We Remember Glenn Miller Part 1

When I was a senior in high school, the Glenn Miller Orchestra played at one of the nearby high schools.  It was a Sunday evening in the spring and I was kind of interested in the big bands. I didn't have anyone to go with me so I purchased a ticket and went by myself. I took my little cassette recorder with me and stood close to the bandstand. Leading the band that night was a man I had never heard of named Peanuts Hucko. I listened to my tape quite often after that and that was my first introduction to the music of Glenn Miller.

December 15th, 2014 marks the 70th anniversary of the disappearance of Glenn Miller over the English Channel.  During the month of October this is going to be Glenn Miller month. I purchased a record of Glenn Miller shortly after seeing them in concert called "Glenn Miller: A Legendary Performer." There were a lot of radio recordings on this two-record set. I have many Glenn Miller cds in my collection but not this one - so I recorded the record into my computer, took out the ticks, reduced the noise and ended up with what I think is a fairly good sounding digital copy. This is what I played on Part 1 of Big Band Bash.

It was several years later that I learned that Peanuts Hucko only fronted the band for about six months. I do remember him playing a great version of "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" that night. Several years later I got to see Peanuts again when he came through the town I live in with a Benny Goodman recreation band and played many of Benny's hits.

When I was about 21 I was lucky enough to purchase a copy of George T. Simon's biography of Glenn Miller. I have read it several times and always enjoy learning about the history of the Miller band. Glenn Miller only made two movies with his band while alive. I had never seen both of them s I did a search on Youtube and luckily both movies were there. I understand that Orchestra Wives is not available on DVD so I recommend watching them on Youtube.

1939-1940 Time Life - The Swing Era Part 1

When I first moved to Texarkana several years ago I went to the texarkana library to see what was available. After I received my card I proceeded to browse through their records where I came across a set called "The Swing Era" by Time-Life records. I checked it out and copied it to casette where I proceeded to listen to it regularly. When I started working at KTXK 91.5 we would get record collections as donations. Some of these had more of "The Swing Era" sets in them. Now, let's fast forward several years with music being released on CD. I was really overjoyed when I learned that "The Swing Era" was going to be released on CD. I acquired most of these sets and have enjoyed them even though I knew that they weren't the original recordings.

Several months ago I thought wouldn't it be fun to take the songs from "The Swing Era" and see if I could find the originals. So using one of the CDs as my guide I was able to locate most of the songs. I then compared them to some of the record sets we still have at the station. I was really surprised to discover that the songs were different. I then did some searching on the internet where I learned the true story. It seems that Time-Life was not going to release "The Swing Era" on CD but they decided to release two two-CD sets of selected songs from the record sets. These sets sold really well. The folks at Time-Life then decided to release the rest of the sets but they didn't want to duplicate the same songs as on the first two sets so they rearranged the selection on the CDs.

I am using the record sets as my guide  in producing these Big Band Bash programs.  It is fun for me to see if I can find the original recordings while using the playlist from "The Swing Era" sets as my guide.

If you ever get a chance to purchase these sets I highly recommend them. The sound quality is excellent and it's a great introducyion to the great music played by the big bands from the 1930's and 1940's.

Stan Kenton Revisited

When I was growing up my dad had a few Kenton lps. I must confess that I didn't enjoy them. It took me awhile to appreciate Stan's music. I like his hits from the 1940's and his swinging band of the 1950's. Later on when I was playing in my college jazz band we played some of Stan's charts off the record Kenton 76'. After rehearsing these charts I grew to like them and wanted to listen to more of his songs.

When I moved to to Texarkana I met an avid jazz fan and saxophonist named Jerry Atkins. Jerry and I quickly became friends as we liked a lot of the same artists. He introduced me to the music of John Park who Jerry told me had played lead sax with the Kenton band in 1973.  Jerry had a couple biographies of Kenton in his jazz book collection which he let me read. Jerry was responsible for getting me an announcing job at KTXK-FM. This is the station that airs my Big Band show Saturdays at 10:00.

The cover to the left was one of the Kenton records in my dad's collection. This was some of the first music by Kenton that I ever heard.









On the show this week I'll be looking at the career of Stan Kenton and playing some of his many early hits. This weeks songs come from a Mosaic Records collection that I have that is no longer available. If you are a Kenton fan then this is the program for you.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-band-bash/id486135958?mt=2

4 Remotes From The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands

This week on the show I will be presenting four radio remotes originally broadcast on the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands Program. Here is a brief description of the program:

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. Featuring the music of Sammy Kaye, Lionel Hampton, Orrin Tucker, Bobby Sherwood, Jack Teagarden, Leo Reisman, Bob Chester, Alvino Rey, Johnny Long, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Johnny ‘Scat’ Davis, Harry James, Shep Fields, Frankie Carle, Gene Krupa, Louis Armstrong, Frankie Masters, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Sonny Dunham, Eddy Howard, Lawrence Welk, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich.

The four remotes this week are Les Brown, Bob Chester, Jan Savitt, and Gene Krupa. The sound is good on all but the Savitt broadcast, it is a little muddy. I hope you'll tune in and listen.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-band-bash/id486135958?mt=2

Claude Thornhill - A Birthday Rememberance

Claude Thornhill's birthday is August 10th. I am a few weeks late in getting this posted  but I wanted to do something special on the show this week. When I was in college I had a friend who was still in high school. We went to the same school but I had different teachers than he did. He became friendly with his history teacher and told him of my interest in Big Bands and Old Radio etc.  He invited us over to his house and we went to the basement where he had his record collection. He asked me one time if I had anything by Claude Thornhill in my collection. I had to say no as I was interested in Shaw and Goodman at that time. He lent me one of his Thornhill records and I was hooked.

This was the first album of Claude's music that I listened to. The band was so different from those that I was listening to. I have since added several of Claude's records , now cd's, to my collection.

I was surprised to learn that Artie Shaw and Claude were roommates in Cleveland. This was after I had moved or I would have tried to locate the restaurant they were playing at. It' surprising to see how many different covers of his original composition have been recorded. On the program today I tried to present a varied selection of the Thornhill band. I hope you enjoy it.