash. Thankfully I have the BBB vault to fall back on. This show is numbered #184 and currently we are on #449 so it is about ten years old. I hope you enjoy the Big Band Alphabet. Thanks so much for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com