BIG BAND NEWS · BIG BAND NEWS JUNE 2019 by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA CONGRATULATIONS TO...
Transcript of BIG BAND NEWS · BIG BAND NEWS JUNE 2019 by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA CONGRATULATIONS TO...
BIG BAND NEWS
JUNE 2019
by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA
CONGRATULATIONS TO
“THOSE WERE THE DAYS”
MARKING 49 YEARS!
Back in 1970, Chuck Schaden [ above, l. ] began a
Saturday afternoon radio program, “Those Were the Days,” on
station WLTD in Evanston, Illinois, that relived the golden age
of radio, including big band music and remotes from the ‘30s
and ‘40s.
In 1975, “Those Were the Days” moved to station WNIB in
Chicago, then in 2001 to WDCB at the College of DuPage in
suburban Chicago.
Chuck Schaden talks with guest Karl Pearson, an expert about big bands
announcer Ken Alexander and host Chuck Schaden on the air in 2005
Schaden continued as host until 2009.
“Those Were the Days” still thrives today, broadcast in the
Chicago area over WDCB, 90.9 FM, and around the world on
the website wdcb.org, on Saturdays from 1 to 5 pm CST,
hosted by Steve Darnall [ above, r. ].
A sampling of recent programs included in March,
bandleader Phil Harris; in April, the band of the Army Air Forces
Training Command under the direction of Captain Glenn Miller
and “The Jack Pearl Show” with Tommy Dorsey and His
Orchestra; and in May, “Command Performance” show no.120
with Louis Armstrong and a 1952 “Martin and Lewis Show” with
Dick Stabile and the orchestra.
On May 25th, historian Karl Pearson was guest for a special
called “Big Bands in 1944,” in which radio airchecks of Les
Brown, Louis Armstrong, Vaughn Monroe, Tommy Dorsey,
Louis Prima, Glenn Miller, and Erskine Hawkins were heard.
Learn more about Chuck, Ken, Steve, and “Those Were the
Days” at the website nostalgiadigest.com.
And if you enjoying reliving the golden days of radio, you will
like their related publication, Nostalgia Digest, an entertaining
64-page quarterly magazine.
Chuck, meanwhile, has posted many of the interviews that
he conducted over the years, including a half-dozen
bandleaders (Beneke, Harris, Heidt, Martin, McCoy, Monroe,
and Vallee), on his website speakingofradio.com.
THANK YOU, MUSICPROF78!
If you have listened to music on the Internet, you may have
run across what was called the “MusicProf78” channel on
YouTube, which had postings of 12,000 vintage recordings. It
was created by a man named Bob Moke.
But as of April 23rd, it’s been removed due to copyright
restrictions. (Evidently, complaints were lodged because of
some 1959-1962 Cameo-Parkway rock’n’roll recordings he had
posted.)
“I’ve had a wonderful time preparing & sharing the
recordings and discussing a wide variety of musical topics with
thousands of visitors since MusicProf78 debuted in December
2010,” Moke wrote. “Whether at the Internet Archive
(archive.org) or on a different YouTube channel hosted by me
or someone else, I hope in the not-too-distant future to again
make available a significant portion of the MusicProf78
collection...certainly the ‘safer’ pre-rock 78rpm-era tracks. Stay
tuned!”
COMPACT DISC OF MONTH
Two 1947 Armed Forces Radio Service “Jubilee” broadcasts
from the McCormack General Hospital in Pasadena, California
make for a “Double ‘Jubilee’,” Sounds of YesterYear DSOY
2153. Songs include Chattanooga Choo Choo, Kalamazoo, St.
Louis Blues March, Sunrise Serenade, and Stormy Weather,
and The Ernie Felice Quartet perform two tunes as guests.
My only disappointment is that Sounds of YesterYear has
already used that same cover photo of Tex on at least two of
their other Beneke CDs.
MORE NEW CDS
Here’s a band that doesn’t get too much attention nowadays,
with music from three “One Night Stand” radio broadcasts in the
1940s. Besides a live version of their biggest hit, Elks Parade,
on “Making Whoopee,” Sounds of YesterYear DSOY 2150,
you’ll also hear Swinging At the Semloh, Lover Come Back to
Me, Caravan, Hodge Podge, and several vocals by Bobby
Sherwood himself.
Attention, members of the public group “Guy Lombardo and
His Royal Canadians” on Facebook, here’s a new 2-CD set with
48 Lombardo recordings from 1927 to 1934 by the Crystal
Stream Audio label in Australia, catalog numbers IDCD 409 and
410. Along with songs called The Sweetest Music This Side of
Heaven (recorded for Brunswick on April 5, 1934) and You’re
the Sweetest Girl This Side of Heaven (Columbia, April 10,
1930), there’s Under the Moon (Columbia, June 13, 1927), a
Stephen Foster medley (Columbia, October 1, 1930), April
Showers and Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody with
Al Jolson (Brunswick, December 20, 1932), and many more.
SNEAK PEEK
Next month, I will describe a new, must-have CD with many
giants of jazz, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey,
Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Charlie Barnet.
NECROLOGY
DORIS DAY, 97, d.May 13, 2019. Vocalist with Crosby ‘40;
Brown ‘40-’41 / ‘43-’46; James ‘50 (“Young Man with a Horn”);
Weston ‘51 / ‘53 / ‘56 / ‘57.
CHUCK CECIL, 96, host of the local and later syndicated radio
program “The Swingin’ Years” from 1956 to 2016, d.April 30,
2019. At various times, worked for Los Angeles radio stations
KFI (from 1952 to 1973), KGIL, and KPRZ.
JOHN ODDO, 66, pianist, arranger, and composer with
Woody Herman’s Big Band ‘81-’83 / ‘85, d.April 2, 2019.
NORMA MILLER, 99, Lindy Hop dancer nicknamed the
“Queen of Swing,” d.May 5, 2019. Danced with Ellington ’37
film, C Williams ’42 tour, ’56 Calloway nightclub show.
.