Two Bands I've Missed: Bob Chester and Teddy Powell

This week we will be listening to and learning about two bands that I've never recently covered before: Bob Chester and Teddy Powell. This is a rebroadcast of a show I produced back in 2012. Bob had a great band that was heavily influenced by Glenn Miller. Teddy's band had a great start in New York but had trouble sustaining that popularity outside of the Northeast. These are the original recordings by both bands.

Also, I want to celebrate Bob Chester's birthday. He was born on March 20, 1908.
Here is a picture of Bob and a little information on Bob from Wikipedia:

Chester's stepfather ran General Motors's Fisher Body Works. He began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack. He formed his own group in Detroit in 1939, with a Glenn Miller-influenced sound. This band was unsuccessful in local engagements and quickly dissolved. He then put together a new band on the East Coast under the direction of Tommy Dorsey and with arrangements by David Rose. This ensemble fared much better, recording for Bluebird Records.
Chester's group, billed "The New Sensation of the Nation," had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the fall of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time); the September 21, 1939 edition can be heard on the famous One Day In Radio tapes, archived by Washington D.C. station WJSV.
Chester's Bluebird records have proved excellent sellers, both for retail dealers and coin phonograph operators such as "From Maine to California"; "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; "Madeliaine"; and two songs from "Banjo Eyes" - "Not a Care in the World" and "A Nickel to My Name".^[1]
Chester's orchestra included trumpeters Alec Fila, Nick Travis, and Conrad Gozzo, saxophonists Herbie Steward and Peanuts Hucko, drummer Irv Kluger, and trombonist Bill Harris. His female singers included Dodie O'Neill, Kathleen Lane, and Betty Bradley; among his male singers were Gene Howard, Bill Darnell, Joe Harris, Stu Brayton, Hall Stewart, Peter Marshall, and Bob Haymes.
The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s, due in part to the shrinking market for big band sound. Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s, but after it failed he retired from music and returned to Detroit to work for the rest of his life in auto manufacturing.


Here is a picture of Teddy Powell and some information on him from Wikipedia:

Teddy Powell (Teodoro Paolella) (March 1, 1905 in Oakland, California – November 17, 1993 in New York City) was an American jazz guitarist, composer and big band leader. Some of his compositions were under the pseudonym Freddy James.
Teddy spent several years with the Abe Lyman band where he also served as a vocalist, arranger and helped out on the business side of things.
Powell began playing violin when he was eight, picked up the banjo when he was fourteen and led his first band the following year. They stayed together until 1944.
His own band hired several highly regarded musicians formerly with the Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Casa Loma orchestras. The band made its début at New York's Famous Door nightclub.
Teddy's big band was very popular for a short time in 1939 while they were in New York. Irving Fazola, Pete Mondello, John Austin, Nick Caizza, Carmen Mastren, Ely Davis, Hugh Brown, S.J. Kramer, John Popa, Jerry Shane, Irwin Berken featured on his bands.
In 1941 the band lost all of its instruments in a fire at a nightclub in New Jersey.
Teddy Powell retired from band-leading in 1954 and formed a music publishing company in New York City sometime prior to 1960 and prospered. The principal company, among many, was Tee Pee Music Co.

I hope you enjoy the music this week from Bob Chester and Teddy Powell.