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Friday, December 31, 2010

A nice little OTR treat to close out the year...John Kirby and His Orch. w/ Maxine Sullivan Apr 21, 1940

One of the truly great vocalists of the swing era, Maxine Sullivan (along with her husband - the great bandleader John Kirby), had the unique distinction of being the first Black Jazz stars to have their own weekly radio show.

The first episode, and it's REAL nice :)

I hadn't heard any John Kirby on radio, so this one's a treat.  "Flow gently sweet rhythm", on Sunday night...CBS-April 21, 1940.  Maxine Sullivan, the Golden Gate Boys, and John Kirby's Orch.  A half hour of some interesting, small group, intensely swingin' tunage.

I'm liking this b'cast muchly, I think you'll groove on it, too. :)

I'm a thinking that playing this one a little loud, just after the Midnight 2011 clock strikes is a good way to bring in that new year........(well, if there's not a big ol party in your domicile....this is kinda chillin' stuff)

http://www.4shared.com/file/eslwOAxJ/OTR_40-04-21_xxx_John_Kirby.html

Fletcher Henderson Part 3.......4 more ta go.... :)

Here comes part 3 of 7.......more Fletcher Henderson. (Is there ever enough?? lol)

(I've been) saving myself for you From "Grand Terrace Review" V= Chuck Richards
I found a new baby (As The Dixie Stompers) 1926
I miss my Swiss 1925(w/ Louis Armstrong)
I need lovin' 11-19-1926
I never care 'bout tomorrow     9-8-1924
I wanna count sheep 3-10-1932
I want somebody to cheer me up 1-6-1926
I want to see a little more of what I saw in Arkansas 1-6-1926
I'll always be in love with you 4-9-1936
I'll see you in my dreams (w/ Louis Armstrong) 1-12-1925
I'll take her back if she wants to come back 5-19-1925
I'm a fool for loving you 4-9-1936
I'm coming Virginia 5-11-1927
I'm feelin' devilish (Oh By Golly Oh) (As The Dixie Stompers) 4-6-1928
I've found what I wanted in you 2-5-1931
If it's the last thing I do 1937-38
If you should ever leave 1937-38
I'm gonna see you (when your troubles are just like mine) 12-1923 (As F. H. and His Sawin' Six)
It won't be long 1-1924 (As henderson's Club Alabam Orch.)
It's the darndest thing (from "Singin' The Blues") 10-15-1931
It's the little things that count 1937-38
It's the talk of the town 9-22-1933
It's wearin' me down 1937-38
Jackass blues 1926 (As The Dixie Stompers) 5-14-1926
Jackass blues 2 1926
Jangled nerves 4-9-1936
Jealous 5-1924
Jim Town blues
Just blues 1924
Just blues 1931
Keep a song in your soul 12-2-1930
King Porter stomp 3-14-1928 6
King Porter stomp 8-18-1933 2
Kitty on toast 1941
Knock knock who's there V= Roy Eldridge and Edward Cuffee
Let 'er go V= Jerry Blake  9-22-1937
Let me introduce you to my Rosie 1-6-1926
Limehouse blues 9-11-1934
Livery stable blues 4-29-1927
Liza  9-25-1934
Lonesome journey blues 12-1923 (As F. H. and His Sawin' Six)
Lots o mama 1-29-1924 (As henderson's Club Alabam Orch.)
Low down on the bayou 08-?-31

http://www.4shared.com/file/03MWpfon/fletcher_henderson_3.html

Happy New Year to all of you..........

Now that the elves are done doing my Christmas music lists, I have 'em out moonlighting to pay off my MasterCard debts............since all 'em are out tonight, and on the clock doing Mama's bidding....a most heartfelt Happy New Year to each and all of you.  

Drive safe.........crazy folk out there tonight!! :)

An excuse to post pics of Eve Arden...well, also because of a New Years "Our Miss Brooks" OTR..... :)

Yes, I know...(I hear laughing, already)...I'm the ultimate dork. I had a massive crush on Eve Arden as a child. The voice, the sarcasm, the face...the best one liners and comebacks in the history of movies....*sigh*.  I still think she was a hella sexy woman (shaddup alla youse in da peanut gallery)....

Anyhoooo.........here's a New Year's OTR treat for y'all.........."Our Miss Brooks"-January 1, 1950. Ep. 73 "Babysitting on New Year's Eve" (geesh, sounds like the story of my life....I haven't had an adult New Years in a dog's age)

ENJOY!

http://www.4shared.com/file/N0WIox7S/500101_73_Babysitting_on_New_Y.html

Oh, the pics.........I cannot forget the pics!!


To quote Ida (Eve), in "Mildred Pierce":   "Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young" ;)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

As requested (and delayed by those darn holidays) a Glen Gray and The Casa Loma Orch. list ....

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra

The Casa Loma Orchestra was a popular American dance band active from 1927 to 1963. From 1929 until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. It did not tour after 1950 but continued to record as a studio group.
The future members of the band first came together in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit-area groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. The band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, shortly after it played an eight-month engagement at Casa Loma Hotel in Toronto. The band never actually played the Casa Loma under that name, still appearing as the Orange Blossoms at that time.

In 1930, the Casa Loma Orchestra was officially incorporated in New York as a corporation with the members all stockholders and board members. The band members were hired on the grounds of "musical and congenial" competence and followed strict conduct and financial rules. Members who broke the rules could be summoned before the "board", have their contract bought out and be ejected from the band.

The band was fronted for the first few years by violinist Hank Biagini, although the eventual leader, saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963) was from the very beginning "first among equals." The complex arrangements called for talented musicians such as trombonist Pee Wee Hunt, trumpeter Frank L. Ryerson, trumpeter Sonny Dunham, clarinetist Clarence Hutchenrider, drummer Tony Briglia and singer Kenny Sargent. Arrangements were by Gene Gifford, who also composed much of the band's book, Spud Murphy, Larry Wagner, Salvador "Tutti" Camarata and Horace Henderson. Gifford's arrangements were credited in large part to giving the band its sound, but even he fell victim to the band's strict rules, being bought out in 1935 due to alcohol-related infractions.

Manager Cork O'Keefe was made a Vice President in the corporation and arranged bookings in venues such as Glen Island Casino, which they helped popularize, and the Essex House Hotel, that lead to their radio appearances.  

Their mid-1930s appearances on the long-run radio comedy-variety program, the Camel Caravan (introduced with their theme, "Smoke Rings") increased their popularity. Interestingly enough, Gray chose not to conduct the band in the early years, playing in the saxophone section while violinist Mel Jenssen acted as conductor. In 1937, the band overwhelmingly voted in favor of Glen leading the orchestra, and Gray finally accepted the job.

Hits included "Casa Loma Stomp," "No Name Jive" and "Maniac's Ball". Part of the reason for the band's decline is that other big bands included in their books hard-swinging numbers emulating the hot Casa Loma style. In the late 1930s Gray took top billing, and by the mid-1940s (as the other original players left) Gray would come to own the band and the Casa Loma name. For a time, during this period, the band featured guitarist Herb Ellis, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, pianist Nick Denucci and cornetist Red Nichols. By 1950, the Casa Loma band had ceased touring, Gray retired to Massachusetts, and the later recordings on Capitol (beginning with Casa Loma in Hi-Fi in 1956 and continuing through the Sounds of the Great Bands series) were done by studio musicians in Hollywood (with several of Gray's "alumni" occasionally featured). Jazz historian George A. Borgman wrote a book about Glen Gray and the orchestra.

In October 1929, the band debuted on Okeh Records. The following year, they signed with Brunswick where they recorded until 1934. They briefly recorded for Victor in 1933 as "Glen Gray and his Orchestra", the Casa Loma name being under contract to Brunswick. In late 1934, they followed Jack Kapp to the newly formed Decca Records and stayed there well into the LP era when they signed with Capitol. Most of the Okeh's and many of the Brunswick's were out-and-out jazz (albeit very rehearsed) and remain highly collectible.


Maybe not my most researched list........I may have to return with more recording date details, but since this a request that I've ignored for awhile, due to the holidays...........here 'Tis!!

 
Black jazz 1931
Linger awhile
Can't we be friends
For you
Casa Loma stomp
I got rhythm
Limehouse blues
It's the talk of the town 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
Champagne waltz 1934
Dixie Lee 1934
Infatuation 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
This house is haunted (by the echo of your last goodbye) 1934
Fare Thee well Annabelle 1935 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Got my heart set on you 1937 v=Kenny Sargent
If I had my way 1939 v=Kenny Sargent
Don't do it darling 1942
Don't get around much anymore 1942
Don't take your love from me 1944
China girl
Dardanella/Black eyed Susan Brown/Casa Loma Stomp 1933
By the river Saint Marie (from b'cast)
C Sharp minor (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Git away day (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Indian summer v=Kenny Sargent (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Honeysuckle Rose v=Steve Young (live Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Drifting apart 1937
Love is a dreamer 1929
A friend of yours v=Glen Gray 1945
Girl of my dreams v=Kenny Sargent
Always
Blue moon 1935
Breeze (blow my baby back to me)
Carry me back to the lone prairie
Casa Loma stomp 1930
Chinatown my Chinatown
Desert skies
Goodnight angel
I cried for you
Little old lady
Heat wave 1933 v=Mildred Bailey
After you've gone (trumpet=Buddy Hackett)
Heaven can wait 1939 v=Clyde Burke
Alexander's ragtime band 1930 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Little man on the hammer 1943 v=Pee Wee Hunt (04/17/1943 Command Performance) Pretty sure that's Dinah Shore introducing the band
Dust 1930 (From MGM's "Children of pleasure")

http://www.4shared.com/file/fY4zqmz9/glen_gray_1.html

Smoke rings 1937
The man I love (04/17/1943 Command Performance b'cast v=Eugenie Baird) Pretty sure it's Dinah Shore introducing the band
I'm Tired of it all
Maniac's ball 1927
White star stomp
Loveless love
Stompin' around
Under a blanket of blue
Sunny disposish
New Orleans
Wolverine blues
My man
Ol' man river
Shadows of love
Should I
Walkin' the dog
Trouble in paradise 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
You have taken my heart 1933 v=Kenny Sargent
Object of my affection 1934 v=Pee Wee Hunt
Pardon my southern accent 1934
Two cigarettes in the dark 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Never in a million years 1937
My Bonnie lies over the ocean 1938
Sunrise serenade 1939
One dozen roses 1942
Suddenly it's spring 1944 v=Eugenie Baird
Shades of hades 1936
San Sue strut (As The OK Rhythm Kings)
The Isle of May v=Kenny Sargent (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Save your sorrow v=Pee Wee Hunt (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
You're a lucky guy v=Steve Young (live at The Meadowbrook Ballroom NJ 1940)
Rose of the Rio Grande 1936
Meet me tonight in dreamland
Narcissus
Smoke rings 2
Sophisticated lady
Take the A train
Was I to blame (theme song)
Well git it
White jazz 1933
Zig zag 1939 (from b'cast)
Why can't this life go one forever v=Kenny Sargent
Sugar blues w/ Jonah Jones
Love is the thing v=Kenny Sargent
A hundred years from today 1034 v=Lee Wiley
Put on your old grey bonnet 1930 v=Pee Wee Hunt
No name jive 1943 (from b'cast)
My shining hour
Tears from my inkwell 1939
This night will be my souvenir 1939

http://www.4shared.com/file/7rXwIy4b/glen_gray_2.html




Blue jazz 1932
I never had a chance 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Learning 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
Casa Loma Stomp 1937 w/ Gene Gifford
Clarinet marmalade
Copenhagen
Here come the British 1934
My heart tells me
Spellbound 1934 v=Kenny Sargent
The goblin band
The man I love 1943 v=Eugenie Baird
Tumbling tumbleweeds 1939

http://www.4shared.com/file/BL5sCzxq/glen_gray_3.html


Hedy Lamarr......actress of the day......

Usually I post some pics regularly of favourite actresses....it's a vanity post, I suppose, because I'm not always basing it on acting ability....

Well, tonight...Hedy Lamarr.  Here's a little bit about Hedy, other than bio, which you may, or may not know:

http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html

From Strapless to Wireless
Hedy Lamarr helped to set the groundwork for some of the most revolutionary technology of our time.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Lamarr, a passionate opponent of the Nazis, wanted to contribute more to the allied effort. As Mrs. Fritz Mandl, she had closely observed the planning and discussions that went into attempting to design remote-controlled torpedoes. These never went into production, because the radio-controlled guidance system was too susceptible to disruption. She got the idea of distributing the torpedo guidance signal over several frequencies, thus protecting it from enemy jamming. The only weak point was how to employ the synchronization of the signal's transmitter and receiver. 

In 1940, Lamarr met the American avant-garde composer George Antheil of "ballet mécanique" fame. She described her idea to him, and asked him to help her construct a device that would enable this signal to be synchronized. Antheil laid out a system based on 88 frequencies, corresponding to the number of keys on a piano, using perforated paper rolls which would turn in sync with one another, transmitting and receiving ever-changing frequencies, preventing interceptance and jamming. 

In December of 1940, the "frequency hopping" device developed by Lamarr and Antheil was submitted to the national inventors council, a semi-military inventors' association. Lamarr and Antheil went on to file for a patent application for the "Secret Communication System," June 10, 1941. The patent was granted by the United States patent office on august 11, 1942.

Lamarr and Antheil immediately placed their patent at the disposal of the US military. Though the us government did not deploy the "secret communication system" during World War II, the US Navy commissioned a project to acoustically detect submarines using sonar buoys remote-controlled from airplanes employing "frequency hopping" in the 1950s. 

Twenty years after its conceptualization, during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the first instance of large-scale military deployment of Lamarr and Antheil's frequency hopping technology was implemented-- not for the remote-controlled guidance of torpedoes, but to provide secure communications among the ships involved in the naval blockade. The early '60s saw the development of reconnaissance drones based on frequency hopping, which were later deployed in Vietnam. With the emergence of digital technology and the military's release of frequency hopping for public use in the 1980s, Lamarr and Antheil's invention took on new significance. Instead of "frequency hopping," today's term is "spread spectrum" but the basic idea is the same. The FCC recently allotted a special section of the radio spectrum for an experiment using the spread spectrum idea in a test designed to make cell phone calls more secure. A lot of corporate dollars have been invested in this process which has allowed more cell phone users to use the existing frequency spectrum.

Anyway....here are some more pics....




"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."-Hedy Lamarr 


But glamorous and bright......that's a rare commodity ;)

More Trudy Pitts...alas, it's not yet a copy of "Bucket full of soul", but DO go to this link!!

A great blog, and a great post........The Van Groove Express blog, and a link to a Trudy Pitts LP that I didn't have a copy of to post-"These blues of mine", from 1967:

http://vangrooveexpress.blogspot.com/2010/12/trudy-pitts-introducing-fabulousthese.html

'Tis nearly 2011........a few pics to bring us into the spirit.........

OTR New Year's Dancing Party AFRS 1945 This is a great one, kids :)


AFRS New Year's Dancing Party-December 31, 1945..swinging you into 1946 with live broadcasts from all over the country...Harry James, Count Basie, Freddy Martin, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Henry King, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Dorsey, Les Brown, Artie Shaw w/ Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Stan Kenton w/ June Christy on vox, Tommy Dorsey, Carmen Cavallaro, Louis Prima, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Guy Lombardo.  This is a nice one.....enjoy! :)


http://www.4shared.com/file/be5Vw8--/all-star-new-years-dancing-par.html

A few songs for "wringing" out the old, and bringing in the new.....

The Heatbeats-After New Years Eve
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards-Auld Lang Syne (You dinna think I'd do a list without a pipes and drums version?? lol)
Aretha Franklin and Billy Preston-Auld Lang Syne
The Beach Boys-Auld Lang Syne
The Crew Cuts-Auld Lang Syne
Peter Dawson-Auld Lang Syne
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians-Auld Lang Syne (the version that I grew up with)
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin-Auld Lang Syne
Navada Van Der Veer-Auld Lang Syne
Bobby Darin-Christmas Auld Lang Syne
Johnny Otis and his Orch.-Happy New Year baby
Billy Ward and the Dominoes-Ringing in a brand new year
The Orioles-What are you doing New Year's Eve
Billy Ward and the Dominoes-Wat are you doing New Year's Eve
Nancy Wilson-What are you doing New Year's Eve
Ella Fitzgerald-What are you doing New Year's Eve

http://www.4shared.com/file/_nUm8jwy/new_years_eve_auld_lang_syne.html