Big Band Bash

Copilot is the name of an artificial intelligence engine that is now included in Microsoft's Edge web browser. I posed this question to Copilot: could it pick out 16 songs from the 1930's and 1940's that were representative of the big bands of that era. After a couple minutes had gone by, Copilot displayed this list. It is a very interesting list and I had most of the songs in my collection and if I didn't have the version Copilot suggested I substituted one that I did have. Also, the little blurbs about the songs that I read were generated by Copilot. I think this is going to be a very useful tool for content creators going into the future. The puzzler is back this week so I hope you enjoy these selections from an artificial intelligence engine name Copilot.

Well, hello everyone and welcome to part four of our Glenn Miller Birthday salute. On today's show, as on the other three parts, we will be looking at the Band of the Allied Training Command. I have two radio remotes from the I Sustain the Wings series. That was a show of most patriotic music by the Army Air Force Orchestra. So I hope you will sit back and relax and listen to Glenn announce the numbers as we honor one of the most popular bandleaders of all time.

Hello and welcome to this week's Big Band Bash. We are continuing our Glenn Miller Birthday Salute with a look at the Army Air Force Orchestra. Today's show features a live broadcast by that orchestra with Glenn doing the announcing. It is a great broadcast and is sure to stir up some patriotic feelings. Glenn was born on March 01, 1904 and it is his bands and orchestra we think of when we had so many of our soldiers fighting in World War Two. I hope you enjoy this broadcast of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Orchestra directed by Major Glenn Miller.

Hello everyone. I am a little late with this week's program. This week I am going to continue with our birthday salute to the late Glenn Miller. This is part two of a four part series I produced back in 2022. To celebrate Glenn's birthday that year I decided to put together a look at his Army Air Force Orchestra. The recordings come from a four disc set that I have in my collection. We will be learning about that great organization and their importance towards the war effort and listening to those great Miller recordings. Happy Birthday Glenn!

Greetings everyone. March first is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. To celebrate his birthday, I am running a repeat of a four part series looking at Glenn's Army Air Force Orchestra. This comes from a four record set that i have in my collection. There is a lot of great songs in this set and I hope you enjoy the music. I apologize for being late. The radio statio where I work and produce Big Band Bash is under going some maintenance. I should be back on schedule next week. Happy Birthday Glenn!

This past week we observed a leap day, February 29th. Born on February 29, 1904 was Jimmy Dorsey. To observe his birthday and pay tribute, I went through my cds and came across two that were recorded in the years of 1939 and 1940. There are some nice recordings in this set. I wanted to do something different rather than play all his hits which I have done on other programs. So we will learn about the career of the late Jimmy Dorsey and listen to music that he recorded in 1939 and 1940.

We wind up our celebration of Black History Month with a look at some of the many vocalists recording during the big band era. Some of the singers on the show today include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstein, Helen Humes and many more. I hope you enjoy this selection of the many talented African-American vocalists as we conclude Black History Month.

Duke Ellington's band and music holds an important place among my musical heroes. I have been collecting records and cds by Ellington for many years. So I have decided to include him in our list of bands as we continue our celebration of Black History Month. I have narrowed our focus on Duke to the years of 1940 through 1941. This was a very productive period for Ellington and I am sure to play some of your favorites by the Duke. I hope you enjoy this focus on the late Duke Ellington as we continue Black History Month.

We continue our celebration of Black History Month this week with a look at the big band of Jimmie Lunceford. Jimmie Lunceford's band differed from other great bands of the time because it was better known for its ensemble than for its solo work. Additionally, he was known for using a two-beat rhythm, called the Lunceford two-beat, as opposed to the standard four-beat rhythm. We'll be playing many of the Lunceford band's many hits.

We start our celebration of Black History Month with a look at the big band of Earl Fatha Hines. Earl was a very influential pianist in whose big band he had players such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Count Basie called him the greatest pianist in the world. He made a lot of recordings with small groups but we are going to focus in on his big band. I hope you enjoy this look at the career and big band of the great Earl Hines.

Well, this is week four and the last in the series The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw. These recordings were made in the years of 1944 and 1945 when Artie was living in California after his discharge from the US Navy. After these recordings were made, Artie signed with the MusicCraft label and never recorder for RCA again. There are some great recordings here as Artie liked to make recordings out of the Great American Songbook. I hope you enjoyed this series and will tune in again for more music of the fabulous big bands.

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well, I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part three of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. We are now in Volume 5 which includes the period shortly before the start of World War II. Artie was in California during this time and was including a string section with his orchestra which gave the recordings a different sound. I hope you enjoy this set as we will be winding up this series next week.

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. Today we will continue with part two of the Complete RCA Bluebird Recordings of Artie Shaw. Some of the songs we will hear inclue Out of Nowhere, Day In, Day Out, Stardust, Summit Ridge Drive and others. We will also continue with our biography of Artie Shaw. These are some of the best big band songs from that era. I hope you enjoy Part Two of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw.

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked out with those 1938 recordings. When RCA started it's Complete Bluebird reissues, I bought them from a record store that wasn't having much success selling them. They put them in the cutout bin and I snatched them up. On the program today we will start at the beginning of Artie's Bluebird recordings and make it into volume two. We will also learn about his career as we start part one of this four part series. I hope you enjoy Part One of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw.

Happy New Year to everyone as we welcome in the New Year. On the show today is repeat of a program I produced in 2016 called New Year's Radio Dance Party 1945-1946. The Armed Forces Radio Service gave a real treat to American troops still stationed around the world in the aftermath of World War II---live performances, by remote hookups from their respective New Year's Eve hotel and/or ballroom performances. We'll get to hear some of the titans of the time in American jazz and popular music. Including but not limited to Harry James, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw (with guest Roy Eldridge), Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and---of course!---Guy Lombardo. It was a gift to our troops then and it's a perfect gift for our troops---and New Year's Eve shut-ins---today.

Merry Christmas everyone. I am sorry that I am a little late in getting this weeks show posted. This is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011. There are a couple of segments on Christmas Eve of 1941. Also, I have the only radio remote from that date that I could locate which featured Glenn Miller's band. In addition I have some assorted big bands with holiday favorites. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and I hope you enjoy this rebroadcast of Christmas 1941 from twelve years ago.

For the next few weeks, I am repeating a couple of shows that I produced almost ten years ago. This first one was called A 1940's Christmas. I tried to pick out as many songs from the Big Bands that were recorded during the 1940s as I could find. Today, there are lots of songs about Christmas but back in the forties there were not that many. I tried to put all of the forties Holiday songs in this show that I could find. I hope you enjoy this encore presentation of A 1940s Christmas.

Hello everyone. This episode of Big Band Bash is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011 where we paid tribute to the men and women who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Also, I pay tribute to Major Glenn Miller who dissappeared in the plane he was flying in across the English Channel on December 15, 1944. I always like to remember those events as they were very significant in American History. A lot of things changed in the music industry because of these events so I hope you like the music as we pay tribute to those patriotic Americans.

Hello everyone. This week concludes our salute to the late Tommy Dorsey. We will be looking at his career and music from about 1939 to 1956 when he passed away. We will be listening to a lot of the Sinatra - Dorsey classics from that era. He really didn't have many hits after 1946 when many bandleaders disbanded, the result of effects from World War 2. So I hope you enjoy this tribute to the late Tommy Dorsey.

Hello everyone. November 19, 1905 is the birthday of the late bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey. He also passed away on November 26, 1956. Since both these date occur in the month of November, I though I would like to revisit the music and career of the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, Tommy Dorsey. I decided to play many of the classic Dorsey hits so I hope some of your favorites are on today's show which will conclude next week. We will also take a look at his amazing career so I hope you enjoy part one of my Tommy Dorsey salute.

Well, we're down to the last part of this series highlighting songs composed during the 1930's. We are highlighting the years of 1938 and 1939. There were some nice songs composed in these years and unfortunately I had to omit a few as there were more songs than I could fit in the amount of time. I have enjoyed researching and choosing songs for this series. As always, thank you for listening and supporting Big Band Bash.

There were some fantastic songs composed in the years of 1936 and 1937. Composers Gershwin, Rogers, Kern and Duke wrote many hit songs that are still being played today. Benny Goodman's big hit Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded in 1937 and I have included both parts. There was one song I didn't have time for but I only found one big band version. Someday My Prince Will Come is a popular jazz standard but was not recorded by many big bands. I hope you enjoy this potpourri of 1930's popular songs as played by many different big bands.

The 1930's was a time in popular music that saw many changes. Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. In the 1930s, swing jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music. Today, we focus on the years of 1934 and 1935. The number of hit songs from these two years had dwindled down in part because of the Great Depressions. But nevertheless, there were some great songs composed then and we'll learn a little bit about them as we listen to performances by the big bands.

The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. This is part 2 in the series as we examine those catchy songs from 1932 and 1933. The Great Depression was gathering momentum and it affected the song writers of Tin Pan Alley. The number of hit songs started to decrease as we'll see in the next few parts in the series. There were some great songs composed during 1932 and 1933 and I hope you enjoy the selections.

The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. While putting this show together I tried to use recordings by bands that were not as popular as the ones who recorded the definitive version. On the show today we'll be listening to songs composed during the years of 1930 and 1931. There were some great songs composed then and I hope you'll join me as we listen to and learn about them.

This week, I'm going to be playing the third and final record in this three record set that features many hits from the RCA Bluebird record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all those great old songs again. We'll be hearing songs from Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the RCA Bluebird family.

This week, I'm going to be playing the second record in the three record set that features many hits from the Columbia record label. When I was a youngster, my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the Columbia family.

Hello everyone. When I was growing up, my father had purchased a 3 record set call The Big Bands. What was unique about this set was that each of the records had hits from one of the record labels issuing records back then. Record one had hits issued on the Decca label, record two had hits from Columbia and record three had hits from RCA Blurbird. So for the next three weeks I hope you will enjoy leaning about those record labels as I present a potpourri of songs issued from those great record companies. I can just remember back and hear my dad playing those records and smiling at the many memories he must have had.

It has been awhile since I presented a program on the late Stan Kenton so I wanted to go back and revisit some of his music again. As a musician it was his band from the 1950's that I enjoyed listening to the most. However, on today's show I'm going back to those great Kenton classics from the 1940's. I have really come to enjoy the vocals of Anita O'day and June Christy when they were the vocalists with his band. I hope you will enjoy listening to this great music and learning about the career of the late Stan Kenton.

This week we will be celebrating the birthday of bandleader Bob Crosby. He was born on August 23, 1913 and led one of the most popular big bands during the dance band era. He had some very exciting sidemen in the band. Musicians like Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc, Eddie, Miller, Irving Fazola, and Yank Lawson were some of the people who passed through the band. Bob was not an instrumentalist but rather a very good vocalist and front man. I hope you enjoy our Bob Crosby birthday salute.

This week's show is a look at some of the Big Band Theme Songs. Just as today's television theme songs identify the show, a big band's theme song helped to identify the band that was on the radio. Some theme songs were originals and some were borrowed from others. We'll be hearing lots of theme songs today on our show so I hope some of these are your favorites.

August 24, 1904 is the birthday of the late bandleader William Count Basie. To celebrate his birthday, I have pulled out a program I produced back in 2013. I decided to focus on the year of 1939 and play many of the songs recorded by the Basie band during that year. I am a big fan of the Basie band as my father had a couple of his records and as I grew older I began to explore the history and recordings of the man known as Count Basie. In addition to Basie, there were those great sidemen of his to spotlight. Musicians like Lester Young, Helen Humes, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, and Jo Jones make this a really great year for the Count. This is a good program and I hope you enjoy the music as well as a brief biography of the William Bill Basie known in the big band circle as Count.

Hello everyone. 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 This is a glimpse back in time to hear four great bands on the radio at the close of WW2.

Hello everyone. I am working on some new shows that are not quite finished. So here is a show i produced back in 2013 and it features the vocal groups from the big band era. Some of the groups were solo acts and others sang as part of the band. Who could forget groups like the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, the Pied Pipers and the Modernaires? In addition, I tried to give a little history of each group.

Hello everyone. August 10, 1908 is the birthday of the late bandleader Claude Thornhill. It has been awhile since I have played some of the great recordings made by the Thornhill orchestra, so to remember Claude on his birthday here is a show I produced about ten years ago remembering Claude on his birthday. 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. To celebrate his birthday we'll revisit some of that great music. I hope you enjoy it as well as learning a little bit about this great musician.

Back during World War Two, it took a lot of money to produce the materials, grow the food and make all the things that the soldiers needed to use in combat. So to help raise money, the United States Government sold bonds. A simple example is that you bought a bond for $10 and waited until it matured and then the government would give you back $11. You made interest for loaning the government money. I know this is a simplistic example but during WW2 many cities would have bond rallies and bring in name bands to play while the bonds were being sold. Today's show features two broadcasts by the Tommy Dorsey orchestra at two different rallies. The first broadcast has Frank Sinatra as the featured vocalist and the second features Dick Haymes. I hope you enjoy this trip into the past and enjoy the music of Tommy Dorsey.

Hello everyone. On July 21, 2023 the vocalist Tony Bennett passed away in his Manhattan apartment. He was 96 years old. Tony was a great singer and an interpreter of the Great American Songbook. He recorded in many genres and even made some recordings with big bands. On the program today, I would like to remember Tony with some of his early hits and some recordings with some big bands and some assorted songs. I will also take a look at Tony's career from Tony's New York Times' obituary. I hope you enjoy the music as we remember the man Frank Sinatra called his favorite singer.

Hello everyone. Today's program features the great big band of Harry James. The selections were taken from various radio broadcasts between the years of 1943 and 1953. There are a lot of great performances in this set from the James band. I don't do much talking on the show as all the songs are introduced by the announcer present at the broadcasts. So sit back, and relax and enjoy the sound of Harry James and His Music Makers, as he was billed, between the years of 1943 and 1953.

Hello everyone. This week's show is a potpourri show featuring songs about the summer season. I do this type of show on the jazz program I host at the radio station that I work part-time at. I haven't done too many seasonal song shows on this program. I tried to find songs that have the words summer, June, July, August, or hot in the song titles. There are lots of different bands on the show today so I hope you enjoy the songs of summer show.

Hello everyone. Today's show is a repeat of the Patriotic Show that I produced for last year. Since I didn't get to air it before the Fourth of July I decided to run it today. This was the first all patriotic show I ever produced and it has words like America, Patriot, liberty, freedom etc. in the titles. I also give a little history about the Fourth of July and it's importance. I hope you enjoy the music and I hope you had a great Fourth as I celebrate the Fourth of July one week late.

Hello everyone. This week we wrap up the four part imaginary assignment to create a four cd set of the Best of The Big Bands. This is the final part. I have picked out the final 16 numbers from the best of the big bands and I think you will recognize most of them. This was a fun series to put together and I hope I picked out several of your favorite bands and songs. Next week we will start some new programs with different subjects and bands.

Hello everyone. This week we are working on CD number three of our Best of the Big Bands four disk set. There are lots of good songs this week as I am trying to put together a set of songs that highlight many of the popular songs by the big bands from the 1930's, 40's and 50's. This is an imaginary project because if it was real we would have to license songs according to what record label they were on. We would also have to get clearance from the artist's estate since all of these great bandleaders have passed on. But it is a good set if you are looking for an introduction to the music of the big bands.

Hello everyone. This week I am continuing with our imaginary assignment to produce a Best of The Big Bands Four CD set. Remember, since this is an imaginary task we don't have to pay attention to details like copyrights, record labels etc. Th only stipulation is that there can only be one song per big band per cd. This week we get to hear some more of the classic big band recordings. This was a way for me to introduce the best of the big bands and make it a fun project. I hope you enjoy the selections as we put together disc two of our best of four cd set.

Hello everyone. I have come up with a premise for the next four shows that I hope you will enjoy. We have been tasked with creating a four CD set of the best of the big bands. Each CD will have one song per big band and all the songs will represent the best of the big bands from the 1930's and 40's. I know in the real world you would have to license songs from different record labels and there are copyright issues. But since this is imaginary we can bypass those restrictions. I hope you enjoy the songs I have picked out for CD number one as we pick out songs for an imaginary four cd set of the best of the big bands.

Hello Everyone. Today's show has a lot of variety in it. While going through my collection I noticed that there were lots of song titles that had the word blue in it. So I pulled out many different songs but they all contain the word blue. Sone of the songs use it as a color and others use it as a feeling. I hope you enjoy this potpourri of songs with the word blue.

Hello everyone and Happy Memorial Day weekend. This is a repeat of a show I did last year. I wanted to do something special as we observe Memorial Day so I hope you enjoy this encore presentation from last year. In May and Early June there are three important dates that people living in the United States observe. May 8th is VE (or Victory in Europe ) Day, The last Monday of the Month is Memorial Day and June Sixth is D-Day. I would like to play some music from the war years as I tell a little bit about each of these important dates. I know there are listeners from other countries who don't know about these dates but you can still enjoy the music. I hope you enjoy this program as I tell about three important American dates.

Hello Everyone. After a four week break, I am back with some new shows. This first show is a potpourri of moon songs. I noticed that lots of big band recordings have the word moon in the title so I set about finding as many as I could to fill up a program with. There are many of your favorite big bands in this hour and all have a Moon recording. I hope you enjoy this show which I call Moon tunes.

Hello everyone. This week's show is the last encore presentation. I produced a ten week series back in 2021 call This is The Best of where I picked ten different bands and played their biggest hits. For the next four weeks I am going to take a break and work on some new shows so I thought I would rerun a few shows from that series. Today we will be playing some of the many hit sides that Duke Ellington recorded. He had many popular recordings and I hope I play some of your favorites.

Hello everyone. This week's show is another encore presentation. I produced a ten week series back in 2021 call This is The Best of where I picked ten different bands and played their biggest hits. For the next four weeks I am going to take a break and work on some new shows so I thought I would rerun a few shows from that series. Today we will be playing some of the many hit sides that Jimmie Lunceford recorded. He had many popular recordings and I hope I play some of your favorites.

Hello everyone. This week's show is another encore presentation. I produced a ten week series back in 2021 call This is The Best of where I picked ten different bands and played their biggest hits. For the next four weeks I am going to take a break and work on some new shows so I thought I would rerun a few shows from that series. Today we will be playing some of the many hit sides that Harry James recorded. He had many popular recordings and I hope I play some of your favorites.

Hello everyone. This week's show is an encore presentation. I produced a ten week series back in 2021 call This is The Best of where I picked ten different bands and played their biggest hits. For the next four weeks I am going to take a break and work on some new shows so I thought I would rerun a few shows from that series. Today we will be playing some of the many hit sides that Tommy Dorsey recorded. He had many popular recordings and I hope I play some of your favorites.

Well, we finally made it. This is the final part of The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. All of these songs were recorded between the years of 1938 and 1942. There are many of Glenn's biggest hits on this show.  It was shortly after the last recordings that Glenn broke up his band and enlisted in the Army. Next week I will have some different bands and different shows. It has been a blast picking out these Glenn Miller recordings. I hope you enjoy these last sides as we were celebrating Glenn's birthday of March 01.

Well, we are getting close to the end of this six week series on the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. The songs from today's show come from the year of 1941. I have a mixture of some of Glenn's big hits along with some lesser known recordings. I hope you enjoy the selections on the show today. We will wind up the series next week with the final recordings and some that i missed or did not get to.

This episode continues the series The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. This is Part Four from the years of 1940 - 1941. Glenn's band was really hitting it's stride then. In addition to starring in two motion pictures. Also, his band was the first to be awarded a gold record, presented by RCA Victor, for sales of 1.2 million copies. There are a few songs in this set that are not as well known but there are several that I think you will recognize and enjoy. There are two more programs in this series so for all the Glenn Miller fans I hope you enjoy the music.

Today I am going to continue with part three of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. This was a nine double album set or a thirteen CD set. I have all these recordings in my library so as we progress in chronological fashion we'll be plying some of his well known recordings and some of the lesser known ones. I am also taking a biographical look at Glenn's career and we are now up to the time when he enlists in the armed forces. For all the Glenn Miller fans, this set is for you as we celebrate Glenn's birthday of March 01, 1904.

Today I am going to continue with part two of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. This was a nine double album set or a thirteen CD set. I have all these recordings in my library so as we progress in chronological fashion we'll be plying some of his well known recordings and some of the lesser known ones. I am also taking a biographical look at Glenn's career. For all the Glenn Miller fans, this set is for you as we celebrate Glenn's birthday of March 01, 1904.

March 01, 1904 is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. To celebrate his birthday, we are going to start a six part series called The Complete Victor Recordings of Glenn Miller. There are thirteen double record sets in the series so I am going to combine 2 sets per show. I will omit set thirteen as it contains outtakes and unissued recordings. Glenn's second band produced all their recordings for RCA Victor on the Bluebird label. We are going to hear many of the Miller band's big hits along with some that are not as well known. This is a great series and the recordings all sound good. I hope you enjoy this series as we wish Glenn a happy birthday.

This is the final part of our celebration of Black History Month. Today we will highlight the band led by Jimmie Lunceford and in the second half, I have some assorted selections to play. I have really enjoyed putting together this series and today I have pulled out many of the major hits by the Lunceford Orchestra. Some of the assorted cuts include songs from Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, The Mills Brothers and a few others.

Welcome to part three of our celebration of Black Hiistory Month. Today we will be looking at and listening to two bands that were led by African-American Bandleaders. In the first half, we will present some music from Erskine Hawkins and then in the second half music from Duke Ellington. Erskine Hawkins, although not a household name today, had a few big hits during his career and I think I have them all on today's show. I hope your are enjoying this series of music as we will wind up next week..

Welcome to part two of our celebration of Black History Month. For this year's celebration I elected to split each show into two parts and highlight two African-American bands from the big band era. Today we pay a salute to the bands of Benny Carter and Count Basie. Benny was an outstanding alto sax and trumpet player as well as being a great arranger and composer. We'll hear a few of his hits and I'll be playing some early Count Basie from the late 1930's. There is some outstanding music on the show today and I hope you enjoy the selections.

February is Black History Month and for our celebration this month I am taking the four Saturdays and splitting them into two parts and presenting two bands and band leaders per show. Today, I am going to feature the bands of Chick Webb and Andy Kirk. Chick had a very exciting band and was a mainstay at the Savoy Ballroom. Andy Kirk comes out of Kansas City and had several hits and was popular in the late 1930's into the 1940's. I hope you enjoy part one of our celebration of Black History Month.

This is the final episode of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Benny Goodman. I am going to start with a few numbers from Volume Six and then most of the recordings are from Volume Seven during the year of 1938 and we'll wind up with a few recordings from Volume Eight in the year of 1939. Volume Eight was mainly unissued recordings and retakes. Also, I have an interview that the author of the liner notes had with Benny in 1980. This series has been a labor of love for me because the Benny Goodman Orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. I was fortunate to see Benny in person when he brought his sextet to the city I was living in in 1978. I hope you enjoy this last episode of the complete RCA Victor recordings of Benny Goodman 1935 - 1939.

We continue our look at the music in the eight volume set from RCA records of the complete Victor recordings of Benny Goodman. This week we start volume five and get into volume six. Martha Tilton is still the featured vocalist but gradually there are sideman changes in the orchestra. Gene Krupa leaves in March of 1938 to start his own orchestra and then there are a few other changes. The music, however, is still top notch. One thing I noticed while going through this volume is that Benny is recording more pop hits of the day. Most of these songs are unheard of today. It is still a great volume and I hope you enjoy the music in volume number five and six.

On Part Three of the Complete RCA Victor recordings of Benny Goodman, we start with the last recording that Helen Ward sang with the band. Benny used a few substitutes while he was looking for Helen's replacement so we'll hear a number by each of those vocalists. Then at the end of the program I have included the first couple of numbers that Martha Tilton recorded with the band. Also, it was during this time in 1937 that Benny recorded one of his biggest hits, it was called Sing, Sing, Sing. We'll hear the whole commercial recording which took up both sides of a 78 rpm record. I hope you are enjoying these recordings from the 8 double album set of RCA Victor recordings released by RCA in the mid 1970's.

This week we continue our look at the recordings made by Benny Goodman for the RCA Victor label. We start with some songs from Volume Two and move into Volume Three. I also continue with my look at the career of Benny Goodman. Thia show also introduces the Goodman Quartet with the addition of vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Most of these songs were recorded in 1936. There are a lot of favorites for all the fans of Benny and his Orchestra. I hope you are enjoying the recordings that Benny made for RCA Victor at the start of his career.

Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. Another big band show that I listing to just did a five week series on the life and music of Benny Goodman tracing his recordings from the earliest to the last ones. I wanted to do a series on Benny but I didn't want to duplicate what David Miller did on his show Swinging Down the Lane. Luckily, I have in my collection a series of albums from the 1970's released by RCA Victor call the Complete. Well, I have all eight double albums so I thought I would play many of the Victor recordings of the Goodman band. There are lots of great songs in this series and we will also trace the career of Benny Goodman. I hope you enjoy Part One of the RCA Victor Recordings of Benny Goodman.

There are many popular Holiday songs through the years, but the 1930's through the 1950's produced many of them. We will take a look at why this was and enjoy some unique Holiday songs from this period on Part Two of Holiday Songs on the Radio. I want to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you a Happy holiday season. Be safe and enjoy yourselves this year. Seasons greetings everyone and I hope you enjoy the selections from this week's Big Band Bash. I forgot to give credit in the podcast, but the information I got was from the National Review and vocativ.com websites.

I would like to celebrate the holidays with a program I call Holiday Favorites and the Radio. Imagine you have been transported back in time to the 1940's and are in your living room or den or bedroom listening to the radio. These are some of the holiday songs you might have heard. In addition to the songs from back then, I would like to give a little history on the importance of radio from that era. Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you enjoy the selections from this week's Big Band Bash.

We continue this week with the second part of the Time-Life Swing Era volume 1942-1944. I first discovered this series when I made a trip to the local library and found a couple volumes in the set. They were on vinyl lps and so I checked them out and transferred them to cassette (kudos to anyone who remembers cassette players and vinyl lps). After I started working at our radio station, someone donated the whole set in the series to us. It's a challenge thinking up topics for the show so I thought this would be an interesting way of remembering all those great hits from the big band era. I hope you enjoy the original recordings from "The Swing Era" 1942-1944 Part 2.

Welcome to this encore presentation from the Time-Life series, "The Swing Era". Today we return with the volume from the years of 1942-1944. These were the war years but there were still some great recordings made. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Les Brown and more. This is a fantastic set with lots of great music. I hope you enjoy this volume in the series, "The Swing Era". Thanks so much for listening.

This week concludes the Great Big Band Singers set from Reader's Digest. I have picked one song from each singer in the set to play. It is sad that this set is no longer available but I have seen it listed on Ebay. If you are a fan of the big band singers you might want to see if you can buy it there. The puzzler is back this week. I hope you enjoy the songs and singers on this program.

This week's show is a continuation of the series The Great Big Band Singers that I started last week. Some new vocalists make their way into the show: Dick Haymes, Bob Eberle, Helen O'Connell, June Christy and Peggy Lee. This is a great set which unfortunately is no longer available. In addition to the featured singers I will be reading from the booklet that came with the set. Also, the big band puzzler is back. I hope you enjoy the music from The Great Big Band Singers.

Reader's Digest records has put out many collections of Big Bands in the past. One that I have in my collection is called The Great Big Band Singers. I found that when I started to play these CDs that the songs were not the same old songs associated with the singers but different versions. For example, there are live reordings and lesser known recordings in addition to the hits. I hope you enjoy this set from Reader's Digest. This series is for all the vocal fans.

Halloween will be in a few days and so to do something different on the program this week, I have picked out some songs that are scary or eerie sounding or have a scary word in the title. And to make things a little fun I put in a different sounding background to get us in the mood for Halloween. This is the first show I have produced with a Halloween flavor so I hope you enjoy this little bit of eeriness and scary big band sounds.

This week I am going to conclude our look at the V-Disc Program by playing some more songs from the Time-Life four disc set on the V-Disc program. Since I read from two internet sites that told about the V-Disc program on parts one and two, I am not going to do much discussion other than to announce the various songs. As usual the Puzzler will be back. I hope you enjoy this collection of songs as we wind up or look at the many recordings that were part of the V-Disc series.

This week we continue our look at the World War Two recording program known as V-Discs. We are playing from a collection of 4 cds from Time-Life Records. This is a great set which has many varied performers. Some of the V-Discs we will be listening to include Kay Starr, Jimmie Lunceford, Red Norvo, Bea Waid, Slim Gallaird, and others. I also have another short history of V-Discs from another source different than the one in Part One. I hope you enjoy this look at the program from World War II known as V-Discs.

This week I am going start a three part series on the V-Disc program. I have done shows on V-Discs before but they were recorded long ago and I thought I would like to revisit these recordings. The songs from this series come from a four disc set from Time-Life Records. I will also tell about the history of this unique program. Many of the songs in this series I have not presented before. I hope you enjoy this look at the program from World War II known as V-Discs.

This week I am going to conlude the Jerry Atkins Collection series with a couple of albums each by Buddy Bregman, Stan Kenton and Gene Krupa. Jerry was the man responsible for starting my career on public radio in Texarkana, Texas. It was while I was working at KTXK that our station manager asked me if I thought I could produce a big band show to air at 10:00pm Saturday eveings. I have been producing shows since 2006. Jerry passed away in 2010 and we are fortunate to have his extensive record collection at the station. I will continue to go through the many albums as time is available and play some more of these great albums from my friend, Jerry Atkins and his wonderful record collection.

This week we continue with Part Two of a show called Artie Shaw Revisited. Since I ran out of time last week on producing segment three of the Jerry Atkins collection, I wanted to honor a request I received for some music from Artie Shaw and his orchestra. Next week, I hope to have the third show from Jerry's collection completed, but until then, I hope you enjoy some great music and interview segments from Artie himself.

Hello everyone. Since I ran out of time for part three of the Jerry Atkins Collection, I am going to play a show that I produced in 2015. I had a request to play some Artie Shaw so I hope you will enjoy this two part show I called Artie Shaw revisited. I put this show together back in 2015 and it has a lot of your Artie Shaw favorites plus a few interview excepts from Artie himself.

Hello everyone. This is part two of a series I call the Jerry Atkins Collection. Jerry had a show on Saturdays on the radio station I work at called The Enjoyment of Jazz. He played recordings from his massive record collection and entertained us with stories of his meetings and befriending many of the jazz masters. Sadly, Jerry passed away in 2010. His son, who is also a great jazz musician, donated many of the albums and cds in his father's collection to our station. Jerry collected albums by lots of jazz musicians but he liked the more modern big bands. This week I have pulled out several of the Woody Herman albums in the collection. I have digitized them and cleaned up the ticks and pops and background noise as best I could. So as I pay a small tribute to my friend I hope you enjoy this set of recordings from the Jerry Atkins Collection.

Jerry Atkins was a well known musician, jazz historian, and record collector who lived in Texarkana, Texas until his passing in 2010. His record collection was huge and was donated to the the radio station where I work and produce Big Band Bash. Since most of these albums have not been purchased by the station, I have been digitizing some of them. It is amazing how well the software cleans up ticks and pops and eliminates surface noise from the records. I have decided to present four shows from the many albums that Jerry had. Part one features several albums by Les Brown, Part two will be Woody Herman, Parts three and four will be assorted bands. I hope you enjoy the music from the many record albums in the Jerry Atkins Collection.

Hello everyone. On this week's show I am going to wrap up Songs of the 1920's. We'll conclude the alphabet and then I'll present some odds and ends. This was a fun series to research and present. The 1920's was a time for great music from some of the best composers in America. Next time I'll have some new shows that I think you'll enjoy.

This week continues our look at the songs composed in the 1920s. We start with the letter N and go down to the Letter T. The puzzler is back this week so I hope you have your thinking caps on. Next week we'll conclude our series with the last part of the alphabet along with some odds and ends. I hope you enjoy the music from the big bands as they play the Songs of the 1920s.

Welcome back to this four part series on songs of the 1920s. Today we cover songs from that decade that begin with the letter "E" and go all the way down to "M". I broke my rule for this series by playing two songs on the show recorded by Artie Shaw. I had already recorded the introductions when I discovered I did this but I am sure you won't mind because it is one of his best sides. I hope you enjoy this look back at some of the many hit songs from the 1920s. As usual the puzzle is back so get your thinking caps on.

The 1920s were a decade filled with original songs by some of the leading composers of the era. I found a list of many of the popular songs composed in the 1920s and thought it would be fun to listen to those songs as recorded by the big bands of the thirties and forties. Each show for the next four weeks is filled with all of those great songs composed in the 1920s. I did have one rule for myself. In order to make it interesting I only chose one big band per episode. That way one band would not monopolize the show. So get ready to back to the 1920's during the month of August on Big Band Bash.

This week I am going to continue with part two of the Mosaic box set, The Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Session 1939 -1957. These are many of the recordings that Benny made during those years and these are all instrumental recordings. Benny had some great vocalists during those years but Mosaic kept this set to just instrumentals. Some of the songs we'll be listening to include, Jersey Bounce, A String of Pearls, Birth of the Blues, I'll Get By, and many more. This set is no longer available and so I am happy to be able to present some of these great recordings. I hope you enjoy a look at some of the recordings by Benny and the orchestra.

This week we will be listening to selections from a Mosaic Record Company set that I have called the Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions. This is part one of a show I did back in 2012 and repeated almost three years ago in 2019. These are all the instrumental recordings that Benny did for Columbia and the Okeh record label. Unfortunately the producers of this set omitted all the vocals. But there is some fantastic music by the Goodman band starting in 1939 when he switched to the Columbia label. If you are a Benny Goodman fan then I hope you enjoy these two programs.

This week wraps of the set from Time Life records set The Swing Era 1941-1942 Part 2. There is some fantastic music in this set and some of the songs we'll be hearing include Blue Flame, Benny Rides Again, Chattanooga Choo Choo, The Mole, Well Git It and many others. These were some of the most popular songs from those two years. As usual I tried to play the original version rather than the recreations. I you you enjoy these great songs from Time Life The Swing Era 1941-1942 Part 2. I hope you enjoy this program that I originally produced in 2015.

The months right before and after the beginning of World War 2 had some great music from the big bands. The Time-Life set we are playing from today features many of those songs. We'll be hearing from the bands of Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and many others. As usual I am following the playlist from this set but instead of playing the recreations I am presenting the original recordings if I have them. I hope you enjoy this program that I originally produced in 2015.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Big Band Bash. This is a rerun of a holiday show that I produced a few years ago for a Fourth of July rememberance. This was one of the first Fourth of July programs that I have done in the many years of hosting and producing Big Band Bash. I hope everyone has a safe holiday and for the listeners from other countries I hope you enjoy the music.

This week I am going to continue with Part Two of Songs of Summer. There are some different versions of songs with summer in the title.  I mistakenly picked the same song twice. Luckily it is by two different bands so I included it in the show. I hope wherever you are it is cool because for the last week it has been very hot here in Texas. I hope you enjoy part two of Songs of Summer by the big bands.

Summer is a special time of year. It means many different things to people all over the world. Today's program is a look at the many different songs of Summer recorded by the Big Bands. I have included the word Summer in the title and also the months of June, July and August and a few with the word hot. I hope you enjoy this program of assorted songs about the Summer season.

Listening to a live big band is a thrilling experience. Back in the 1930's and 40's before the advent of television, people were often able to hear their favorite bands playing on the radio. Many of these performances were recorded and I am fortunate to have several in my collection. Our first and third remote today is from the Victory Parade of Spotllight Bands program. From that series I have performances by Gene Krupa and Charlie Spivak. To separate them I have a remote by the Glenn Miller orchestra from 1939. I hope you enjoy the sounds of the big bands performing live on the radio.

This is part 2 of our look at another volume in Time Life records ambitious project called "The Swing Era". It was a ten volume set with three records included in each volume. Today we turn to the years of 1940-1941. The songs were rerecorded by the bands of Billy May and Glen Gray. I have this set and thought instead of hearing the recreations that it would be interesting to hear the originals. So I'm borrowing the playlist and presenting the original recordings. There are about 30 songs so I'm going to break it up into two parts. I hope you enjoy the music as I present part 2 of the years 1940-1941.

1940 - 1941 were good years for the big bands as they were full of great music. For the next two weeks I am going to be playing another program from the Time-Life series, "The Swing Era". This was a really good series presented in two year segments. Each set came with three records and a nice book telling about the music in the set. This is a rerun of a show I produced back in 2015. Due to some family health issues time was short this week.

Hello and welcome to part two of my cover song program. I have picked out eight more popular songs of which we'll listen to the original and then we'll hear the cover version. I enjoyed listening to the comparisons. Some of them are quite different. Some of the originals are The Dipsy Doodle, My Blue Heaven, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, What's New and others. I hope you enjoy this program of cover songs.

In the music world, a cover or cover song is a recording of a popular song by another band. Usually the band rearranges the song in a different style. On this Part One of two we are going to be listening to covers of some of the popular songs from the swing era. I will play the original and then after that the cover by a different band. There are some interesting and nicely done covers on our show today and I hope you enjoy the comparisons.

April 29, 1899 is the birthday of the late Duke Ellington. Duke was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a big band from 1923 through the rest of his life. I have put together a show from recordings and remotes as we celebrate his birthday with some of the many famous songs that he composed. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of the greatest big band leaders in music history.