Big Band Bash

Bunny Berigan, his orchestra and trumpet, is the subject of this first program of the new year. It has been awhile since I last presented a program on Bunny. He was one of the most in demand trumpeters before he started his band. I'll be taking a look at his career and playing some oh his band's music as well as some of those great numbers he recorded with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. I hope you enjoy this look at the career of the late Bunny Berigan.

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.

Continuing a repeat of a Holiday show from 2017, This is part 2 of a 1940's Christmas Traditions. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone. Welcome to Part 2 of my 1940's Christmas Traditions show. Last time in between the music I read some holiday traditions started in the 1940's. On the show today, I am going to be reading some Stocking Stuffers from the Associated Press. Stocking Stuffers is a series produced by the Associated Press that consists of about 50 segments on various holiday traditions. Each segment is about 10 to 15 sentences. It is very interesting and I hope you enjoy these segments as well as the music. Happy Holidays everyone and thank you for listening.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. For the holiday season I am rerunning some holiday shows I produced in 2017. This is part one of a program I call 1940's Christmas Traditions Part 1. Many of the ways we celebrate Christmas were started in the 1940's so I thought it would be interesting to learn how some of these traditions started. I am going to start the show with a segment from Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1940 lighting of the Christmas tree speech and then we'll be into some big band holiday favorites. All the songs on today's show were recorded in the 1940's. I will have some new shows when we start the new year of 2021. Thanks so much for listening.

For the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I have pulled out a radio remote from Glenn Miller. Broadcast on Nov 22, 1941 this show was part of Glenn's Sunset Serenade series. There aren't that many recordings and remotes from December 7th 1941 so I decided to play this show which has some patriotic moments from Glenn and his orchestra. I hope you enjoy the music from Glenn Miller as we remember the brave men and women who lost their lives 79 years ago at a base called Pearl Harbor.

Well we're are 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.

In all the time I have been producing Big Band Bash, I have never produced one on the band of Ralph Flanagan. Ralph Flanagan led a very popular band in the early to mid 1950's. He led the Glenn Miller revival starting in the early 50's. Ralph started out as a pianist and then became an accomplished arranger with Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron and Charlie Barnet. I hope you enjoy this look at the music of one of the most popular bands of the 1950's, Mr. Ralph Flanagan. As always, thank you so much for listening.

This week wraps up my 500th show celebration. Today's bandleaders are Harry James, Les Brown, Jimmie Lunceford, and Stan Kenton. I think I have picked out some songs by each bandleader that you will enjoy. I have some new shows planned and in the works. It has been an honor to be able to go into your homes each week and play music from these great bandleaders.  I hope I get to have a 1000th show celebration. As always, thank you so much for listening.

Today's show is part 2 of my 500th Big Band Bash celebration. This is a three part series where I have picked twelve of my favorite bands and divided them up into four bands per show. Then I further subdivided them by choosing four sides per band. It has been an interesting week trying to pick my favorites but I think I have chosen songs that you will enjoy as well.  Today's show features the bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Here's to 500 past shows and maybe 500 future shows. Thank you all so much for listening.

Big Band Bash is a show I created to replace another show that had ceased production. The first show went on the air in 2004. I was very rusty back then but I think I have gotten better. Today's show is part one of a three part series where I have chosen some of my favorite songs from twelve different bands. I broke up my favorites into three shows, four bands per show and 4 songs per band. I had so many favorites that I had to draw the line somewhere. So for the next three weeks I hope you enjoy some of my favorite bands and songs. I have some new shows planned for the weeks to come. Thank you for listening to and supporting Big Band Bash.

Lucy Ann Polk was one of the most acclaimed jazz big band vocalists of the early 1950's having won the Downbeat girl singer poll two years in a row, in 1951 and 1952, when she sang for Les Brown's band. She only recorded about 3 albums so there is not much recorded material by her. I managed to find enough of her recorded output to pay tribute to this great singer. She left the business around 1960 and passed away in 2011 virtually unknown. I hope you enjoy this look at a great singer who only left us a handful of recordings.