Big Band Bash

This week we pay a tribute to Kay Starr who passed away on November 3rd at the age of 94. Ms. Starr, whose career began when she was a teenager and continued into her 80s, was a rarity: a singer who blossomed in the big-band era of the 1930s and 1940s, hit it big as a pop and country artist, and scored one of her biggest hits in the emerging rock scene of the mid-1950s. I'll be playing many of the recordings of Kay that I could find from the 1940's. Although most of her biggest hits were from the 1950's I did find some nice songs from the 40's. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

On Part Four of the Dorsey Brothers we conclude the series with a live broadcast of the reunited brothers. The late 1940's was a hard time for the big bands with Tommy disbanding his band in 1946. But he couldn't stay away and was back with a new group. Jimmy gave up his band and the new group was billed as The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Jimmy Dorsey. They remained together until Tommy's death in 1956. The broadcast on today's show is from Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook ballroom recorded in 1955. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

On Part Three of the Dorsey Brothers we will turn our focus to the band of Tommy. When Tommy split from his brother Jimmy he took over the Joe Haymes orchestra. Molding it into the kind of band he wanted Tommy was soon recording many of his hit songs. I tried to pick out many of TD's hits and we will also learn about his career apart from Jimmy. In part four we will conclude the series with the reunited brothers in the 1950's. This is a great series filled with many hits that you are sure to like. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

On this the second part of my four part series on the Dorsey Brothers we will be focusing on Jimmy's orchestra. Jimmy was the older of the two brothers and after Tommy walked out on their combined orchestra, Jimmy continued the band under his name. He had many hits during the swing era and we will be playing many of them today. His biggest hits featured vocalists Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell. Next week I will be looking at the career of Tommy Dorsey and in part four we will conclude with the reunited brothers. This is a great series filled with many hits that you are sure to like. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Today I am starting a four part series on the Dorsey Brothers, Tommy and Jimmy. Together and separately they recorded some of the biggest hits of the big band era. We will be starting with some of the early original recordings of the Dorsey Brothers orchestra. Then in part two, I will be focusing on Jimmy's orchestra. In part three we will look at Tommy's orchestra and in the final part we will look at the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Jimmy Dorsey when they were together again. This is a great series filled with many hits that you are sure to like. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

We continue this week with a show I produced in the summer of 2015. This is Part 2 of Artie Shaw Revisted. There are a couple of more interview segments with Artie from the series "The Mystery of Artie Shaw". Most of the music in this show is from 1940 on. The Big Band puzzler is gone this week to make time for the interview segments. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Welcome to an encore presentation of a show I did in the Summer of 2015 on Artie Shaw. Here are the notes from that show: Artie Shaw has always been one of my favorite clarinetists. Since it has been a while since I did a program on Artie, I thought now is a good time. I have picked out many of Artie's hit records. In addition I'll be playing a few interview excerpts from the series "The Mystery of Artie Shaw" which ran on radio in the early 2000's. This series was produced by Ted Hallock who interviewed Artie in 1998. Artie is as feisty as ever even telling Ted at one point that one of the questions he asked was dumb. I hope you hear some of your favorite Artie Shaw recordings and enjoy the interview excerpts. The Big Band puzzler is gone this week to make time for the interview segments. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week we continue our look at the arrangers. The arranger has a vast store of musical knowledge and uses it to take 15 to 20 musicians and create a musical masterpiece. They decide who plays when, what section is playing, who takes a solo and much more. Benny Goodman had a lot of the great arrangers working for him in the 1930's so I thought it would be interesting to focus on his band's hits and see who they were arranged by. We'll be hearing arrangements by Mel Powell, Eddie Sauter, Fletcher Henderson and more. I hope you will tune in. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week we take a look at one of the most important members of the big bands - the arranger. The arranger has a vast store of musical knowledge and uses it to take 15 to 20 musicians and create a musical masterpiece. They decide who plays when, what section is playing, who takes a solo and much more. It is an art and we will take a look at some of the great arrangers and listen to some of their classic arrangements. We will be listening to songs from Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunceford, Benny Carter and more. I hope you will tune in. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week's program is an encore presentation of a show I did a couple of years ago. 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, Bob Chester, Jan Savitt, and Gene Krupa. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

August 10th is the birthday of one of the most creative bandleaders in big band history, the late Claude Thornhill. He was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Snowfall" and "I Wish I Had You", the latter recorded by Billie Holiday. I had never heard of Claude when a fellow Big Band lover asked me if I had ever listened to his music. I obtained a couple of his lp's (lp stood for long playing back then) and really enjoyed what I heard. Claude had an orchestra that was the forerunner of the classic Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool". To celebrate his birthday we'll revisit some of that great music. I hope you enjoy the music from one of the most original big bands of all time. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This past August 3rd was the 90th birthday of the great vocalist Tony Bennett. This program is a celebration of his life with many of his recordings and a look back at his career. I hope you enjoy the music from one of the greatest vocalist of all time, Mr. Tony Bennett. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

I'm a little late with this episode but I wanted to remember all the men and women who took place in the D-Day Invasion by playing some of the music that would have been in the jukeboxes and on the radio in 1944. June 6, 1944 was the anniversary of the invasion of Normandy so along with the music I found some interesting facts about that historic day. The "D" in D-Day stands for Day as the planners of the invasion weren't exactly sure what day the invasion would take lace because of the weather. I hope you will join me for this special D-Day Remembrance. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week we conclude the series Three by Three with a birthday salute to the late Rosemary Clooney. Rosemary was born on May 23 1928 and got her start singing with the band of Tony Pastor. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me", "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House". A favorite singer of mine, she recorded many cds for the Concord record label until her death in 2002. I hope you enjoy this look at the career and music of vocalist Rosemary Clooney. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week we continue our birthday celebarations with a salute to the great Kitty kallen. She was born on May 25, 1921 and her career spanned from the 1930's to the 1960's. She performed with some of the most popular bands of the 1940's. She was voted the most popular female singer of 1954 by Bilboard and Variety magazines. I hope you enjoy this look at the career of the fantastic vocalist, Kitty Kallen. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This week starts a three week birthday celebration of three great Big Band female vocalists Helen O'Connell, Kitty Kallen, and Rosemary Clooney. They all have their birthdays around the same time so I thought it would be interesting to learn about these three great vocalists as well as listen to their fantastic recordings some of which are the best from the big band era. We'll start off this week with a look at the career of Helen O'Connell who spent most of her time with the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Glen Gray, leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra, was born on June 7th 1906. The Casa Loma Orchestra was a popular American dance band active from 1927 to 1963. When the big bands went into decline after World War II the orchestra disbanded in 1947. Glen Gray started out playing saxophone in the band and then went on to become its leader. In 1956, he went back into the studio to record the first of what became a series of LPs for Capitol Records. I hope you enjoy this encore presentation from last year celebrating Glen with the Casa Loma Orchestra. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

April 29, 1899 is the birthday of one of Big Band's greatest composers Duke Ellington. I have been an Ellington fan for over 40 years and continue to discover new music by him that I have never heard. I last paid tribute to Duke during Black History month of 2015. Rather than produce a new program, I elected to run this one again. This show focuses on the years of 1940 and 1941 2 of Duke's most prolific years. I hope you enjoy this encore presentation of Big band bash as we salute Duke Ellington's birthday. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbash.libsyn.com

This week is part 2 of the Big Bands Live series that I started last week. This week we will be hearing the bands of Artie Shaw, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, and Larry Clinton. Artie's show is from sometime in late 1938 or early 1939. Les Brown's set is from his early band when he was billed as Les Brown and his Duke Blue Devils. I don't have a date for the Crosby and Clinton broadcasts. There are some really nice performances here and I hope you'll tune in. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbash.libsyn.com

This week I am going to start a two part series called Big Bands Live. This comes from a Reader's Digest Records set that I have. There is anywhere from 5-6 selections from each band and these were all recorded live off the radio. There are some exciting performances and this week we will be hearing the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey and Woody Herman. Also, the big band puzzler makes it's return. I hope you'll tune in and listen. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbash.libsyn.com