BIG BAND NEWS · a recording of Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo. In 2000 and 2003, Wilber played...
Transcript of BIG BAND NEWS · a recording of Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo. In 2000 and 2003, Wilber played...
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.