BIG BAND NEWS

DECEMBER 2019

by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! With special times like Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’re

reminded to be grateful for what we have and to celebrate our

family and friends. Don’t forget to find some joy and peace for

yourself! And be sure to make music a part of the fun—

whether you prefer it on 78, a vinyl reissue, or something more

recent.

promotion for a 2017 holiday appearance by The Glenn Miller Orchestra

GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA

CURRENT ITINERARY

through Dec 9, 2019—conclusion of Japan tour

Dec 10, 2019—OMNI Mt. Washington Resort, Bretton Woods,

New Hampshire

Dec 11, 2019—OMNI Parker House, Boston, Massachusetts

Dec 12, 2019—Aqua Turf Club, Plantsville, Connecticut

Dec 14, 2019—Milton Performing Arts Center, Milton,

West Virginia

Dec 15, 2019—Lions Lincoln Theatre, Massillon, Ohio

Dec 17, 2019—Metropolis Performing Arts Center,

Arlington Heights, Illinois [ two shows ]

Dec 19, 2019—Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dec 20, 2019—Rose Theatre, Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Dec 21, 2019—Hammerson Hall, Mississauga, Ontario,

Canada

Dec 22, 2019—FirstOntario Concert Hall, Hamilton, Ontario,

Canada

Dec 23, 2019—National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

LATEST RELEASE

“Commemorative Edition 2019,” Victor Entertainment (Japan)

VICP-65553

MORE ITINERARIES

DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA

December 6, 2019—Detroit Symphony, Detroit, Michigan

December 15, 2019—Segerstrom Center for the Arts,

Costa Mesa, California

HARRY JAMES ORCHESTRA

December 20-22, 2019—Honolulu, Hawaii

NEW 359-PAGE BOOK

Berglund, Pelle. Buddy Rich: One Of A Kind

(Hudson Music, 2019)

NEW DVD

.

Kino Video

NOTE: This movie was previously available from

Alpha Video in 2007, American Pop Classics in 2012,

and The Film Detective in 2016

This DVD, titled “A Tribute To Glenn Miller & The Army Air

Force Orchestra,” performed by Jan Slottenas and the world-

famous Glenn Miller Orchestra Scandanavia, together with

musicians from The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra,

The Royal Swedish Orchestra, and The Royal Swedish Opera,

is, simply put, incredible! To think that Slottenas can, some 75

years after Glenn Miller himself conducted these pieces, render

them almost as perfect and beautiful as when they were first

done, makes this a must-buy for all big band fans! Besides the

instrumentalists who capture the spirit of swing with each

selection, the vocalists, including Jens Bergren and Samuela

Burenstrand, also do a great job—even all the more amazing

because English is not their native language! To point out what

very few notes don’t sound precisely like Miller here or there

would be unfair and silly. My only criticism would be (as I’ve

written before) on some uptempo numbers I wish the band and

vocal group would not snap their fingers so bogusly and here I

question the need to wear imitation Army uniforms and to trot

out reproduction AAF music stands. I know it’s a “show,” but

the music holds its own, even after all this time.

Big Band Library rating:

excellent and congratulations to all involved

“Neglected American Songs: Glenn Miller And His

Orchestra,” Sounds of YesterYear DSOY2169, gathers 25

songs and instrumentals that, as far as the label could

determine, never appeared “in the charts of American Popular

Music.” Despite that fact, you and I may have some favorites

among them, such as, to my ears, Long Tall Mama, Shhh! It’s a

Military Secret, Caribbean Clipper, or Sleepy Town Train. As

advance publicity explains, “Here then are a selection of the

Miller tracks which should have made the American charts but

didn’t, they are the neglected American songs.”

“Duke Ellington: Upsala 1971,”

Storyville CD no.1018482,

captures Duke and his famous

orchestra in concert near the end

of a European tour, on November

9, 1971 in Uppsala, Sweden. The

pieces include One More Time for

the People, Lotus Blossom, Fife,

Happy Reunion, and Chinoiserie,

along with the usual popular

requests. As it was observed, “It seems that Sweden has

always meant something special to Ellington from the first visit

in 1939 to the last concert in Sweden Oct. 28, 1973, only 7

months before his death in 1974.” The first time he was in

Sweden, Duke wrote Serenade to Sweden and an arrangement

of a Swedish hit song, In a Little Red Cottage. Over the years,

a couple Swedish musicians played in the band, namely

trombonist Ake Persson and trumpet player Rolf Erickson, as

well as vocalist Alice Babs.

How about a Christmas

present of Gene Krupa and

His Orchestra, “To Be Or Not

To Be Bop,” Sounds of

YesterYear DSOY2164, heard

on a pair of Armed Forces

Radio Service “One Night

Stand” broadcasts from the

Hollywood Palladium, ONS

1951 and ONS 1998, during

April 1949. This was when the

band was playing charts like G-Bop and Birdhouse, arranged by

Gerry Mulligan, and Yesterdays and I Should Have Kept On

Dreaming, arranged by George Williams.

“Stan Kenton And His

Orchestra: A Kenton Trilogy Part

Two: The Sound Of Jazz: With

Ann Richards,” Sounds of

Yesteryear DSOY2166, serves as

a complement to the dance music

of “Part One” which I reported

about in the August 2019 “Big

Band News.” Featured here are

several people who played a

major part in the direction of the band during the 1950s into the

early ‘60s: alto saxophonist-arranger Lee Konitz, alto

saxophonist Art Pepper, vocalist Ann Richards, and

trumpeter-mellophonist-arranger Ray Starling. According to

Sounds of YesterYear, “The CD also contains previously

unissued material” - maybe that’s where Stan Kenton speaks

about Ray Starling. The colorful cover looks nice, but perhaps

the words seem a little crowded on it.

Here’s another item which would make a nice Christmas

present: a DVD of “The Vaughn Monroe Show,” as performed

live on location at The Somerville Theatre in Somerville,

Massachusetts on November 10, 2017, starring trombonist-

vocalist Dan Gabel leading the new Vaughn Monroe Orchestra,

featuring vocalist Elise Roth and vocal groups The Moon Maids

and The Moon Men.

I can see how hard and with how much care that Gabel

worked on this project. He was as good a choice as anyone

could be (there was only one Vaughn Monroe), and he secured

the blessings of Monroe’s two daughters, Christy and Candy.

The show was presented as a period piece, as if they were

doing an actual “Camel Caravan” broadcast in the year 1949,

complete with Camel show music and a Camel Cigarette TV

commercial. Some of the Camel references might be over the

heads of today’s audiences, but it truly was a variety show,

complete with a simple but effective stage set, reproductions of

Monroe’s original music stands, a pair of dancers, even some

comedic bits a la Ziggy Talent, who was with Monroe almost the

whole time he had a band, from 1940 to 1954.

I can’t agree with some of the choices of music included (At

the Jazz Band Ball was a Dixie number with no relation to

Monroe, Begin the Beguine was the Artie Shaw band version,

and the instrumentals Kibitzin’, Junior Prom, and Swing Low

were unimpressive), and the number of vintage film clips left the

program feeling disjointed.

Yet overall, the band and singers were well-rehearsed and

completely professional, and I applaud Gabel for attempting

such a difficult venture in today’s world.

We need more talented younger people, like Gabel, to carry

on the big band sounds, and I wish him all the best in continuing

what he started with “The Vaughn Monroe Show.”

People who enjoy big bands and old-time radio will like the

new 10-CD set, “The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show: The Circus,”

Radio Spirits no.48432. There are a total of 20 episodes which

were originally broadcast in 1949. All of them are funny, but be

sure to hear the shows “Remley Is Fired” (2/27/49) and “Remley

Is Re-Hired” (3/13/49), named for the (fictitious) left-handed

guitar player, Frank Remley, in Harris’ band.

Sounds of YesterYear has introduced a new series, “The

Best Years Of Our Lives,” with volumes devoted to “1936” and

“1949” (CD nos.DSOY2167 and 2165, respectively). Nothing

startling here, with the bands better represented in 1936 than

they were in ‘49—by then, the vocalists had taken over.

Let’s close out the year with a few news items…

NECROLOGY

BOB WILBER, 91, d.Aug. 4, 2019. Clarinetist / saxophonist

with Spanier, Hackett, Goodman, Teagarden. He became

interested in jazz at the age of 3 when his father brought home

a recording of Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo. In 2000 and 2003,

Wilber played with The Tuxedo Band on two CDs of “Fletcher

Henderson’s Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman.”

ERA GONE

One of the most well-known locations for the big bands, The

Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, is now called The Byline Bank

Aragon Ballroom. After the glory days, from its opening in 1926

until its closing with Wayne King and His Orchestra on the

bandstand in 1964, the Aragon became a roller skating rink,

boxing venue, discotheque, then a concert hall. With this latest

change, it reminds me that the era is almost completely gone.

PRIMA ON EXHIBIT

Clothing, artifacts, photos, and videos help to show Louis

Prima’s rise to entertainment stardom in a current exhibit at The

New Orleans Jazz Museum, “The Wildest: Louis Prima Comes

Home.”

While some may be aware of Prima’s early days as a

trumpeter or bandleader, others may think of him for his wild

onstage antics in Las Vegas, hearing his voice as the character

“King Louie” in Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” seeing his music

picked up by others (like rocker David Lee Roth, who in 1985

did pretty much a note-for-note rip-off of Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t

Got Nobody), and used in TV commercials (especially Sing,

Sing, Sing, which he wrote, or the Capitol recording of he and

Keely Smith singing Jump, Jive an’ Wail on the Gap’s “Khakis

Swing” jeans spot in 1998).

The Prima exhibit runs through May 2020.

NEW BOOK ABOUT DECCA

The 400 pages of Decca: The Supreme Record Company:

The Story Of Decca Records 1929-2019 by Darren Henley and

Daryl Easlea (London: Elliott & Thompson, 2019) offer facts,

anecdotes, and photos about one of the 20th Century’s major

record labels in 12”x12” coffee table book. Though there is a

chapter on U.S. Decca, the rest is from a British perspective

and much modern ground is covered.