Big Band Chronlogy (Nov 7 - 13)

Nov 7

• Trumpet and flugelhorn player Milton "Shorty" Rogers, 70, dies in LA, 1994. Rogers played with Will Bradley, Red Norvo, Woody Herman, and Stan Kenton. He was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz.
  

• Trumpeter Al Hirt was born in New Orleans. After the World War II, Hirt played for Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Ina Ray Hutton, and Horace Heidt.

Nov 8

• Singer Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer In Kansas City, 1927. She sang with Claude Thornhill, Stan Kenton, and Jerry Wald.

• Trombonist Keg Johnson, 58, died in Chicago 1967. Played with Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway.

• Glenn Miller records Fresh as a Daisey (v - Hutton, Lothrop, Beneke), Isn't That Just Like Love (v - Lathrop), Along the Santa Fe Trail (v - Eberle), and Do You Know Why (v - Eberle) 1940.
  

Band Roster

Trumpets: Billy May, Ray Anthony, Johnny Best, Dale McMickle
Trombones: Glenn Miller, Jimmy Priddy, Paul Tanner, Frank D'Annolfo
Reeds: Hal MIntyre (as), Ernie Caceres (as,bar,cl), Wilbur Schwartz (cl,as), Tex Beneke (ts), Al Klink (ts)
Rhythm: Chummy MacGregor (p), Jack Lathrop (g), Herman Trigger Albert (b), Maurice Purtill (d)

Nov 9

• Trumpeter and cornetist Francis Joseph Julian "Muggsy" Spanier was born in Chicago, 1906. Proponent of Dixieland.

Nov 10

• Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and arranger, Billy May was born in Pittsburgh 1913. May arranged Ray Noble's Cherokee for Charlie Barnet which became Barnet's biggest hit, and a key inspiration for bebop (Charlie Parker's Ko-ko is based on the changes in Cherokee). May rewrote the entire Barnet book from scratch after the original music burned in the Palomar Theatre fire in October 1939. May composed with Barnet the satirical chart The wrong Idea which lampooned sweet bands especially targeting Sammy Kay. In 1940, Glenn Miller hired May as an arranger and trumpet player. In the 50's May formed his own orchestra. May developed "slurping saxophones" sound--a glissando at the beginning of each phrase. He eventually sold the rights to the band and its book to Ray Anthony.
  

• Lionel Hampton records Midnight Sun, 1946
  
  Midnight Sun
  Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra
  
  

Nov 11

• Pianist, singer, and composer Hoagy Carmichael is born in Bloomington, In, 1899. He is best known for writing Stardust (1927), Georgia On My Mind, and Heart and Soul, three of the most-recorded American songs of all time.
  

• Claude Thornhill records a Sunday Kind of Love in 1946. Fran Warren is on vocals.

Nov 12

• Trumpet player and arranger, Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was born in Parsons, Ks, 1911. He played with Basie from 1937-1943.

• Alto saxophonist, Charlie Mariano was born in Boston, 1923. He played with San Kenton.

Nov 13

• Benny Goodman records Eddie Sauter's Benny Rides Again 1940. Other charts recorded in that session include Nobody, Henderson Stomp, and The Man I Love.

Band Roster

Trumpets: alec Fila, Jimmy Maxwell, Irving Goodman, Cootie Williams
Trombones:Lou MGarity, Re Gingler
Reeds: Benny Goodman (cl), Gus Bivona, Skippy Martin, Bob Snyder, Georgie Auld, Jack Henderson
Rhythm: Bernie Leighton or Fletcher Henderson (p), Mike Bryan (g), Artie Bernstein (b), Harry Jaeger (d)

• Bandleader and pianist Bennie Moten was born in Kansas City, 1894. In 1929 when Moten recruited Count Basie, Walter Page and Oran 'Hot Lips' Page for his band te Kansas City Orchestra.When Moten died in 1935 after a surgical procedure, the band unsuccessfully attempted to stay together. Then Basie formed a new band, which included many Moten alumni.
  

Norm Gluckman
Cedarville, New Jersey
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The Original Bands - In Stereo

Most of us who were born too late to have heard the original big bands in person have long ago become accustomed to the narrow sound of most 78s. We try to imagine what it must have sounded like to hear the music as it was meant to be. Processes such as CEDAR and other filtering techniques can do a lot to fill missing bits of the sound spectrum, but it's almost impossible to artificially take apart the old monaural sound tracks and put them back together as stereo.

It's not for want of trying - almost from the day that electrical sound transmission was developed, engineers tried to give some sort of depth to the process. Schemes ranged from banks of microphones and speakers to the primitive stereo LP's developed by Bell Labs in the early 1930s.

For a number of reasons none of these experiments ever became commercially viable. It took the great Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski to help create the first generally available stereo recording. He realized that even if stereo records weren't practical, movie film was. Nothing prevented adding another sound track, or even tracks, so long as the playback equipment was available. Optical film tracks were also able to capture a far wider frequency range than discs. As we all know, the result was the "Fantasound" system on which he and the Fabulous Philadelphians recorded the soundtrack to Walt Disney's groundbreaking Fantasia. But in spite of being as much of a technical leap as CDs were from vinyl, Fantasound was prohibitively expensive for all except the largest theatres.

Even though Fantasound didn't work out, both Fox and MGM realized that a simplified version of it could improve film sound quality at a lower cost. Instead of putting stereo playback equipment in every theatre, they made multi-track recordings on their sound stage. The sound engineers then replayed the master tracks as many times as needed to create an optimum mono mix that could be presented anywhere.

And that's where the big bands come in. Through a happy accident of history, Fox and MGM began stereo recording just about the same time that several top bands were appearing in full-length musicals. Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw all put their orchestras on the studios' multi-mike stages.

Moonlight Serenade/I Know Why (Stereo)
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Pat Friday, John Payne, and The Modernaires (Vocalists)
From Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
Twentieth-Century Fox
The Original Glenn Miller Orchestra In True Stereo
Viper's Nest VN-157 (1994)


The only problem for us some two-thirds of a century later is that the masters were thought of as intermediate steps that didn't necessarily have to be preserved so no one went out of their way to save them. But that neglect meant no one really went out of their way to destroy the masters either. Over the last couple of decades a tantalizing number of them have been found and restored. It's once again possible to hear at least a few examples of how those great bands sounded in full-dimensional, near-high fidelity.

Here are links to a few of the recordings available on George's site as well as YouTube. For the techies among us, MGM's system of track synchronization was far better than Fox's. You may hear bits of what's called "phase shift" in a couple of places on I Know Why, but that shouldn't detract from just how incredible it is to listen to the bands as they were meant to be heard.

Glenn Miller - Moonlight Serenade and I Know Why

Tommy Dorsey - Fascinatin' Rhythm
Here are three more songs that demonstrate big bands in stereo:

It Happened in Sun Valley
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra



Song of India
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra



Theme/Well, Git It!
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra

Jeff Karpinski
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
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Big Band Chronology (Oct 31 - Nov 6)

Oct 31

• Stardust was first recorded as an up-tempo instrumental by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927. The band which consisted of the Emil Seidel Orchestra and the Dorsey brothers appeared on the record label as Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals. In 1929, Mitchell Parish wrote the lyrics for the piece. Although a slow version of the song was recorded in 1928, it wasn't until Isham Jones recorded it on May 16, 1930 that it became a ballad.
  Stardust - performed by Glenn Miller, Spanky and Her Gang, and Bobby Byrne
  
  

Nov 2

• Trumpeter and bandleader, Bunny Berigan was born in Hilbert Wisconsin, 1908. In the early 1930's, he played with Fred Rich, FreddyMartin , Ben Selvin, Paul Whiteman, Abe Lyman, the Dorsey Brothers, and Glenn Miller's earliest recording dae. In 1935, Berigan joined Benny Goodman's orchestra, and was with Goodman at the Palomar Ballroom gig which is considered the start of the swing era. Berigan left Goodman to spend some time with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra; his solo on the Dorsey hit "Marie" became one of his signature performances.
  
  
  
  In 1937, Berigan assembled a band to record under his name, picking the then-little known Ira Gershwin/Vernon Duke composition I Can't Get Started. Berigan's business troubles drove him to declare bankruptcy in 1940 and re-join Tommy Dorsey for a brief period before leaving to form a new small group to play mostly one-night stands.
  

• Arranger and composer, Johnny Richards was born Juan Ricardo Cascales,in Querétaro, Mexico, 1911. He arranged for Stan Kenton in the 1950's. Richards composed the music for Young at Heart (1953) made famous by Frank Sinatra.
  

Nov 3

• Glenn Miller records String of Pearls, 1941. Other charts recorded in that session include Humpty Dumpty Heart (v Eberle), Ev'rything I Love (v Eberle), Day Dreaming (v Eberle and the Modernaires), Long Tall Mama and Baby Mine (v Eberle)
  

Band Roster:

Trumpets: Billy May, Alec Fila, Dale McMickle, Johnny Best
Trombones: Glenn Miller, Jimmy, Priddy, Paul Tanner, Frank, D'Annolfo
Reeds: Tex Beneke (lead as), Ernie Caceres (as, cl, bar), Wilbur Schwartz (cl, as), Irving Babe Russin (ts), Al Klinck (ts)
Rhythm: Chummy MacGregor (p), Bobby Hacket (g, cornet), Doc Goldberg (b), Maurice Purtill (d)

• Woody Herman debuts as a band leader at the Roseland in Brooklyn, 1936.

Nov 4

• Pianist Ralph Sutton was born in Hamburg, Missouri 1922. Played with Jack Teagarden.

Nov 5

• Frank Sinatra cuts I've Got a Crush on You wit Bobby Hacket, 1947

• Guy Lombardo, 75, dies 1977 ending 50 years of "the sweetest music this side if heaven."

• Glenn Miller has his first coast-to-coast radio broadcast (WJZ network line via WBZ over NBC) 1937.

• Glenn Miller records Indian Summer (v Eberle), 1939. Other charts recorded include It Was Written in the Stars (v Eberle) and Johnson Rag.

Band Roster

Trumpets: Clyde Hurley, Legh Knowles, Dale McMickle, Johnny Best
Trombones: Glenn Miller Al Mastren, Paul Tanner, Tommy Mack
Reeds: Hal McIntyre (as), Jimmy Abato (as, bar), Wilbur Schwartz (cl, as), Tex Beneke (ts), al Klink (ts)
Rhythm: Chummy MacGregor (p), Richard Fisher (g), Rowland Bunbock (b), Maurice Purtill (d)

Nov 6

• Woody Herman records first records with his new band Nov 6/11 1936. Charts recorded include Wintertime Dreams, The Goose Hangs High, Someone to Care for Me, I Can't Pretend, Now that Summer is Gone and Old Fashion Swing.
  

Band Roster

Trumpets: Clarence Willard, Kermit Simmons, Joe Bishop (Fluegelhorn)
Trombones: Neal Reid
Reeds: Woody Herman (cl, vocal), Jack ferrier, Deane Kinkaide, saxie Manfield, Bruce Wilkins
Strings: Nick Hupfer (v)
Ryhthm: Tommy Linehan (p), Oliver Mathewson (g), Walt Yoder (b), Frank Carlson (d)

Norm Gluckman
Cedarville, New Jersey
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Tuxedo Junction's Juke Box Pages

Juke Box Saturday Night
Larry O'Brien and The Glenn Miller Orchestra
with Nick Hilscher, Julia Rich, and The Moonlight Serenaders
In recent months, I have been building Juke Box Pages for our sister big band site, Tuxedo Junction. You'll now find nearly 50 of these Pages. Links to them appear in our sidebar on the left -- just scroll down. You'll also find them on these two Tuxedo Junction Pages:

Welcome Page - http://tuxjunction.net/welcome.htm

Juke Box Page - http://tuxjunction.net/jukebox.htm

Our Juke Box Pages allow you to play any song you wish. All you have to do is click the "Play" button. As you explore our Juke Box Pages, you'll find a variety of big bands and vocal groups -- and hundreds of songs!

Our Playlist Pages worked differently. Just sit back, relax, and listen to the songs play automatically, one after another. You'll find links to more than 60 Playlist Pages on this Page:

Playlist Pages - http://tuxjunction.net/playlistpages.htm

Finally, we have a separate Playlists Page on Tuxedo Junction that allows you to hear one Playlist after another. This Page has four FlashWidgetz Players each containing a variety of Playlists. Moreover, you'll find these four FlashWidgetz Players near the bottom of this page!

It will take you weeks, if not months, to listen to all of the music. Enjoy these pages when you can. Take your time! There is no hurry!

By the way, October 19th marked the ninth anniversary of Tuxedo Junction. I launched it because I knew from web surfing that there were many others on the Internet who shared my love of big band music, the Swing Era. Visitors to Tuxedo Junction come from all over the world. They live in more than 55 nations. I've met a few in person and have received emails from countless more who enjoy Tuxedo Junction and The Palomar.

Thank you for making our sites so popular!

George Spink
Moderator - The Palomar
Los Angeles, California
Email Me

Big Band Chronology (Oct 24 - 30)

Oct 24

• Trumpeter Edawad Farley and Mike Riley record their composition The Music Goes Round and Round, 1935. Lyrics were provided by Red Hodson. Tommy Dorsey recorded the hit in 1936. The song was later used that year in a the musical interlude for the Columbia movie "The Music Goes 'Round". The New York Times wrote: "If we really wanted to be nasty about it, we could say that this Farley-Riley sequence is the best thing in the new picture. At least it makes no pretense of being anything but a musical interlude dragged in by the scruff of its neck to illustrate the devastating effect upon the public of some anonymous young busybody's question about the workings of a three-valve horn."

• Double bassist Wendell Marshall was born in St. Louis, 1920. After World War II, Marshall played with Stuff Smith and Mercer Ellington. From 1948 to 1955, he played with Duke Ellington.

Oct 25

• Composer, bandleader, Bassist Chubby Jackson was born in New York City 1918. Jackson performed and/or recorded with Louis Armstrong, Raymond Scott, Jan Savitt, Henry Busse, Charlie Barnet, Oscar Pettiford, Charlie Ventura, Lionel Hampton, Bill Harris, Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan and others. He is perhaps best known for his spirited work both with the Herman bands, and as a leader of his own bands, big and small. Jackson composed Northwest Passage for Woody Herman.

• Tuba and bass player, violinist, and music educator Major Holley died in Maplewood, NJ, 1990. He played with Woody Herman and Ellington. Holley also taught at Berklee College of Music.

Oct 26

• Saxophonist and bandleader, Charlie Barnet was born in New York City, 1913. Although he began his recording career in October, 1933, Charlie Barnet was at the height of his popularity between 1939 and 1941, a period that began with his hit version of Cherokee, written by Ray Noble and arranged by Billy May. In 1944, Barnet had another big hit with Skyliner. In 1947, he started to switch from swing music to bebop. During his swing period his band included Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Neal Hefti, Lena Horne, Barney Kessel, Dodo Marmorosa, Oscar Pettiford, and Art House, while later versions of the band included Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen, and Clark Terry. Trumpeter Billy May was an arranger in the Charlie Barnet Orchestra before joining Glenn Miller in 1940. He was one of the first bandleaders to integrate his band; the year is variously given as 1935 or 1937. Barnet was an outspoken admirer of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. In 1939, Basie once lent Barnet his charts after Barnet's had been destroyed in a fire at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.
  
  
  
  Throughout his career he was an opponent of syrupy arrangements. In the song The Wrong Idea, he lampooned the "sweet" Big Band sound of the era.
  

• Adelaide Hall records Creole Love Call with Ellington, 1927.

Band Roster:

Trumpets: Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf
Trombones: Joe "Trick Sam" Nanton
Reeds: Rudy Jackson (ts, cl), Otto Hardwick (as), Harry Carney (bs)
Rhythm: Duke Ellington (p), Fred Guy (bjo), Billy taylor (b), Sonny Greer (d)
Vocals: Adelaide Hall

Oct 27

• Bandleader and saxophonist Boyd Raeburn was born in Faith, SD 1913. In the 30's the band started out as a traditional orchestra. In 1942, Raeburne started transforming the band into a jazz orchestra.

Oct 28

• Trombonist Bill Harris was born in Philadelphia 1916. Early in his career, Harris performed with Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Eddie Condon. He is renowned for his broad, thick tone and quick vibrato that remained for the duration of each tone. He went on to join Woody Herman's First Herd in 1944. He was also in the Four Brothers Second Herd during the late 1940s, and he worked with Herman again in the 1950s.

Oct 29

• Woody Herman passes away on October 29, 1987.

• Trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader Neal Hefti was born in Hastings, Nebraska, 1922. In 1942, Hefti played with Charlie Barnet for whom he wrote the classic arrangement of Skyliner. He played with Charlie Spivak in 1943. After playing with Horace Heidt in Los Angeles for a few months in 1944, Hefti met up with Woody Herman and joined the progressive First Herd band as a trumpeter. He composed and arranged some of First Herd's most popular recordings, including two of the band's finest instrumentals: Wild Root and The Good Earth. He also wrote band favorites such as Apple Honey, Blowin' Up a Storm, and a magnificent arrangement of Happiness is a Thing Called Joe that featured Frances Wayne on vocal.

October 30

• Woody Herman cuts first vocals with Isham Jones, 1935.

Norm Gluckman
Cedarville, New Jersey
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Big Band Chronology (Oct 17 - 23)

Oct 17

• Drummer William Randolph "Cozy" Cole was born in 1909 in East Orange, New Jersey. His first music job was with Wilber Sweatman in 1928. In 1930, he played for Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, recording an early drum solo on Load of Cole. Cole spent 1931–33 with Blanche Calloway, 1933-34 with Benny Carter, 1935-36 with Willie Bryant, 1936-38 with Stuff Smith's small combo, and 1938-42 with Cab Calloway. In 1942, he was hired by CBS Radio music director Raymond Scott as part of network radio's first mixed-race orchestra. After that Cole played with Louis Armstrong's All Stars.
  

Oct 18

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra

• Tommy Dorsey cuts his theme song I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, 1935. Other charts recorded in this session include: Now You've Got Me Doing It, I've Got a Note, It's Written in the Stars, and One Umbrella for Two.
  

Band Roster:
Trumpets: Andy Ferretti, Sterling Bose, Bil Graham, Cliff Weston
Trombones: Tommy Dorsey, Ben Pickering, Dave Jacobs
Reeds: Sid Stoneburn, Noni Bernardi, Clyde Rounds, Johnny Van Eps
Rhythm: Paul Mitchelll (p), Mac Cheikes, (g), Gene Traxler (b), Sam Rosen (d)
Vocals: Edythe Wright

• Singer Anita Belle Colton better known as Anita O'Day was born in Chicago, 1919. She sang with Gene Krupa recording 34 sides including Let Me Off Uptown, a novelty duet with Roy Eldridge, that became her first big hit. When Krupa's band broke in 1943, O'Day briefly joined Woody Herman . She joined Stan Kenton's band in April 1944 recording 21 sides. And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine became a huge seller and put Kenton's band on the map. She also appeared in one soundie with Kenton, performing I'm Going Mad for a Pad and Tabby the Cat. In 1945 she rejoined Krupa's band and stayed almost a year.
  

Oct 19

• Bob Crosby records I'm Free (later renamed What's New?), 1938. During a three-day recording session the following charts were also recorded: What Have you Got that Gets Me, You're Lovely Madame, Two Sleepy People, Wait to My Heart Finds Out, Deep in a Dream, Hurry Home, Honky Tonk Train Blues, I'm Prayin' Humble, Swingin' A the Sugar Bowl, Diga Diga Do (pts 1 & 2), Summertime and My Inspiration.
  

Band Roster:

Trumpets: Zeke Zachery, Sterling Bose, Billy Butterfield
Trombones: Ward Silloway, Warren Smith
Reeds: Irving Fazola (cl), Matty Matlock, Gil Rodin, Joe Kearns, Eddie Miller
Rhythm: Bob Zurke (p), Nappy Lamare (g), Bob Haggart (b), Ray Baudauc
Vocals: Bob Crosby, Marion Mann

• Band Leader Isham Jones, 62, dies in Hollywood, 1956.

Oct 20

• Trumpeter Johnny Best was born Shelby, NC, 1913. In the 30's, Best played with Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, and Artie Shaw (1937-39), then joined Glenn Miller's orchestra from 1939 to 1942. He spent a short time with Bob Crosby before serving in the Navy during World War II playing in Shaw's military band in 1942-43 and Sam Donahue's in 1944-45. Following a stint with Benny Goodman in 1945-46, he relocated to Hollywood, where he worked with Crosby again on radio from 1946-51 and played in many studio big bands in the late 1940s and 1950s. He did a tour with Billy May in 1953 and led his own group locally later in the decade. In 1964 he toured Japan with Crosby, and joined Ray Conniff for worldwide tours in the 1970s.
  

• Trumpeter Ray Linn was born in Chicago 1920. Linn played with Tommy Dorsey (1938-41) and Woody Herman (1941-42). He would return to play with Herman again several times, in 1945, 1947, and 1955-59. In the 1940s he spent time with Jimmy Dorsey (1942-45), Benny Goodman (1943, 1947), Artie Shaw (1944-46), and Boyd Raeburn (1946).
  

• Glenn Miller records Dreamsville, Ohio (v Eberle, Moderaires), Papa Niccolini (v Eberle, Beneke, Modernaires), Jingle Bells (v Beneke, Caceres, Modernaires), This is no Laughing Matter (v Eberle), 1941
  

Band Roster:
Trumpets: Billy May, Alec Fila, Dale McMickle, Johny Best
Trombones: Glenn Miller, Jimmy Priddy, Paul Tanner, Frank D'Annolfo
Reeds: Benny Feman (as), Ernie Caceres (as, bar, c), Wilbur Schwartz (as, c), Tex Beneke (ts), Al Klink (ts)
Rhythm: Chummy MacGregor (p), Bobby Hacket (g, Cornet), Doc Goldberg (b), Maurice Purtill (d)

Oct 21

• Trumpeter John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, cofounder of Bop, was born in Cheraw, SC 1917. Gillespie joined Teddy Hill's orchestra in 1937.In 1939, Gillespie joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental Pickin' the Cabbage, in 1940. He left Calloway in late 1941 over a notorious incident with a knife. Dizzy then freelanced with a few bands - most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra, composed of members of the late Chick Webb's band, in 1942. In 1943, Gillespie joined the Earl Hines orchestra.
  

• Jan Savitt records Quaker City Jazz, 1938.

• Tenor saxman Don Byas was born in Muskogee, OK, 1912. Played with Lionel Hampton, Don Redman, Andy Kirk, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter. His big break came in 1941 when Count Basie chose him to succeed the post of Lester Young in his big band.
  

• Benny Goodman records Clarinet Ala King, 1941. Other charts recorded in that session include Let's Do It, Shady Lady Bird, and Buckle Down Winsocki.
  

Trumpets: Cootie Williams, Jimmy Maxwell, Billy Butterfield Al Davis
Trombones: Lou McGarity, Bob Cutshall
Reeds: Benny Goodman (cl), Skippy Martin, Clint Neagly, Vido Musso, Charles Gentry, George Berg
Rhythm: Mel Powell (p), Tom Morganelli (g), Sid Weiss (b), Ralph Collier (d).
Vocals: Peggy Lee

Oct 22

• Benny Goodman records Popcorn Man with Martha Tilton on vocals, 1937. Popcorn Man became one of the rarest of all Benny Goodman recordings when it was recalled shortly after its release. The reason for the recall is obscure for there was nothing wrong with the lyrics, but possibly less than a dozen copies of the record escaped being destroyed. Other charts recorded were Can't Teach My Old Heart Knew Tricks (v Martha Tilton) and I've Hitched My Wagon to a Star (v Tilton).
  

Band Roster

Trumpet: Gordon Griffin, Harry James, Ziggy Elman
Trombones: Murray McEachern, Red Ballard
Reeds: Benny Goodman (cl), Hymie Schertzer (as), George Koenig (as), Arthur Rollini (ts), Vido Musso (ts)
Rhythm: Jess Stacey (p), Allen Reuss (g), Gene Krupa (d)
Vocals: Marta Tilton

• Arranger, composer, pianist Ralph Yaw was born in Enosburg Falls, Vt., 1898. Yaw wrote arrangements for a great many swing-era bandleaders during the '30s and '40s, including Isham Jones, Cab Calloway, Eddie Barefield, Count Basie, and Les Brown, but Yaw is best-known for his work with Stan Kenton, for whom he wrote and arranged in the early '40s. Kenton put together his first band in 1941; from the beginning, it was an "arranger's band" and Yaw took advantage. He was (along with Kenton himself) responsible for much of that early band's book, arranging and composing dozens of original pieces for the band, including the notable Two Moods.
  

Norm Gluckman
Cedarville, New Jersey
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What Does It Take To Be A Musician?

George Spink
Moderator - The Palomar
Los Angeles, California
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The Benny Goodman Trio

Mildred Bailey, the Rocking Chair Lady and her husband Red Norvo the celebrated vibraphonist with The Paul Whiteman orchestra were having a jam session at their home in Queens, New York one evening in 1935. Some of the guests included pianist Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and several other rather well-known jazz artists.

Earlier in the fall of 1934, Mildred had recorded some records in an all-star session with Benny Goodman's studio band at Columbia Records that featured Coleman Hawkins. They had their first Top Ten hit with "Ol' Pappy”!

This jam session was the first opportunity that Goodman and pianist Teddy Wilson had an opportunity to play together. Goodman later explained, "That night, Teddy and I began to play as though we were thinking with the same brain. It was a real kick." [1]

Shortly after their experiment at Mildred and Red’s home Benny invited Teddy Wilson to join him and Gene to form a trio and by 1935, Benny and his newly formed trio had created a new style of "chamber jazz" music with brilliant solos. The Trio took the ensemble sound of the small jazz band to a new level of precision coupled with an excitement that attracted a new audience to jazz.”
Body and Soul
The Benny Goodman Trio



Ron Hockett a member of Benny’s regular band remarked, "Benny liked the trio's transparent, light musical texture. He envisioned the group as something more for listening than just for dancing." Benny liked to alternate the Trio with the band between sets which he felt allowed him more freedom to experiment. [1]






Late in Dec 1927 Gene was setting up his drums in Chicago’s Okeh recording studio when he was asked by Tommy Rockwell (Okeh's 'A&R' man in the 1920s)'What are you going to do with those?'. 'Play them,' Krupa said simply. Rockwell shook his head. 'You can't do that,' he said. 'You'll ruin our equipment.”

Thus Krupa is noted to be the first drummer to record with a bass drum. By 1929 Gene was recruited by Red Nichols to play along with Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller in George Gerschwin’s “Strike Up The Band”. Gene played in several other big name bands before hooking up with Benny Goodman in 1934. [4]

Gene joined Benny’s band with the promise that it would be a real jazz band. Soon their plans fizzled and they were stuck with playing dance music across the country! That is until their last stop at the Palomar Ballroom on August 21, 1935 in Los Angeles. Benny was considering packing it in when Krupa said "If we're gonna die, Benny, let's die playing our own thing." The audience went wild and the band took off. The rest is history!



We first find Teddy in Detroit in 1929 with Speed Webb’s band but by ’31 he has moved on to Chicago. In 1933 he is recording with Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone and the great Benny Carter.

In 1935 Teddy gets an invitation to play in an informal jam session with Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa, Wilson became an original member of the Benny Goodman Trio one of the first racially integrated groups in popular music.

John Hammond who had helped Benny and many others during the Swing Era produced a series of small-group recordings (1935–42) including classic series with Billie Holiday and with Mildred Bailey. [3]

Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson were the foundation of all the small ensembles. Working together as a team in the Goodman Trio for over ten years, Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson made over 100 recordings together.

The trio was just one of the many legacies left us by the King of Swing!

Spencer "Wolf" Smartt
Dallas, Texas
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[1] Riverwalk Jazz
[2] Benny Goodman
[3] Teddy Wilson
[4] Gene Krupa

Back at the Top of the Charts

Suppose you peeked at the pop music section of your local newspaper and found that, as an honor to our servicemen and -women, the songs at the top of the charts were American Patrol and Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition - and even more fantastic, Glenn Miller and Kay Kyser were still with us and making public appearances! Believe it or not, something like that happened in Britain this month: the top album in the UK is Dame Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again, and at the grand age of 92 she's making the rounds of television and concerts.

Dame Vera then. . . . . . and now . . .

If you watch this short interview it's clear she never thought she'd become an icon of the World War II era, much less a living legend. Like many artists she started her career as a child, but a young "canary" (as they were called in those un-PC times) could have done far worse than appearing with the Joe Loss Orchestra by the age of 17, then moving on to Bert Ambrose's band. By 1940 she had her own radio show - or should I use the UK term "programme"? - Sincerely Yours, where she performed songs requested by the troops. She also traveled as far a way as Egypt and Burma to sing for the soldiers in person.

Her signature song, the one we Yanks know best, came out in 1942 when she recorded We'll Meet Again, featured in the film of the same name. It was a song both of hope and loss; for all too many "Don't know where, don't know when" wouldn't be at Southampton but instead in the hands of the Lord.

Following the war she enjoyed a continued level of popularity matched by few other popular singers. As late as 1967 she was in the UK Billboard Top 10 alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and her latest return to that peak gives her the distinction of having the longest timespan of any Top-10 performer in the history of the charts.

So hats off to Dame Vera. We love you!

Jeff Karpinski
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
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WE'LL MEET AGAIN - Vera Lynn



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Peanuts Hucko - A Big Little Giant

by Henry Holloway
Occasional Contributor
The first time I met Peanuts Hucko in person was in a hotel lobby in Glasgow in November 1976. My wife-at-the-time, the internationally-renowned singer, Eve Boswell, was about two-thirds through a 40-concert series, starring with the Million Airs Concert Orchestra, in a recreation of Captain and later Major Glenn Miller's peerless AAF/AEF Orchestra, in most of the major cities in England, Scotland and Wales. Peanuts had been contracted to co-star with Eve for the final 15 concerts, starting with the one in Glasgow.

Eve and I walked up to the desk, and this short-statured man, who was signing the register, looked up as we approached. I immediately recognised him, and almost shouted out: "Peanuts !" He seemed non-plussed for a moment, but proper introductions soon settled things down.

From that moment on we spent a lot of time together for about a month, because Eve, Peanuts and I travelled in the car of Tony Wild,with his co-promoter, Doug le Vicki, making up the fifth occupant.

The concerts were fantastically successful, with the two highlights at the Royal Albert Hall in London on December 15th and the Corn Exchange in Bedford on December 21st 1976.

For the record, Miff King directed the marvellous Million Airs Orchestra, but the real genius behind it was Bryan Pendleton, who took all the Glenn Miller scores off note for note for each of the 40-odd instruments by hand and ears !

During the tour Eve, Peanuts and I started talking of him coming to South Africa for a performance tour, and it finally came to fruition in 1982.


Peanuts Hucko and Henry Holloway in 1982 upon Peanuts' arrival
at Johannesburg Airport for his South African tour.
It was so successful that Peanuts (this time with his wife, Louise Tobin) came to South Africa again in 1984. If at all possible, that second tour was even more successful than the first one.

I organised various big band and small-group concerts and the venues were packed on each occasion. Of course, Eve and Louise sang on a number of these concerts.

I worked like a slave to promote these tours, and it must be remembered that I still did my 51 part Glenn Miller series on radio in 1984, which took exhaustive research. At the end of that 1984 tour, Peanuts said to me (and I remember it vividly): "Henry, no one has ever promoted me better than you did". Coming from Peanuts, that was high praise indeed !!

Oh, I almost forgot: In 1981, Peanuts and Louise took me and my then 11-year-old daughter, Samantha, to Disneyland. Needless to say, Sam enjoyed every moment of it immensely. The humorous highlight for me was when Peanuts took me to the bandstand, where Freddy Martin and his band were playing. They were just "taking five", and Peanuts said to me: "Come with me and just watch". He walked up to Freddy, approaching him from the rear. He tapped Freddy on the shoulder, and said: "Do you play requests ?" Freddy swung around in anger, but before he could say anything, he saw that it was Peanuts, and they both broke up laughing !!!

Something else will stay with me as long as I live. In one of our largest auditoriums in Johannesburg, we held a concert featuring a big band chosen from the top men available, directed by George Hayden, with Peanuts and Eve starring. When it came to my turn to introduce Peanuts, I said: "Ladies and gentlemen, if I had to tell you this evening that our special guest here tonight played with Benny Goodman, what would you say?" The full-house crowd roared. I then said: "Or if I told you that he played with Louis Armstrong's All Stars?" Again they roared. Then I said: "Or if I told you that he was Captain and later Major Glenn Miller's star clarinet soloist?" The roar was even greater. Finally I said: "But, I am delighted to tell you that our special guest tonight was all that, and even led his own groups for many years. Mr. Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko !!" Well, the roof almost came down from the roar !! And Peanuts did NOT let them down......

Just ONE thing got to him: Johannesburg is 6,000 feet above sea-level, and his reed squeeked !!! He said to me: "It's just like Denver, Colorado". But he soon sorted it out.

I can tell many many stories about Peanuts Hucko, but my space has run out. We stayed in touch until his death in 2003, always most cordially.

Muskrat Ramble - Tribute to Louis Armstrong
Peanuts Hucko, Randy Sandke, Al Grey, John Bunch
Jack Lesberg, Jake Hanna, Louise Tobin

Henry Holloway
Caledon, Cape Province, South Africa
0027-28-2122315
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