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13-14 June, 2009
HOLLYWOOD BIG BANDS
Those of you who listen regularly know
the admiration we have for music from
movie soundtracks. It may be an imaginary difference in quality, but it seems the music taken from the movies has a superior technical quality, and often better artistic quality than the same tunes copied from 78s. We take advantage of that difference as we present Big Bands from Hollywood musicals. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (separately), Harry James, Harry Connick, Jr.,Benny Goodman, Ralph Burns and Artie Shaw will all be heard.
20-21 June, 2009
HOAGY CARMICHAEL LEGACY
Everyone remembers Hoagy Carmichael
for STARDUST, but there was so much
more. More compositions, more personal performances, more roles in movies. Since that time recording in a small studio in Indiana, Hoagy Carmichael became a nationally known personality reaching into the lives of most every American citizen in one way or another. That legacy is celebrated in this program with the background anecdotes and music of this singular personality.
27-28 June, 2009
COME WHAT MAY
The most fun programs we do are the ones
unplanned. Truth is, even though they're fun to
do, the results vary depending on the mood of the moment. There have been times such programs yield some entertaining recordings from the back room and some spontaneous research facts; other times such a program may turn out to be pedestrian. If you're willing to take a chance, so are we, so once in a while we toss in a BBJ with no prior planning and no specific theme. This is one of those programs, and good luck to both of us.
4-5 July, 2009
CUTE & COMIC (TWO)
In our research, a number of these cute
songs were discovered leading to a second program filled with another two dozen or more such recordings. Artists performing these unique songs include Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Alvino Rey, Kitty Kallen, Kay Kyser and Dick Jurgens among so many others. Spike Jones, who specialized in this type of curious musical presentation will certainly be part of the program. Music takes many forms and these comic or unusual recordings by well-known Big Band Era artists are meant to both amuse and entertain you.
11-12 July, 2009
BIG BAND STORIES
Some years ago we offered a series of what
amounted to Big Band musical biographies,
Highlighting some of the band's original hit recordings first bringing them to public awareness and then delving deeper into that band's output. In this program we check out Claude Thornhill, whose delicate piano put the lace on otherwise powerful material. Also it will be fun to check out Tony Paster who introduced us the Clooney Sisters after he played with Artie Shaw.
We'll also look into the oft-forgotten but effective music of Dean Hudson, sometimes known as "the farm team for Tommy Dorsey." There will be others, too, in this program idea not yet fully developed.
18-19 July, 2009
BIG BAND GUESTS
The premise of this program is the teaming of
musical artists, usually singers, with bands with
which they don't normally perform. Doris Day with Harry James, Tony Bennett with Count Basie, Rosemary Clooney with Duke Ellington and Bing Crosby paired with a number of vocal stars. There'll be some instrumental mix and match, too, as John Pizzarelli plays with the Cincinnati Pops.
This kind of random teaming often results in exciting performances; certainly it results in interesting listening.
25-26 July, 2009
LAS VEGAS NIGHTS
The unique quality of 'live' performance cannot be
duplicated, even by the most seasoned musicians and
singers. Both the audience, with their enthusiasm,
and the performers, with listener involvement, contribute to the unbridled results.
Captured at peak performance moments on Las Vegas stages, we hear Louis and Keely, Dean Martin, Nat Cole, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and some others recorded as they captivated their audiences. You won't drop any loose change in the slots with this program, just fill you ears with dynamic melody.
1-2 August, 2009
LEGENDARY INSTRUMENTALS PART 1
The art of Big Band instrumentals LEGENDARY INSTRUMENTALS has been lost. When the singers took
over in the fifties the popularity and
the appeal of pure music without words seemed to diminish with the exception of a few current bands re-creating the solid sounds of what were then familiar non-vocal recordings. We go back to the basics in this program recalling the superb arrangements and spirited execution of such recordings by Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Les Brown, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby and Count Basie among others. Stan Kenton and Woody Herman will certainly be part of the mix, as will Artie Shaw and Gene Krupa. This is part one of two such programs directed to fans of such unforgettable sounds.
8-9 August, 2009
FLYING MUSIC/DESTINATIONS
It was two years or so ago when a BBJ fan who
worked for a firm supplying video to the airlines asked
us to do a program of flying music. We did and we've
used that music to create an entirely new hour. When you get tired of hearing about airplanes, we switch to destination music with each song either about or having in the title a place to fly, drive, cruise or walk to. Surprising how many formerly lost recordings emerge in these theme programs!
15-16 August, 2009
HARRY JAMES "LIVE"
There's been so much positive reaction to our
series of "live" programs we've taken the next
logical step, seeking out the generous fund of Harry James on location radio performances, preserved for all time. We'll hear one of the first 'live' appearances of young Frank Sinatra with the James Band, as well as the prime vocalists to follow including Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest and Kitty Kallen. From the Hollywood Palladium to the roof of New York's Hotel Astor and stops in between, it's Harry James "live."
22-23 August, 2009
NEW & ORIGINAL
Jimmy Durante used to say it so well:
"Everybody wants to get into the act!" That's
true of bands and singers, too, who want to record either the same or similar arrangements of successful earlier recordings. In this session we sought out some of the newer (in our frame of reference) versions of classic instrumentals and vocals and compared them to the original recordings that first brought them to our attention. Examples include COME FLY WITH ME, ALL OF ME, LOVER'S LEAP and SLOW BOAT TO CHINA among others.
29-30 August, 2009
THE GERSHWINS
A phone call was the genesis of this program.
The niece of Ira Gershwin phoned to say she'd
recorded an album of her uncle's songs and would
we like to talk to her about it? We recorded her comments and along with a plethora of artists singing and playing some of the generous output of the Gershwin Brothers, we'll hear Alexis Gershwin tell us about Sunday dinners at Ira's home. Along the way, Alexis Gershwin will herself perform one or two or her uncle's lyrics. It seems as if this'll turn out to be a family affair.
5-6 September, 2009
WOODY HERMAN
A listener wrote to ask if we'd do another Woody
Herman program. We fully realize some of the
Herman music is appreciated most by musicians and hard-core swing fans, but we looked into the archives and found we'd done three very different Woody Herman programs during the past quarter-century. This program will be a fresh amalgam of those, highlighting the early Herman, the Herman Herd in both the recording and broadcast studios, and excerpts from the band's fortieth reunion at Carnegie Hall in 1976. Gird your loins….or your ears.
12-13 September,2009
LEGENDARY INSTRUMENTALS PART 2
Four weeks ago we presented a full LEGENDARY INSTRUMENTALS program of performances in the style in e
style of music originally captivating die-
hard fans of Big Bands. This continuation spotlights examples of the artistry of Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet and Ray Anthony as well as more solid examples of the previously highlighted bands we know so well. Some of the instrumentals will be highly familiar even though you may not have heard them for years; others display
melodies created by arrangers that may have been lost in time. Ray Anthony's SLIDER and ROLLIN' HOME haven't been heard for some time, for example, others will instantly be recognized as what they truly are: lengendary.
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