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BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER FIRST-CLASS MAIL Box 52252 U.S IN THIS ISSUE: •& An interview with LES BROWN SENIOR & JUNIOR ir Reviews of BIG BOOKS AND RECORDS to consider BAND ★ A BANDLEADER NICKNAMES JUMP TRIVIA QUIZ NEWSLETTER ★ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR about GUITAR PLAYERS, OLD THEATERS AND MORE BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER FIRST-CLASS MAIL Box 52252 U.S. POSTAGE PAID Atlanta, GA 30355 Atlanta, GA Permit No. 2022 MUG BAND NEWSLETTER VOLUME LXX __________________ BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2000 Sr. told us he didn 't recall the address and didn 't know LES BROWN INTERVIEW anything about the plans to put up a plaque, but did (SENIOR & JUNIOR) confirm he was born in Reinerton. The Background It was nearly a decade ago when an interview with Les Brown first appeared in this newsletter, the issue of November-December, 1991. In that interview we learned that Les Brown came from a musical family; there was, in his words, "... music around the house all the time. My dad was a musician, and he led the town band. My brother Stumpy and my brother Warren and my sister all had something to do with music, so I got started around six or seven. I can’t even remember when. ” Les Brown directed the band at New York Military Academy, and for four years directed and arrangedfor the Duke University dance band, known for the last two years o f his tenure as “Les Brown and his Duke Blue Devils. ” The band we now know as the “Band o f Renown” was organized in 1938, and has been working ever since. At the time o f that first interview, there were seven or eight Bob Hope television specials each year, provid­ ing a consistent source of employment for the band. Les Brown Senior & Junior Back then, Les and his wife had just moved into a new penthouse overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a few miles from the Pacific Palisades home they lived in for The Interview nearly forty years. LB, SR.: Well, that’s where I was bom, and it’s a In the 1991 interview, Les Brown, Sr. referred to Les, suburb of Tower City. Tower City is only Jr. having joined the band as a singer. Now, these 3,000people, so you can imagine how small Reinerton was. years later, Les, Jr. also fronts the band, sharing the band-leading with his Dad. He also shares answers in LB, JR.: I drove through Reinerton one day with the interview. We got them together in the studio where Grandpa Brown, and as we entered the they record their weekly two hour radio program, town he said, “This is the town your father was bom in.” heard on selected stations across the nation. I was looking around and he said, “Yeah, we just left it! ” Before the interview began, we mentioned a newspa­ BBJ: (To Les, Sr.) Fill us in on your life these days. per article sent to us from a newsletter reader concern­ ing a campaign to put a plaque in thefrontyard of 1944 LB, SR.: I’m enjoying life more than I ever have. I East Grand Avenue in Reinerton, Pennsylvania where only work, oh, four days a month, and Les Brown was born on March 14th, 1912. Les Brown, sometimes we have as much as three or four weeks off, VOLUME LXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2000 then we’ll play five in a row or something like that, BBJ: Would a TV musical variety show, such as which I enjoy. Les, Junior’s mother passed away five the Dean Martin show, work today? years ago. (Editor’s note: That marriage lasted nearly 60 years.) A little over two years ago I re-married and LB, SR.: I think it would and why doesn ’ t somebody we’ve been on seven cruises since then. do it! My gosh, there’s so much talent around. More singers than ever, more groups even if BBJ: How do you decide who leads the Band of they’re contemporary. Renown? LB, JR.: I am also a television producer, besides LB, JR.: We kind of split it. Ifit’sadancejobDad working with the band, and when you go will come in and do the first few hours and back 20 or 25 years when everybody was doing variety then I’ll take over so he can go home early. On shows; Glen Campbell, Andy Williams, Dean Martin, concerts, generally he leads the band. It’s very rare I Perry Como, Dinah Shore....all the great variety do a concert on my own. A two hour concert is a little shows....that was as high as could get in terms of an easier, even though it’s a little more intense. I’d say he entertainer reaching a pinnacle. To have your own leads the band 80% of the time. television show was the best thing that could happen to you. Today, the way concerts are and the concert BBJ: Tell us about the new Les Brown Band CD schedules and the money generated by the concerts, that’s coming out. they can’t afford to do a weekly television show. They can’t possibly earn as much money as they can on the LES, JR.: I work in other areas with a manager road. whose name is John Hartman. One of the record companies he’s tied in with is called “DOC BBJ: Why not a variety show with a Big Band? HOLLYWOOD” made up of a group of doctors from Texas, actually. They’ve been making a lot of pop LB, JR .: The reality of it is that the band was not the albums, but the head of the record company said he’d focal point. They always shot the singers like to give them something the doctors can relate to, and the dancers behind them or something like that. and Les Brown and the Band of Renown would be There would be a problem with shooting a Big Band perfect. We put together a concept, and basically it’s because the singers have always been the point of a lot of the recordings Dad made in monaural early on, interest. When we did the Hollywood Palladium show and we decided to re-record them in stereo and sur­ a few years ago, SWING ALIVE that celebrated Dad’s round-sound, the kind of sound you hear in the movies. sixtieth year as a bandleader, one of the points of Lou Rawls is a guest vocalist on two of the tracks. research that I got into was looking at all the top ten records from 1938 until about 1945, and about eighty BBJ: This is for Les, Sr. Do you miss such past percent of the hit records were vocals. activities as doing the Bob Hope and Dean Martin television programs? BBJ: (To Les, Sr.) What is your opinion of music’s direction? LB, SR.: Yes and no. They were time-consuming, of course. The Martin show was done LB, SR.: I wish I knew where it was going. I think every week. It was great fun with both of them because it’s improved in the last five or six years, they were musical shows, we got to play a lot of music, even in the contemporary field. As far as jazz is and they were both comedians. Dean Martin used to concerned, I don’t know if I can take it any more. If I say, “I’m not a singer, I’m an entertainer.” He was as hear any more be-bop and a guy playing the same chord much a comedian as anybody I know because he made for about three minutes....I can’t take that. It doesn’t us all laugh. I miss him. I used to look forward to going swing as much; they just play a lot of notes. Every time to the Martin show because we had a lot of music and I see one of those current jazz guys I ask them, “Do you a lot of laughs, even at the rehearsal, but at my age I’m get paid by the note?” also happy not to have to work that hard anymore. 2 VOLUME LXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2000 BBJ: (To Les, Sr.) Are musicians better today BBJ NEWSLETTER than 50 years ago? Box 52252 Atlanta, GA 30355 LES, SR.: By far. I’ve said that many times. For example, at the University of Indiana, The letters that follow have been edited for space they’ve got five Big Bands, and I think six symphonies, considerations, but the meaning has been preserved. right in the school, and they’re great musicians. Same thing happens at Julliard, at North Texas State, wher­ ever, they have great musicians, but where are they going to play? They have to find a guitar player that can’t read music to make money! BBJ: (To Les, Jr.) How long will you lead the band? LES, JR.: As long as people want to listen, I’ll lead this band. I want to keep the music alive. I think there will always be listeners for it; I don’t think it’ll ever be huge again, but it’s certainly worth listen­ ing to, and I know in our dances and concerts today, the younger audience is definitely there. They are listen­ ing to it. LES, SR.: I want to retire, but something always comes up to stop it, like a cruise we’re Linda Ronstadt stares going to do. Things like that come up and I don’t want to miss them.
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