IN THIS ISSUE:

ir An interview with KAY STARR, Pt. 2

ir Reviews of BOOKS AND RECORDS to consider BIG

☆ A new KEY RECORDINGS BAND SINGER BIG BAND TRIVIA QUIZ JUMP ★ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR about HARRY JAMES, ANITA O’DAY, MICHEL NEWSLETTER LEGRAND, PBS STATIONS and others

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VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

INTERVIEW WITH KAY STARR (Part Two)

The Background

In the last issue, we had Kay Starr’s comments about her early start in the singing business; her penchant for singing at age nine for the neighbors and her family. At first, Kay’s mother was hesitant, but her aunt had a business sense and saw that there was a future for Kay, insisting that she enter a number of amateur contests, leading to her performances at radio stations in Dallas and Memphis and finally being hired by famous violin­ ist and bandleader Joe Venuti whose guidance helped her achieve fame.

She told us about her work with the Bob Crosby Band, her one week stint subbing for Marion Hutton with Glenn Miller at Glen Island Casino and her years with the Charlie Barnet Band, where she recalled pressing Kay Starr Capitol CD cover the band ’ s uniforms as well as being a featured vocalist. Jimmy Dorsey’s band. That why they didn’t have her. The Scene But they had every other girl singer. A girl singer they did not need. The interview was conducted by the late veteran Big Band producer and announcer Fred Hall at Kay Starr’s So I went from the jazz to the purple label, and the home in Los Angeles. He commented at the time about purple label was like royalty. That was where all the her down-to-earth personality and her willingness to top girl singers were. I think it was during the time talk freely about her life, her frustrations and her when they were gonna have a musician’s strike. So continuing connection with her audience. We pick up they decided they would do a number of records with the interview as we discover her most successful re­ me just to cover things, you know. They asked me to cording affiliation with Capitol Records. The first make a list of songs that I might like to record. Well, question addresses that association. I didn’t do anything but standards. I didn’t do any of the new songs; nobody ever asked me to do any of those so BBJ: How did you get with Capitol Records? I didn’t have any call for them. I kept handing these lists in and I kept getting these lists back with lines KAY: Well, I did a volume of jazz for Gene Norman going through all the songs. Well, I couldn’t under­ and Dave Dexter and all of those people and stand it. And they didn’t offer me any - they just said, they were on the Capitol label if you remember. And “Well, we got a lot of singers and a lot of people they became conscious of me. I guess I did so many recording and we’re trying to get them all double and volumes of it and so many jazz concerts and so many triple and quaduple dates so we can be covered.” things like that, but I did it step by step. I didn’t go in (Before the musician’s recording strike.) And that because with Capitol, you know, they had every big girl made sense to me. I sure didn’t want to make any singer there was. I guess Helen O’Connell is the only waves. I was so glad they wanted me to record at all. big girl singer they didn ’ t have and she was singing with So I said, “Well, okay, I got some more songs.” So I VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

went bad and, boy, it was getting closer and closer and BBJ: Did any one of those hit? they were getting panicky, but what was happening was, they were having to hand these lists to Peggy Lee, KAY: Yes. LONESOMEST GAL IN TOWN hit, but Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, Ella Mae Morse....did it just hit locally and then....I still get requests I miss anybody? for MAMA GOES WHERE POPPA GOES and things like that. It’s rare, but I get those requests from time to BBJ: Martha Tilton. time.

KAY: Well, all of them. And if they saw a song they BBJ: Capitol put out dozens of great albums during said, “Hey, that looks like a good song.” that time. They’d mark it. I was getting their songs for them and KAY: Well, even when I got on the Capitol purple I didn’t know it, see? So I was just heartbroken because label, I still was fighting for my life because I they said, “You gotta get it and you gotta get it right was still in in there with all those girls. I didn’t have any now.” Well, I didn’t know what I was gonna do because problems when they wanted somebody to sing with I knew if I handed in another list of songs I was probably Ernie Ford because Peggy Lee wouldn’t sing and Ella gonna get another list with all the names crossed off Mae Morse didn’t sing that way and Margaret Whiting again. I’m by nature a very happy sort of person, but wasn’t gonna sing that way, so who was left? Katherine I’m telling you, you’d have thought my whole family Laveme Starks. So they asked me if I’d sing with him. had been wiped out the way I felt inside. It showed on Well, I started out singing hillbilly and country and my face. I went down....do you remember that little stuff so it appealed to me. And thank God it did. We hangover club they had down there? Red Nichols had a very good song there with Ernie and me with I’LL worked there. I used to go down there a lot because I NEVER BE FREE. But always I was fighting for every knew I could go in there by myself and nobody would step of the way. And we had A&R people who were bother me because the guys in the band would see to it. always looking for songs for us, but some of the best songs that I had they didn’t find for me. I found I went early and the band just came in and they’re BONAPARTE’S RETREAT myself. setting up and Red came over and said, “My God,” he says, “Who died?” I said, “Well, I guess you could say BBJ: That’s a country song. I died, because my record career’s going down the drain.” I told him what had happened and he says, KAY: Yeah, it belongs to Roy Acuff and I found it in “Well, you wait. I’m gonna come over at intermission; Dougherty, Oklahoma where I was bom. The we’re gonna talk.” biggest building there is the depot. But I heard this song and it was a fiddle song and I just loved it. I asked the If it were not for Red Nichols I guess I would not have man when the night was over if I could take it out of the a career with Capitol Records. He says, “You always machine and see who the publishers were. I figured that hear about those piano benches that’s got music in way I could find out about the song. And sure enough them? Well, I got one that’s got music in it, and we’re it was Roy Acuff and I called him from Mrs. Sibley’s gonna get those songs out.” He got out all these songs Grain Store... .that was the only phone we had in town... .1 I started with: MAMA GOES WHERE POPPA GOES, told him I wanted to record the song and he said, “Why POOR POPPA, YOU GOTTA SEE YOUR MAMA that’s wonderful, go ahead. What do you play?” I said, EVERY NIGHT, all those songs where the sheet music “I don’t play anything, I’m a singer. Are there any had ladies with the spit curls, you know. If it had not lyrics to it?” “Oh,” he says, “Wait a minute.” And he been for him....and I tell you, I made out that list and came back and said, “I just asked them and they said we when I got it back it didn’t have a mark on it....they don’t have no words to that song.” didn’t know any of those songs. So if it had not been for Red 1 guess I would not have had any career at all with And I guess he could feel my disappointment over the recordings and certainly not with Capitol. phone and he says, “ You a singer, huh? Now you just

2 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

wait a minute. Lis­ BBJ: Tell us about your album with Count Basie. ten, you sound like you want to sing that KAY: Oh, that was a dream come true. I went in with song. Ifyouwantto this new recording contract and they said to sing it and you like me, “What do you want to do?” I said, “You mean to it that much....you tell me if I tell you what I want to do, that you’re gonna called me long dis­ let me do it?” They said, “If it’s possible.” And don’t tance. By God, this you know they did. Bill Basie and I had is your nickel and always....because when Stanley and I bought the Cot­ we’re gonna make ton Club, Bill Basie was our house band, and after you up some everybody had gone home I used to go up there. Bill words.” And they did and that turned out to be only liked to play in two keys, you know, and I don’t BONAPARTES RETREAT. sing in either of them.

BBJ: Wasn’t SIDE BY SIDE the first record where BBJ: Is one of them C? a singer sang with herself? KAY: Yeah, I only sing a few songs in the key of C, KAY: Yeah, yeah. It was kind of Hal Stanley’s and but we used to do the blues and used to laugh my idea. Hal Stanley would love for every­ and talk. Bill Basie talks, I say, in shorthand. I mean body to have been back in vaudeville days. He loved one word speaks volumes for him and it’s a marvelous the old jokes and the old songs and SIDE BY SIDE. He way to be and he’s not changed even today. He says, says, “You know, that ought to be a soft shoe.” I said, “We’re gonna make an album.” I said, “Great.” He “Stanley, it IS a soft shoe.” And he says, “Well, it ought said, “When?” I said, “Well, I don’t know, you get it to feel like a soft shoe.” He would go through these on.” He says, “We’ll get it on.” He’d say, “Now?” I’d gyrations and I said, “Well, why don’t we do, you say, “No.” It was now, no, later, for years. know, like a ME AND MY SHADOW kind of sing­ ing.” He says, “That’s it!” The record executives said, “Bill Basie, Count Basie?” And I said, “Yes, this has been a wish that we both have We started working. We worked and we worked and had for so many years that I think that he would do it for we worked with Hal Mooney and a few people like that me.” They said, “Well, I don’t know. You know, he’s because I don’t read music and Hal Stanley didn’t read a free agent and he’s been doing all that stuff with Frank music, so it was like the blind leading the blind. We Sinatra and....” I said, “Call him and see - 1 think he’ll needed somebody to help us put it all together, but we do it with me.” And do you know, it’s the first time with had the thought. We took it in and they loved it and Crescendo Records....wasn’t that the....? since then it’s caught on with a lot of people, but we were the first. BBJ: It was Dot or one of those.

BBJ: Explain who Hal Stanley was. KAY: One of those. But the person that called him said, “It’s the first time I’ve heard him use a KAY: Hal Stanley was my manager and he thought I whole sentence. He said, ‘I’d be very happy was the best singer in the whole wide world, to....when?”’ So that was it, and we did it and I went to but he owned all these night clubs down on Central New York and I made a....see I have a preconceived Avenue. He was T Bone Walker’s best friend, Bill notion how I want to do songs. I’ve had a lot of really Basie’s best friend. All those kind of people were his big bandleaders and people who make arrangements kind of people. When I had Stanley as my manager I say to me, “You know, it’s strange working with you; inherited all these people which I am so proud and usually I make the arrangement and where there’s a pleased with until this day. hole the girl sings, but with you, you sing and where there’s a hole the band plays.” And I said, “Well, we

3 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004 just got to figure out whose record is this, yours or years later she couldn 7 recall the name of the mine?” So they learned that. Most arrangers say, girl singer whose recording of WHEEL OF FOR­ “Okay, she’s got her own ideas - she’s not gonna make TUNE she beat to the market. Kay Starr is 82 any mistakes - she knows what she’s doing.” Which is now, and when we asked her about working she a marvelous compliment to me. said, “There's nothing out there I want to sing. ” She also said this is a comfortable time of life for BBJ: How did WHEEL OF FORTUNE come about? her; what an enviable attitude. KAY: Capitol Records. They called me and got me As always, we thank the Fred Hall Estate for their up out of a sound sleep. We were covering the permission to use the material which appears in his record that they (another record company) were mak­ informative book titled MORE DIALOGUES IN ing in New York. I don’t really understand, but as I told SWING. The Fred Hall website is: www.swingthing.com you before, I do not read music and I had to learn the which contains interesting opportunities for Big Band song before we could get a key on it. So when I tell you fans to expand their knowledge. that I quick dressed and quick got up and quick got to the studio, because they had the arrangers there, the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR copyist there and the musicians were gonna come in Letters to BIG BAND JUMP or the BBJ NEWS­ after their gig. And I didn’t know the song nearly as LETTER may be sent to the address below, or well as I should have known it to record it, but I had a e-mailed to: [email protected]. When you shaking hands acquaintance with it and I like the song. e-mail, please give your name and address. All I mean I didn’t fall madly in love with it the first time letters are answered, but the volume of mail I heard it. How do you do that when they wake you up sometimes delays a timely response. out of a sound sleep and there ’ s so much... .1 mean it was like a war going on in that studio. This guy was BBJ NEWSLETTER arranging it and throwing the music in the air. They had Box 52252 copyists collecting it up and proofreaders over here Atlanta, GA 30355 doing this and the musicians trailing in. We only did one song - we finished the arrangement, the copying, The published letters have been edited for space the recording and everything in two and a half hours. considerations, but the meaning has been preserved. BBJ: Amazing! In the last BBJ NEWSLETTER issue (July-August - KAY: You betcha. And we had to do it that way number 93) Karl Schadow o f Richmond, Virginia because if we hadn’t we wouldn’t catch up asked if LA URA had ever been recorded by Harry with them in New York where they were three hours James. We couldn 7 find it in our library and suggested a reader might know. Both new sub­ ahead of us, you see. But I’ve always felt very, kind of, scriber G. Alan Sternbergh and long-time sub­ not very bad, but kind of bad about it because that girl scriber Gerard Selman came up with Harmony LP that was recording it in New York, it was her chance to HS 11326, and Mr. Selman also noted it’s also on be a big star and it was my first crack at being a big star Joyce LP # 6026. Our own producer Dave Riggs on record. And there, but for the grace of God, could brought in a CLASSIC CD # 1268 which contained have been this young lady if she’d been with Capitol. the same version. It's a vocal by Buddy De Vito and My claim to fame is that I was with a bigger record was recorded in February, 1945. The arrangement company so therefore we had better distribution, prob­ was by the prolific Billy May. ably, and a lot of things, but I don’t blame her for being hot, and she’s still mad at me, I’m told. Ross Staley There’s no correlation between your Palo Alto, CA program schedule and what airs on We checked in with Kay Starr to get an update of Fred KCSM-FM. Also one correspondent Hall's wonderful interview with her. She said these speaks of a two hour program. Are you halfcast? 4 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

The writer refers to the program schedule pub­ ing conductor, composer lished in this newsletter, which lists the two hour of movie and stage musi­ BBJ program heard on nearly 200 commercial cals, songwriter, film di­ stations in the U.S. and Canada. Non-commer­ rector and even sings cial public FM stations broadcast a one hour once in a while. He was non-commercial version. In this particular in­ raised in a musical fam­ stance KABL, the adult standard commercial sta­ ily, his father being a tion serving the Bay Area elected to cancel BBJ a light music conductor couple of years ago and the non-commercial and his sister a member public broadcast station KCSM-FM asked if they of the Swingle Singers. could broadcast the program. Because they are Legrand worked as ac­ licensed by the Federal Communications Com­ companist for several mission as a non-commercial public broadcast French singers, then re­ station they’re supplied with our public broad­ corded a quickie easy lis­ cast one hour version. It is distributed in a tening album of French different cycle than the two hour version, hence tunes for Columbia-EMI, the variance in subject matter. released in the U.S. as “I Michel Legrand Love Paris. ” The album Dave Wilkins Need help. Looking, searching became a huge success and was followed by Swansboro, NC and cannot find anyone that seems several others. His music scoring career took off to know what I’m talking about. I in the mid-sixties. H e’s continued to be a prolific had a recording on eight track of I WILL FOLLOW composer, arranger, performer and conductor. YOU. Big Band, Glenn Miller style, very smooth with clarinet solo in the middle, about 4 1/2-5 minutes long. The following are E-mail notes, published here to Beautiful arrangement. Can anyone help? confirm the interest of younger generations in the Big Band style. While such interest is admittedly Not much to go on, but maybe a reader can come peripheral, such notes indicate a trend toward up with the answer. broader musical tastes.

The Parrys What can you tell us about Michel Shannon Brown Wanted to tell you that if it’s Folsom, PA LeGrand, whose music we have en­ E-mail up to me, Big Band music will joyed for many years? It has been a not die out with the ’40 s gen­ long time since hearing anything about him and we eration. I have been a huge fan of Big Band music for wonder how and where he is these days. Any informa­ 18 years (I am now 36) and many of my friends love it tion about the man and his career would be most almost as much as I do. Love your show and keep going! welcome. What a great talent! Mike Thomason I have been listening to both We’re so unhappy we cannot reach any stations from E-mail your programs since a 25 year our home near Philadelphia on which your program is old told me about them a year broadcast. T h e list for Pennsylvania and sur­ ago. Recently I have surfed around to listen to other Big rounding states stays in our car’s glove compartment Band/Swing programs and they were OK until I real­ just in case we happen to travel in those directions. ized that I missed you, your voice, music selection and manner. Anyhow, I thought I would tell you how much Michel Legrand was born on 24 February, 1932, I enj oy spending the day with you. Don ’ t you dare retire! and has at least 28 albums to his credit. He plays at least twelve musical instruments, has won When you contact us by E-mail, please mention multiple Oscars and Grammys, is a jazz pianist your city and state. The above notes refer to and arranger, a classical performer, easy listen- the webcast of both BIG BAND JUMP and 5 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

RONALD REAGAN AND THE BIG BANDS the DON KENNEDY SHOW available at www.bigbandjump.com by clicking on the A decade and a half ago the basis of one of our BIG “Listen Now’’ box and following the prompts. BAND JUMP radio programs was the sound from a Big Band television program narrated by Ronald Dale Wilson In addition to the great music of Reagan. Big Band writer Jack Lebo recalls the Smithfield, NC the ’30s and ’40s, I love the car­ Reagan television tie-in with the bands, and in the toons from that period. On Sunday process reminded us to repeat our BBJ Reagan nights “Cartoon Network” has thirty minutes of cartoons in program which we’ve scheduled for the weekend of ashow called “The Tex Avery Show.” The announcer that October 2-3. (Please see UPCOMING BBJ PRO­ introduces the cartoons sounds a lot like Don Kennedy. I GRAM TITLES on pages eleven and twelve.) was wondering if he was doing the lead-ins.

Kennedy reports he DID record those lead-ins for Cartoon Network, but they may no longer be used. Fact is, Kennedy does some clandestine work as the voice of a couple of cartoon charac­ ters, but claims he seldom sees or hears the final product.

Lloyd Willis Play more Anita O’Day. No one Fayetteville, NC else does.

We did a full hour o f Anita O 'Day including some comments by her, but it was before the program began to be heard in Fayetteville. There is, however, some Anita O’Day on the HOST’S CHOICE program scheduled for the weekend of 4-5 September. Hope Mr. Willis hears it, or reads this before the program airs. Maybe we ’ll repeat the Anita O ’Day hour early next year.

Albert Sutter I am a drummer from the Clinton Township, MI Big Band Era. I listen to you on CKWW, AM 580 Ronald Reagan, program host Detroit/Windsor. I don’t know when your next pro­ gram will be on. What did Ronald Reagan and the Big Bands have in common? Quite a bit during one period in his varied BIG BAND JUMP is a regular weekly two career. Those readers with long memories may recall hour program, scheduled by each that Reagan hosted a series of television shows featur­ station most generally at the same time ing some of the most popular Big Bands of the Era. The each week. Sports or special events some­ program used film clips from past years to spotlight this times alter the time of the program on some parade of music makers. stations, but CKWW has presented BBJ for seventeen years each Saturday night from Like the Gay Nineties and the Roaring Twenties, the 8 to 10 o ’clock. Times as supplied to BBJ by Swing Years also became a unique period in American the stations are noted on the website at music. It was a period that lasted a little more than the www. bigbandjump. com. decade 1935 through 1945, yet produced some of the finest popular music ever written and recorded.

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In-person interviews with outstanding Big Band music personalities.

Reviews of books and records to consider for serious collectors of Big Band music and information.

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News about the men and women keeping the Big Band sound alive in the United States and throughout the world.

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newsstands.‘Krupa Leaves Benny!’ read Downbeat; ‘Krupa Wins Poll!’ was Metronome’s headline, and here’s what variety said: ‘In place of Vaudeville, the Paramount features the Band Show.’ In place of humor, as the backbone of the stage layout, is the percussion acrobatics of a drummer. When the greatest drummer of them all played the Paramount in New York, the lines began forming at seven o’clock in the morning, and we’d better get in line if we want to get to see him.”

And that’s the way Ronald Reagan introduced the first Bob Crosby, Jack Leonard, Helen O’Connell & band of the evening, Gene Krupa, playing his best­ Anita O’Day who appeared “live” on TV show. selling Columbia recording of DRUM BOOGIE. Also featured on that debut program was Tex Beneke and the Fifteen years after the fact on February 9,1960, a group Modemaires with the Glann Miller Orchestra perform­ of stars involved in making the music appeared on ing CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO, Bob Crosby network television performing some of their greatest and the Bobcats playing SOUTH RAMPART STREET hits. The series of telecasts, titled “The Swinging PARADE, Tommy Dorsey with vocalist Jack Leonard Years” featured the late President and was sponsored singing MARIE, Count Basie performing his signature by Ford Motor Company. tune, ONE O’CLOCK JUMP and Jimmy Dorsey with vocalists Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell with their In his own words, this is the way Ronald Reagan biggest hit, TANGERINE. Winding up the telecast introduced the first show in the series on that February was Woody Herman and his orchestra recreating his in 1960: wild version of CALDONIA.

“Welcome to the Swinging Years, a time when Vaude­ In subsequent programs, Reagan brought to the small ville and Prohibition was dead, and the world was screen many more Big Bands including: Freddie Slack, dominated by big name bands. Because of their popu­ Freddy Martin, Eddy Howard, Charlie Barnet, Vaughn larity, cities and towns would reopen theaters for them. Monroe, Glen Gray, Stan Kenton and dozens of others Hollywood starred them in motion pictures and spon­ who left their mark during the Golden Era of the Big sors starred them on top radio shows. In addition, Bands. swing bands sold millions of phonograph records and played before tum-away crowds all over the country. In those days, very few high school students could BOOKS & RECORDS TO CONSIDER name the members of the President’s cabinet, but chances are, if you asked them to name Benny GEORGE SHEARING - From Battersea to Goodman’s trumpet section, you’d get the answer Broadway before you could say, Ziggy Elman, Chris Griffin and Harry James. Everybody knew that. I know I did. George Shearing’s career Maybe it’s because we were so relieved that the depres­ now spans over 65 years; sion was about over. Perhaps the war clouds gathering this boxed set shines a spot­ over Europe made everybody want to cram as much fun light on the first twelve years into the uncertain present. of that career, when what are possibly the most enduring “Anyway, suddenly in the late ’30s, the country was Shearing recordings were filled with music. Special fan magazines devoted to the made. From solo piano to activities of swing musicians started filling the work with such stars as jazz Shearing album

7 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004 violinist Stephane Grappelli, then on to the Shearing Other May charts to be heard on this album were made Trio and Quintet featuring the now legendary “Shear­ for Paul Weston, Tex Beneke and Bob Crosby, as well ing sound.” as others. Vocalists represented, whose accompani­ ment was crafted by Billy May, include Johnny Mer­ Ninety-four tracks with all styles indicating what an cer, Kay Starr, Ella Mae Morse, Bob Hope, Peggy Lee innovator Shearing is. If you expect the “locked- and Frank Sinatra. hands” style throughout the entire album, you’ll be Genius is a word used too often, but in the case of Billy disappointed. If, however, you might enjoy a variance May it fits perfectly. This two CD set samples some of of style, you could just be enchanted, for George that musical genius. Shearing displays a musical depth reaching well be­ yond the sound we’ve come to identify with his piano. Two CDs - 49 selections Available from BBJ Sales - 1-800-377-0022 Four CDs - 93 selections Available from BBJ Sales - 1-800-377-0022 NAT KING COLE - A Biography By: Daniel Mark Epstein BILLY MAY ARRANGEMENTS - This is a personal and professional biography of one of From Barnet to John Scott Trotter the most successful recording stars of the past sixty years. His trio caught the imagination of the record­ Why, you may ask, is yet another Billy May album buying public with such melodies as STRAIGHTEN being released? There’s already been an album of UP AND FLY RIGHT and FRIM FRAM SAUCE, then “live” and transcription cuts of Billy May’s own band, his vocal interpretations plus an album of May band studio recordings. The caught hold. After such reason for this album is to at songs as NATURE BOY least partially illustrate the and MONA LISA were re­ variety and genius of the corded with a full studio or­ Billy May’s arrangements. chestra, Nat Cole’s piano His work has been admired talents took a back seat to by musicians for over a half the highly commercial ap­ century, for he’s arranged peal of his voice. Dozens of thousands of recorded per­ albums were made to sell formances for every kind of that vocal talent to the pub­ musical need: radio program lic, but behind the scenes dramatic music, dance band scores, backing for top was a Nat Cole who played jazz piano as often as vocalists, children’s recordings, reproduction of clas­ possible, sometimes appearing at jazz concerts under sic hits and even comedy recordings. We’re highly an assumed name. familiar with the sound of Billy May’s own band, but this two CD set samples some of the arrangements Billy There’s a wonderful story of Nat Cole’s family moving May has done for others. into an all-white Los Angeles area neighborhood and a resident attorney representing the other residents sug­ The first top recording arranged by the young Billy gesting to Nat that they didn ’ t want any “undesireables” May while he was playing trumpet for Charlie Barnet moving into their midst. Nat’s reply was typical, non­ was CHEROKEE; it turned out to be Barnet’s first political and wry Cole. He told the attorney that if he million-selling recording. Even though his work for saw any undesireables, he’d certainly let him know. Glenn Miller was sublimated to Jerry Gray and Bill The post-script to that the story is the same attorney Finegan, for they were Miller’s top arrangers, his work arriving to offer help to the Cole family when Nat died. is sampled in nine Miller examples. There are two Hal Such was the personal appeal of the Nat Cole personality. McIntyre arrangements in the set, as well as three Harry James recordings from the forties. The Alvino Rey Softcover - 438 pages - About $18.00 theme, BLUE REY was a product of the Billy May pen. Available at: (203) 327-7111

8 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

a week. You can imagine the effect such broadcasts had THE PALOMAR BALLROOM at the PALOMAR box-office for both local residents and visitors from other states. If you danced, you just Every so often we recall one o f the ballrooms so had to visit the Palomar. You’ll recall it was the important to Big Band success during the Era. Palomar where Benny Goodman’s Band met with overwhelming success in August of 1935 after dreary attendance at other ballrooms in their one-nighter trip from New York to Los Angeles. The audience in Oakland, however, clapped and yelled for more every time the Goodman Orchestra played another of the driving Fletcher Henderson arrangements. That reac­ tion was heard across the nation on the radio and the swing era began. The future was bright for the Big Bands, and seemed to be just as bright for the Palomar, but it was not to be.

Charlie Barnet ’ s Orchestra was appearing at the Palomar The Palomar just before the fire on October first, 1939 when fire broke out on the It was 1934 when Oakland, California’s RAINBOW bandstand, apparently caused by some faulty wiring. GARDENS went into receivership, failing to make a The flames spread so quickly the band’s instruments profit for so many months they just couldn’t stay open and their arrangements went up in flame. The good any longer. What the owners of RAINBOW GAR­ news was all the patrons were able to get out of the DENS didn’t know, of course, was they closed on the building before the fire totally engulfed every part of cusp of the Big Band Era, a time when such ballrooms the structure, but within a few hours the Palomar had would turn away dancers on weekend nights and every burned to the ground, never to open again. night a name band appeared. The RAINBOW was taken over by new owners and re-named PALOMAR SIDELIGHTS - How to write the Blues. NIGHT CLUB; before long it became the best-known dance spot west of Chicago with name bands such as If you’re new to Blues music, or like it but never under­ stood the whys and wherefores, here are some very Jan Garber and Glen Gray. Huge crowds danced on the fundamental rules: 16,000 square-foot floor, with the record for largest attendance set by Artie Shaw’s appearance in the 1 - Most Blues begin with: “Woke up this morning....” spring of 1939 when nearly 9,000 music enthusiasts arrived to both dance and listen to Shaw’s then new 2 - “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, sound. unless you put something nasty in the next line, such as: “I got a good woman with the meanest face in town.” Weekday admission for men was fifty-five cents; women paid forty cents, but on the weekends the price to enter 3 - Writing the lyrics to a Blues tune is simple. After you the Palomar rocketed to ninety cents for the guys and get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes - sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest sixty cents for the gals. Mixed drinks in that late ’30s face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest period drained the dancer’s wallets, too. The Palomar face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she asked for and received twenty-five cents for each drink! weigh five hundred pound.” The ad line for the ballroom in those days was: “Where the West meets for dining....dancing....and for enter­ 4 - Blues cars are Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken- tainment.” down pickup trucks. Blues don’t travel none in Volvos, BMWs or Sport Untility Vehicles. Most Blues transpor­ Radio was an important reason for the popularity of the tation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet Palomar with local broadcasts seven nights a week and aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. coast-to-coast network feeds an average of four nights 9 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

KEY RECORDINGS SINGER QUIZ As in the previous ninety-three issues, the answers to this quiz are not so well hidden in a tiny box, A young friend of ours who was devoted to singers probably but not certainly on the last page. Don’t rather than bands used to ask look, though, because that regularly which titles were takes all the fun out of it, and most associated with which we wouldn’t want you to be singers, thinking that only one fun-less. Grab a pencil and jot recording of each composi­ down the number beside the tion was marketed, as often letter matching the singer to happens today. In the Era the tune title, and best of luck therewere, ofcourse, multiple to you. vocal recordings of each of the currently popular melodies. 1 - Tampico O ur friend was, however, cor­ ______A - Judy Garland rect that in in many instances a single vocalist was most asso­ 2 - I’ll Never Smile Again ciated with a particular song. B - Vaughn Monroe That gave rise to the basis of our quiz in this issue. 3 - Over The Rainbow C - Don Cornell Last issue we asked you to match a list of classic Big Band recordings to the band with which that title is 4 - Maria Elena most identified. So many readers got a kick out of ______D - Helen Forrest that quiz, it occurred to us in light of our young friend’s comments that maybe we should do it again, but this time with singers instead of bands. In some 5 - Racing With The Moon cases, ofcourse, the singer is performing as a member ______E - Johnny Mercer of a band, but you get the idea. 6 - Cow-cow Boogie Match the title on the left with the singer’s name ______F - Ella Mae Morse most identified with that title. You should be able to get all ten, but we’ll give you a passing grade if you 7 - 1 Had The Craziest Dream correctly select eight or more. Five to seven correct ______G - June Christy might suggest you spend some additional time with your George Simon or Leo Walker books. Four or 8- G.I.Jive less correctly answered and you’ll be placed in study hall for an hour, forced to listen to some no-talent ______H - Perry Como guy rhyming dirty rap lyrics to a ceaseless bass beat so loud it shakes the floor, with the woofer next to your 9 - Till The End O f Time good ear. (It’ll be a formerly good ear after that.) On ______J - Bob Eberly the other hand, cruel and unusual punishment might just not survive a court case, so in the event of a low 10 - It Isn’t Fair score it’ll be OK if you simply bring the teacher an ______K - Frank Sinatra apple or a box of chocolate-covered cherries.

10 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004

UPCOMING BBJ PROGRAM TITLES captured during Previn’s jazz period before he turned to classical music. This could be an adventurous kick! September 4-5, 2004 (Repeat listing for new sub­ HOST’S CHOICE scribers.) This is always a September 25-26, 2004 This alphabetical dangerous basis foraprogram, THE ‘T’ FILE deal, planned to ex for we never know what Kennedy will select and often pose the artists by the his selections veer away from the main­ letters, is presented about every month. stream. We’re sure there’ll be some Harry Because the alphabet is no determinant of James, for James is his favorite all-time style, we come up with some seldom- Big Band. In a very real sense, this is the heard folks as well as the regulars, all way most record programs used to be; the within the confines of our library, of course. host selected the music to introduce to the The kind of programs for which the library listeners, creating a quality taste among was assembled assures we won’t go too thepublic that’snotbeen duplicated since. far afield. Jack Teagarden will be heard, Tony Tennille, Claude Thornhill, Mel September 11-12, 2004 The request Torme, Art Tatum, the Three Suns and REQUESTS programs are perhaps even Tommy Tucker. coming more often, and there’s a reason. Every time BBJ host Don Kennedy October 2-3, 2004 As noted else­ we do a request show, listeners are reminded to send REAGAN TV/ where, we'd in their requests, and since we did such a program a few GUEST ANNOUNCER nearly forgotten months ago, the requests have been arriving in increas­ this BBJ pro­ ing volume. Oh, and there’s an additional reason. A gram, originally presented a decade and a half ago, number of you have sent e-mail requests to our website based on the sound from a Big Band television program at www.bigbandjump.com using the request form at narrated “live” by Ronald Reagan. Most Big Band hits heard on the program were represented by bandleaders that site. These programs reveal two different kinds of requests; the expected ones for the oft-played stan­ and singers still with us at the time, with the exception of Glenn Miller and the Dorsey Brothers. Gene Krupa dards and the unexpected for selections we have to dig for. was there. Woody Herman, Bob Crosby, Count Basie, Tex Beneke, Jack September 18-19, 2004 The Leon-ard, Helen THE LP FILE prob­ O’Connell and Anita lem is O’Day. Over 44 so much has never shown up on years have passed CDs; that ’ s the reason we ’ ve gone since that television into the back room to search program “recalled” tlirough the LPs in the hopes of the Big Bands from finding some material perhaps not the Era ending a mere often heard. We came up with fifteen years earlier, Neal Hefti leading his own or­ but the arrangements chestra in a series of his unique represented remain approach to some Big Band stan­ classics in American dards. Also in the LP file, Boyd popular music. Raeburn, Sauter-Finegan, the After the sound from Frankie Carle Trio, Vaughn Mon­ the Reagan TV pre­ roe, Jack Teagarden and the de­ sentation is over, we lightful musical combination of Boyd Raeburn hear guest announcer Andre Previn and David Rose, Sheila Tracy of BBC 11 VOLUME 94 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2004 fame. She musically stands astride the two nations by Coast; now Chicago has its turn, for it was one of the presenting one British product, the BBC Big Band, centers of radio from earliest days. The Blackhawk, the then George Shearing, a performer who was bom in Aragon, the Trianon....those and others will be repre­ sented as we turn back the clock once again, this time a clock located in the heart of the nation.

October 23-24, 2004 Gotta admit that the artists THE ‘U-V-W’ FILE with names starting with let­ ters toward the end of the al­ phabet are not as numerous as we had earlier planned. There also seem to be more singers than Big Bands at the end of the file. For that reason we’ve mixed together the U, V and W files to yield such performers as Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, accordianist Art VanDamme, Paul Weston, Chick Webb and some others “to be announced at a later date, “ as they say on television. (That means we haven’t fully planned the program yet.) It looks as if the last alphabet file program will combine the Ws with the X-Y-Zs, wrap­ ping up the series in November.

October 30-31, 2004 About five years ago we did a TOP TWENTY program featuring the top Guest announcer Sheila Tracy twenty Big Band recordings as selected by you in voting by our newsletter readers, our listeners and folks who use e-mail. It’s time we do Britain but now belongs to the U.S., and our own Billy that again, for tastes may have changed in the interven­ May. A delightful mixture presented in the appealing ing half decade. What, for example, will be the number way only Sheila Tracy can. one all-time Big Band selection? We know what it’s October 9-10, 2004 The issuance of a new album been in the past, but have tastes changed appreciably? BOOGIE BEAT (see Center Page Offer) en­ We’ll find out in this two hour survey session. couraged the production of November 6-7, 2004 What a time that was: 1938! this program. Big Band boogie is, without doubt, CLASS OF ’38 The depression was over, the appealing to every generation. With that in mind we dig deeply into the fund of such recordings including nation was having fun, and swing was the thing. Few paid attention to gathering among the mix both the well-known and more obscure dark political clouds on the European horizon, for there performances. We’ll hear from Benny Goodman, was too much fun to be had at the dance pavilions, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Count Basie, of listening to the radio and going to the movies. New course, but also we’ll sample recordings by Carmen bands were emerging regularly and older bands ad­ Cavallero, Freddy Martin and Larry Clinton. vancing our appreciation of a new musical form. October 16-17, 2004 It’s absolutely Goodman, the Dorseys, Lunceford, Bob Crosby, Artie ‘LIVE’ FROM CHICAGO amazing that we Shaw, Basie, Kyser, Savitt, Berigan and Gray will all can listen to Big be represented in this nostalgic musical journey. Bands as they broadcast over a half-century ago, but ANSWERS TO SINGER QUIZ ancient recordings preserved from that time plus today’s digital techniques make thatpossible. In the past we’ve A - 3 B - 5 C-10 D - 7 E-8 sampled such broadcasts from New York and the West F - 6 G - 1 H - 9 J - 4 K - 2

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