Big Band Bash

Last week on Big Band Bash, I started a two part series from a set from Smithsonian Collections called Big Band Jazz: From the Beginnings to the Fifties. This was a six vinyl album set or a 4 CD set produced by jazz critics and historians Martin Williams and Gunther Schuller. It is not available anymore which is why I wanted to play some of the recordings from this set. Today we will continue with music from CDs three and four. This is a varied show so I hope I play something by one of your favorites. Also, the Big Band Bash Puzzler is back. I hope you'll tune in or download the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Today we start a two part series that was put together from Smithsonian Collections. This set is no longer available but it is called Big Band Jazz: From the Beginnings to the Fifties. It was originally released as a six vinyl album set and then re-released on 4 CDs. In 1973, Smithsonian Collections released "The History of Classic Jazz". Compiled by jazz essayist and historian Martin Williams, the album featured tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz. But there was a flaw in this set, there wasn't any big band recordings. So to fix this, another set was released compiled by Martin Williams and Gunther Schuller that featured the Big Bands. This week I'll be playing selections from CDs one and two. There is some great music in this set and I hope you enjoy the selections. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This episode of Big Band Bash comes from the BBB vault. Originally produced and broadcast in 2014, this show was a tribute to the late Trigger Alpert who had passed away in Dec 2013. Trigger was an outstanding bassist who played with the Glenn Miller civilian orchestra as well as the Army Air Force Orchestra. Since Trigger did not record much under his own name, I have brought together many of the songs he was listed on when he was a member of Glenn Miller's band. I hope to have some new shows in a couple of weeks but until then I hope you enjoy this encore presentation of Big Band Bash. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This coming Thursday is the Fourth of July which for us in the United States is celebrated as a day of independence. I don't have a lot of patriotic songs in my collection that I haven't presented at one time or another. So to celebrate July 4th I thought I would present some radio programs that Major Glenn Miller was in charge of. They are called "I Sustain The Wings" and were broadcast in 1944 in the latter part of World War II. The first two are about 15 minutes in length and the last one is about 26 minutes. There are some Miller favorites in the mix and Glenn, himself, does the announcing. I hope you have a safe and happy July 4th this Thursday as we celebrate Independence day. I even threw in a few facts about why we celebrate independence on July 4th. I hope you enjoy the music. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

I am a great fan of the songs and music that comprise the Great American Songbook and I hope you, the listeners, are too. Rodgers, Kern, Berlin, Mercer, Ellington and Porter wrote some of the most endearing songs that make me want to hear them time and again. About a year ago I did a show called the Big Bands play Richard Rodgers. On the show today I have pulled out some of those classic melodies written by Cole Porter. He led a very interesting life and composed some timeless songs until tragedy struck. I'll tell you a little bit about his life as we listen to different big bands play his music. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Duke Ellington is one of my favorite composers, bandleaders and jazz icons. I have been collecting Ellington music for a long while first on vinyl albums then on cd's and now mp3s. Since I have a pretty extensive collection I can share his music with my listeners. Duke passed away on May 24th 1974 so I am a few weeks late with this program. I always like to remember Duke either on his birthday or on the day of his passing. To remember Duke I picked the year of 1940 to focus on. It was a very creative period for Duke as he composed and recorded quite a few of his hits. I hope you enjoy the music of Duke Ellington from the year of 1940 as we remember him on the anniversary of his passing. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

For part two of our Doris Day tribute, I am going to wind up with some of the great Les Brown recordings and then play a few of her own recordings and then wind up with a radio remote from 09-20-1945 on the One Night Stand program. It is a program featuring Les Brown with Doris Day on the vocals. Doris is featured on two or three numbers and Brown band is in top form. I didn't do much announcing on this show since on last week's show I did a lot while talking about Doris' career. The Big Band Bash puzzler is back this week but I think it is an easy one. I hope you'll tune in as we present "We Remember Doris Part 2". Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Doris Day - whenever I hear her name I think of the many movies she starred in. But she was a very gifted vocalist whose first hits were made while she was a member of the Les Brown Orchestra. We lost Doris a few weeks ago, she was 97 years old. But thankfully we have the many recordings she made throughout her career. On this program, part one of two, I'll be featuring many of the songs that Doris recorded with the Band of Renown. We'll also take a look at her career from her youth in Cincinnati,Ohio up to her last roles. I hope you'll join me as we listen to those great recordings she made as we remember the late Doris Day. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. In 1941, the Mutual Radio Network had the idea of broadcasting Swing Bands remotely from various halls around the country. Coca Cola was sold on the idea, and the first edition of Spotlight Bands was broadcast just days before Pearl Harbor. Patriotism is front and center and the music is hot! And it was on Spotlight Bands/Victory Parade. Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Les Brown, Ted Fio Rito, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong and many others lent their talents to the program. On today's show we present three band remotes: Les Brown, Gene Krupa, and Charlie Spivak. Note that on the Les Brown remote Doris Day is the vocalist. I hope you enjoy the music from the war years as we celebrate Memorial Day 2019. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This is a show that I produced shortly after the passing of Patty Andrews and Paul Tanner. Paul was the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra at the time of his death. Patty was of the singing Andrews Sisters. I pulled this show out of the Big Band Bash archives as I did not have time to produce a new show for this week. This show contains a radio remote featuring the Andrews Sisters with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. There is some great music in this show and I hope you enjoy it. I will try to have a new program for the next show. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 recording bans and out of this the vocalists became very popular. Also, because of gas rationing the bands didn't get to tour as much. I hope you enjoy the selections on the show from the years of 1940 to 1945. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 of the songs that inspired us during the war years. I will have a new program in a couple of weeks. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 career and listening to many of his hit songs on the program today. If you are a fan of the Great American Songbook then you are sure to enjoy this show. Thank you for listening. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 couple of numbers by each leader. Also, the Big Band Puzzler is back with another question to test your knowledge of the big band era. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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. Russ Morgan was an American big band leader and arranger during the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of the composers of "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You" We will take a look at both of the bands and careers on this week's Big Band Bash. I hope you enjoy this look at two great bandleaders from the swing era. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 New York's famous Roseland Ballroom. However tragedy struck in 1950 when he suffered a cerebral stroke which left him partially paralyzed and unable to perform. Randy was married to fellow bandleader Ina Ray Hutton who led an all female big band. On the show today I divided it into two parts. The first half has music by the band of Randy Brooks and the second half has some recordings by the band of Ina Ray Hutton. I hope you enjoy this look at two great bandleaders from the swing era. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 first bandleaders to have an African-American vocalist in his band. Jan Garber had a sweet band but changed styles during World War II to a swing band. That lasted about three years when he disbanded and went back to his original style of music. Jan Savitt was very populat but died suddenly in 1948 of a brain hemorrhage. I hope you enjoy this look at two different bands from the swing era that were both led by two violin playing leaders with a first name of Jan. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 became a singer with bands led by Randy Brooks, Art Mooney, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Barnet, and Claude Thornhill. It was Eckstine who gave her the stage name of Fran Warren. With Charlie Barnet, she replaced Kay Starr as featured vocalist. In 1947, she made the charts for the first time, with the Thornhill band's recording of "A Sunday Kind Of Love" on Columbia Records. This show was produced in 2013 shortly after Fran passed away. Since we just passed March 4th I thought I would like to listen to some of those great recordings she made with Claude Thornhill. I hope you enjoy this rememberance of the late Fran Warren.

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 eventually hired. I hope you enjoy the show as we have some recordings, interview segments and a couple of airchecks. Happy 100th birthday Louise. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

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 show for our local NPR station I had access to some of their snippets. So the first cut is a five minute snippet from last year and later on I have a longer cut that features the concerts climax Sing, Sing, Sing. There is some exciting listening ahead on this week's Big Band Bash. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com