Big Band Bash

It has been awhile since I featured the music of the late Jimmy Dorsey on the show so today's program will feature a lot of Jimmy's hit records. These are the original recordings feating his great vocalists Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell. I hope you enjoy this look at a truly gifted instrumentalist and a well liked band leader. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

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. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

This is my annual holiday show. It is an assorted program featuring as many different bands playing holiday music as I could find. Most of the songs were recorded in the 1940's. I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and hope you enjoy the music. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

I'm back from vacation and have some new programs under way. Here is the first, spotlighting one of my favorite big bands. Will Bradley was a great trombonist who worked with several name orchestras when he was persuaded to start up his own orchestra in 1939. They had an exciting pianist in Freddie Slack and sperked an interest in boogie woogie with their hit Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar. I hope you enjoy this salute to a great big band leader and musician. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that Woody gave in 1978. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. To celebrate this milestone we will be playing some of his early recordings made between the years of 1939 and 1946 on the show today which is part one of two. I was fortunate enough to see the Herman band in person not once but twice. They were a very exciting band and I have been a fan every since I was in high school. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

I am a huge fan of the songs and composers that make up the Great American Songbook. On the show today I'll be focusing in on the late Richard Rodgers. From an early age until his death, Rodgers was one of the best loved composers of the American Musical. We'll be hearing some of the songs that made Richard Rodgers a household name played by many different big bands. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest composers. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

April 29, 1899 is the birthday of the late composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. I've done shows about the Duke in the past so on today's program I'm going to be playing some live recordings made at The Hurricane Restaurant in 1945. In addition we are also going to be playing some excepts from the Duke Ellington Centennial Radio Project. I hope you enjoy this birthday salute to one of the greatest of the Big Band leaders. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Today we focus our attention on several of the small groups, the band within a band, that were a part of many of the big bands. Consisting of about three to six players, these combos usually focused on chamber jazz or swing instead of popular songs. These are all the original recordings from the small groups of John Kirby, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Woody Herman. I hope you enjoy the music from a few of the more popular small combos. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

April 12th is the birthday of the great vocalist Helen Forrest. Helen left us in 1999 but many people still consider her to be the greatest female singer of the big band era. I'll be playing recordings that Helen made with the three great bands she sang with, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. These are all the original recordings. I hope you enjoy listening to some of the fantastic vocals recorded by Helen as we celebrate her birthday. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

April 3rd is the birthday of vocalist Doris Day. On the program today we give a birthday salute to Doris. Most of the selections today come from a three cd set called, "Doris Day - The Formative Years". These are the original recordings she made with Les Brown. I hope you enjoy listening to some of the fine vocals that Doris recorded as we send her Happy Birthday wishes. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Fran Warren, the great vocalist who sang with several big bands, passed away on March 4, 2013. On the program today I would like to pay tribute to Fran with some of her recordings. I don't have a lot of Fran Warren material in my collection but I do have several of the sides she recorded with Claude Thornhill. Also, I found a radio remote from 1947 featuring Fran with the Thornhill Orchestra. I hope you enjoy listening to some of the fine vocals that Fran recorded as we remember her. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Count Basie has been one of my favorite bands since I started listening to the Big bands. I have a lot of his music in my collection so when I was trying to decide what selections of his I would like to build a show around I decided to focus on the year of 1939. 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. These are all the original recordings and I hope you enjoy the great music of Count Basie during one of his most productive years. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

There were three great songwriters whose birthdays fall in the month of March. On the program today we celebrate the birthdays of Will Hudson, Peter De Rose, and Kurt Weill. They wrote such great songs as Moonglow, Deep Purple, September Song, and Autumn Serenade. Will Hudson was born on March 08, 1908. Peter De Rose was born on March 10, 1900 and Kurt Weill was born on March 02, 1900. I hope you enjoy listening to some of their great compostions as we pay them a March birthday salute. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/

Glenn Miller was born on March 1, 1904. In honor of his birthday we will be listening to a live broadcast of the Sunset Serenade program which was broadcast on November 22, 1941. I tried to do minimal speaking on the programbut I made one mistake which is repeated throughout the show but it's too late for me to correct. March 1st is the 109th anniversary of his birth NOT the 99th which I say in the program. Other than that the music is great and I hope you enjoy this podcast. Please visit this podcast at http://www.fgmiller.com/bbb/