I have been a little lazy posting new items so I'm back again. On this week's
Big Band Bash I'll be focusing on the band of Will Bradley. Will Bradley along with drummer Ray McKinley led a very exciting band from 1939 to 1942. The Bradley band became well known for boogie-woogie, particularly its hit record, "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" In 1942, McKinley departed to form his own band. Bradley hired trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelly Manne, but many members wound up in the military due to the draft, and the band dissolved.
He was born Wilbur Schwichtenberg on July 12, 1912 in Newton, New Jersey, Bradley was raised in Washington, New Jersey.
This was his obituary from the LA Times when he passed away in 1989:
Will
Bradley, a handsome, urbane studio trombonist who emerged from those
anonymous ranks to lead what briefly was one of the most celebrated Big
Bands of the early and mid-1940s, has died.
The Associated Press
reported Thursday that Bradley, noted for such popular hits of the day
as "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar," "Celery Stalks at Midnight" and
"Strange Cargo," died Saturday in Flemington, N.J. He was 78.
With
drummer Ray McKinley, whom Bradley lured from Jimmy Dorsey, the Will
Bradley Band was a mainstay of ballrooms and hotels during the wartime
years of sentimental ballads, jive tunes and boogie-woogie.
Called
by Glenn Miller "the best of all" the trombonists of his day, Wilbur
Schwichtenberg had worked for years in recording studios before emerging
to join the old Milt Shaw and Ray Noble bands (Miller was a fellow
trombonist with Noble). In 1939 Schwichtenberg became Bradley and Wilbur
became Will and he and McKinley (considered a co-leader although he sat
at the back of the band) produced a series of sweet ballads and swing
tunes for Columbia records.
With
Freddie Slack at the piano the Bradley band recorded "I Don't Stand a
Ghost of a Chance," with Carlotta Dale on vocal, and "Old Doc Yak," with
McKinley singing and playing drums.
Louise Tobin, then Harry
James' wife, sang "Deed I Do" with Bradley shortly before the band
switched emphasis from ballads to boogie.
Slack, later to form his
own famous band, was the catalyst behind a white group of musicians
playing what had been a black innovation.
In George T. Simons'
book "The Big Bands," McKinley recounts how the musicians were
experimenting with instrumental arrangements based on the blues with an
eight-to-the-bar piano boogie beat.
"There was one point where I
had a drum break and for some reason or other that night instead of
playing the break, I sang out "Oh, beat me, daddy, eight to the bar!"
After the set McKinley encouraged the writing of a song with that title
and it became the biggest of the Bradley band's hits, selling more than
100,000 copies.
Bradley tried to chase that success with
"Rock-a-Bye Boogie," "Scrub Me, Mama, With a Boogie Beat," "Fry Me,
Cookie, With a Can of Lard" and others.
But he quickly became
disenchanted with the band's new sound, preferring the more solid tunes
of the day, and he and McKinley eventually split up, McKinley to form
his own group in 1942.
Bradley brought new talent into his band
after McKinley's departure, among them a young drummer named Shelley
Manne and a trumpet player who called himself Shorty Rogers. These two
were to become an integral part of modern jazz a few years later.
But
the wartime military draft decimated the ranks of the younger players
and Simon writes of one engagement in Detroit in which Bradley told him
that six musicians moved from the bandstand to the recruiting station in
a single week.
After that Bradley was forced to cancel many of
his personal appearances and rely on studio musicians for recordings.
Bradley himself soon returned to the studios where he had started.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, a son, a daughter and a grandson.
I hope you enjoy this look at a great trombonist who led a very exciting band.
Artie Shaw was born on May 23, 1910. He was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and actor. Also an author, Shaw wrote both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists, Shaw led one of the United States' most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. As I do every year I would like to remember Artie on his birthday but instead of playing many of his hits I am going to be playing some of his recordings that feature the many different vocalists that sang with his band. Starting way back in 1936 with Peg La Centra and going to the mid 1940's we'll hear a lot of different singers.
He was born Wilbur Schwichtenberg on July 12, 1912 in Newton, New Jersey, Bradley was raised in Washington, New Jersey.
A chorus called The Hit Paraders were always ready to backup the
featured singers. At first the regulars were Barry Wood
and Joan Edwards. In the spring of '43, a skinny New Jersey kid named
Frank came on the show to stay for a while. Sinatra was probably the
biggest draw that Lucky Strikes ever had! The bobbie-soxers had swooned
over this guy, and listened avidly as he crooned the tunes. The show
went on without
She began singing in her brother's band in Washington, D.C., then was featured in Artie Shaw's band after Billie Holiday left in 1938. Forrest joined Benny Goodman when Shaw disbanded in 1939, staying until 1941. She recorded with Nat King Cole's trio and Lionel Hampton in 1940, then began to score hits working with the Harry James orchestra. During the early '40s, she had string of successes. Later she teamed with Dick Haymes on his radio show and on six duets that were big hits. Forrest cut back her activity in the '50s, then sang with Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra led by Sam Donahue in the early '60s. She continued to work on the club circut in the '70s and '80s, making a new album for Stash in 1983. Forrest died July 11, 1999 at age 82.
