IN THIS ISSUE:

k An interview with ”S SON, CHRIS

k Reviews of BIG TWO NEW RECORDS to consider BAWD

★ A JUMP MOVIE STAR TRIVIA QUIZ NEWSLETTER ★ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR about THE BENNY GOODMAN STORY, BILLIE HOLIDAY, & OTHERS

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VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002 CHRIS RIDDLE INTERVIEW

The Background

A recent book by author about the life of arranger Nelson Riddle (SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN, reviewed in the November-December, 2001 issue of this newsletter) re-kindled interest in this remarkable talent. Nelson Riddle’s accomplishments are many, perhaps the best-known being his long-time involvement with , but he also arranged for a long list of stellar singers, including Nat Cole, , Dean Martin and , as well as writing music for movies and television. According to those who knew him, he was a man who displayed very little outward emotion, tending to keep his feelings to himself, but able to express them abundantly through his music. His home life, both as a youngster and as a married adult, was less than idyllic. He buried himself in work, obviously for a couple of reasons: to stay away from home and as an outlet for his emotions. Chris Riddle One of the hundreds of sources for information about Nelson Riddle was his son Chris, also a trombone player CR: The simple truth is we all were made to take and now leading his father’s orchestra. We arranged piano lessons as kids, and the piano and I just for an interview through Mr. Levinson, who set up a didn’t click. I didn’t like the piano, and my hands are time for us to phone him at his home. As you’ll see in such that they’re not nimble. I have the kind of hands the interview, Chris Riddle is probably his dad ’ s biggest more suited for chopping down trees or digging ditches. fan. I found it tedious to just sit there and go over these scales The Scene over and over. I realized I wanted to be with my father, so I had to do something that would enable me to spend Chris Riddle is an easy man to talk to; no trouble getting as much time as possible with my father because I had a fund of information from our conversation with him. a hero worship thing. He was everything to me. My We caught up with him at his home in Massachusetts. mother constantly was telling us when we were kids Our first question dealt indirectly with the fact that his how brilliant your father is and he’s very tired when he dad was seldom home, causing us to wonder how he gets home tonight ifhe gets home tonight, and please you developed his interest in music. children don ’ t bother him with anything.

The Interview The trombone he brought with him into the United States Army when he was drafted out of the BB J : Since your mother, who raised you, wasn’t a Orchestra was in the comer, and one day I opened it up musician, how did you wind up playing the and put it together and I thought, “Why don’t I take trombone? trombone lessons?” I was about eleven years old. My VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAV-JUNE 2002 father put me with George Roberts, the great bass BB J : Do you think he developed that personality trombone player, and George started teaching me the because of his tough mother who was a put- fundamentals of the trombone, and I graduated from down artist? there to the bass trombone because I realized there’s four trombones in the orchestra but there’s only one CR: Oh yeah. She was a master at it. My father bass trombone, and he gets to play all those neat solos described his mother and father’s relationship that dad writes. very succinctly when he said, “My mother kicks my father around for practice.” I came across some very My father always referred to the fact that he was a fine interesting papers: A couple of them are life insurance trombone player. That was his key to get into the Big policies, and one of them says “The Tommy Dorsey Band Era so that he could do what he really wanted to Orchestra,” an Aetna life insurance policy on Nelson do, and that was write . That was the key Riddle, Jr. dated 1944. The beneficiary is Marie Albertine. that unlocked the door because he could sit in the Now, she was still married, but she did not choose to use section and play with the best of them. He wasn’t a her married name. I don’t know if my father asked how great soloist or anything; there were occasions when he he should list her or he knew that’s what she wanted, but played Tommy Dorsey’s solos. He played Tommy in fact she ’ s listed as her maiden name, Marie Albertine. Dorsey’s solos a couple of times because Tommy had some problems out in Hollywood.... he had to go to BBJ: How did your dad rise above this constant court but that’s another story. That was his key and criticism from his mother? that was my key, the key to be with my father, and I grew to really love the bass trombone and the way my CR: Emotionallyldon’tthinkheeverdid. Theonly father wrote for it. Nobody wrote for instruments like outlet for him was writing. It’s like a valve on my father; my father I think was the greatest orches- a steam engine. That and sexual activity were my trator of our time. father ’ s pressure valves to let off the intense disappoint­ ment his relationship with his mother produced. Later on BBJ: The word is your dad could write quickly. in his life, my mother, Doreen Moran, whom he married Where did that ability come from? in 1945 and gave him seven children.... he expected to treat him and behave toward him in much the same way CR: My father’s father, Nelson S. Riddle, Sr., was as his mother because that’s all he knew. an amateur musician; he was a very fine graphic artist, but he really wasn’t a great musician. I BBJ: But she didn’t. don’t know where my father got it from, except from God. The fact of the matter is the only thing that slowed CR: No, my mother said many, many times after him down was the mechanical process of writing down they were divorced in 1970, “Your father wanted the notes on a piece of score paper. With computers he me to be his mother, and I couldn’t do it. That’s not my would probably be able to write twice as fast. role.” And then when my father married his secretary, that’s a very dark period in his life, too. It was self- BBJ: Your dad ’ s music was often highly emotional, flagellation. He married one Naomi Tennenholzandmy but his outer personality was fairly stoic. mother upon hearing of this said, “Y our father has finally got his wish. He’s married his mother.” CR: That was a front, it was all a front. He was a very sensitive person as evidenced by his BBJ: The second wife did not want you to have music.... as you would glean from looking at an artist ’ s accesss to the arrangements. work, you can glean the same kind of psychological, emotional characteristics from my father’s workjust by CR: No, she didn’t. I’vegotalotofmusic,andIcan listening to it. Yeah, he demonstrated a rather stem now get anything I want that I didn’t get initially exterior, like, “I’mmade out of steel andyou’llnever get because the University of Arizona Music Department is to me,” but just the opposite was the truth. very kindly disposed toward me. Naturally, shecan’tdo

2 VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002 anything about it because that’s where the bulk of my Laura Brooks out in California who only wanted my father’s music went. I was threatened with lawsuits father. She still pines for my father. She has a little and all the rest of it. It didn’t make my life very happy. house in Malibu and she would have been happy if he We lost a lot of sleep worrying. I’d go and play jobs had come down there with the clothes on his back, even somewhere and I would be looking at the exits wonder­ in a cab.... not even in a car. She would have been ing if someone was going to rush in and grab my music. delighted. She didn’t want anything except she truly loved my father.

The only happiness he had in his declining years was the fact that the great Linda Ronstadt had given him an opportunity to resurrect his career. Other than that he was miserable. George Duning, a wonderful man who was a very dear friend of our family, told me years ago he’d met my father in 1984, the year before my father died. A lot of them got together in to celebrate the great Arthur Schwartz with his son Jonathan Schwartz, and George related to me that, “Your father looked absolutely terrible. He took me aside and told me he was the most unhappy man on the face of the earth.” Why he couldn’t get up and grab a clean pair of underpants and leave, I don’t know why. In 1970 we were living together in a little apartment in West Holly­ wood, and one night we all three, Naomi and dad and I went out to dinner. We dropped her off and dad said, Nelson Riddle & in 1957 “Naomi and I are getting married.” It was early 1970, about March, I think. We were like two swingin’ B B J : Your dad had a notable affair with Rosemary bachelors and we were having a ball, and I asked why? Clooney. I didn’t see any love there. He said, “I feel I owe it to her.” Those were his exact words. CR: Yes. That spanned the years 1957 through 1962. My father and she broke it off. It was Years before this, when my dad and Rosemary Clooney going to lead to the destruction of two households, her ’ s were still together, Naomi and Rosemary ’ s mother used and my father’s. Really, in the final analysis, it did to conspire together to arrange little afternoon trysts for anyway. It’s kind of like waiting too long for a my father and Rosemary. Naomi was stirring the pot the carbuncle. Have a little courage, go to the doctor now whole time against my mother and I think she knew at and have it lanced, because the misery that followed the end she would wind up being Mrs. Nelson Riddle. around our house, finally culminating in my father’s She was quite a schemer. departure from our house and our family in 1968, I would trade that easily just to have had them split up BBJ: Was there a love/hate relationship between then. I would have been a little bit bewildered because your dad and Frank Sinatra? I was twelve years old in 1962, but later on I can see now a lot of misery would have been saved and we CR: My father kept him at arm’s length, personally. wouldn’t have seen a lot of things we unfortunately I think he was very fond of Frank, I think he saw. loved Frank; I know he did because he was very hurt when Frank went other directions in the 1960s and ’70s BBJ: In the Naomi period, your father latched up and really tried to ignore my father. My father felt very with the veterinary lady. hurt by that. My father realized that if he was going to work with Frank, that wasn ’ t the only thing he was going CR: That’s right. A sweet, lovely lady named to do. He had to have time to do other things, television,

3 VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

motion pictures and work with other artists. If he were in August of 1951. I think that’s a pretty remarkable to become like part of the rat pack thing. Like Don title, considering the body of work that he fashioned Costa. Frank would call Don, I don’t know who else, with , and how fortunate that was to be probably , at four o’clock in the morning. signed at prior to Frank Sinatra coming “Come over, I want to talk about something,” and they over there in ’53. would feel obliged to go, and my father realized he could not fashion a career for himself solely with Sinatra, and BB J : Indirectly, Nat King Cole can be credited with if he got too close personally that he wouldn’t have time starting your father’s career on a high plane. for anything else. I don’t know that there was a love/ hate relationship. Frank Sinatra said on any number of CR: Certainly, to a degree. There were other occasions that my father was the greatest arranger in people in the background who understood the the world, and if anybody knew it was Frank Sinatra, value of Nelson Riddle, this young guy with the fresh because he was really the best musician that ever sang ideas and this fresh approach, working with Frank a song, outside of Nat King Cole. Frank was just a Sinatra. And I would have to mention, for one, Alan marvelous musician and couldn’t read music, but my Livingston at Capitol Records. He was a young guy in God, he didn’tneed to with those ears. I thinkFrank was those days and he understood what he was hearing and a little bit miffed that my father wasn’t more at his beck he understood that Frank needed a new direction; he and call, as it were. Frank liked to be the boss, and he also was responsible, but getting my father to Capitol liked to be the Pope, and all those jokes about, “Where Records, that would have to be Nat King Cole. Actu­ have you been today?” “I had to kiss the Pope’s ring.” ally, in a kind of an off-hand way, , although That meant I had to go over to see Sinatra. that was not his intention. My father used to say about Les Baxter once, “That he never said he did them (the BB J : Tell us about those early arrangements your arrangements) but he never said he didn’t.” dad ghosted for Les Baxter to accompany Nat King Cole? BB J : Which of the Sinatra recordings or series of recordings is your favorite? CR: That was very propitious in my father’s career. I was about two months away from being bom CR: Oh, the theme albums at Capitol. That’s the in March of 1950. I was bom in May, and my brother best work my father ever did. I would say and sister had already arrived, Nelson Riddle the third SWINGIN’ LOVERS, SWINGIN’ AFFAIR, YOUNG and my sister Rosemary, and my father found himself in LOVERS, ONLY THE LONELY, THE WEE a not very unique position for a musician of being out of SMALL HOURS. The last one he did with Frank at work, because it's a very insecure business... and Capitol, SINATRA’S SWINGIN’ SESSION, was the another baby was coming. One day the phone rang and fulfillment of Frank Sinatra’s contract at Capitol, and to it was Les Baxter and there was an upcoming Nat King thumb his nose at Capitol.... he had some problems and Cole recording session and he needed a couple of that’s one of the reasons Frank was leaving to form his arrangements and the two songs just happened to be own company, Reprise.... he inadvertently did it to my MONA LISA and TOO YOUNG. Of course we know father as well.... my father told me he didn’t like that what happened after that, and when Nat King Cole was record. I said, “What’s wrong with it?” He said, “The apprised that the young man who was fixing notes in the tempos are too fast. I didn’t write those arrangements fiddle section whom he had assumed was the copyist, to be played that quickly.” I said, “Why did it come out was in fact the orchestrator/arranger responsible for like that?” and he said, “Well, Frank wanted it that those things, he had my father signed to a long-term way.” I think it was a way of telling Capitol Records, contract at Capitol Records as staff arranger. I think, if “I can’t wait to get out of here.” So, in other words, I’m not mistaken, that the first thing they did with my we’ll play everything faster than it was designed to be father under contract subsequent to those two ghostings played. BLUE MOON is about the only thing that’s in and the first time my father’s name appeared on a the right tempo. Some of those other ones, you can tell record label, “Arranged and conducted by Nelson by the figures my father wrote, that he never intended Riddle,” was UNFORGETTABLE which they recorded for them to be played that briskly. ONLY THE 4 VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

LONELY was my father’s favorite album. That was the American public is very fickle anyway in their a very grim year, 195 8. His mother died, and we lost a tastes.... I find that the people in Europe are much more six month old little girl who died of a respiratory illness. respectful of what my father accomplished and the Big Band Era. My father was a product of the Big Band Era, BB J: Your dad’s conducting style? having joined the Spivak band when he was nineteen years old in 1940. As a matter of fact, his first hit record CR: His conducting style was mostly, he was think­ was with ; it was Charlie Spivak’s 1943 ing about the tempo, obviously, he was recording of WHITE CHRISTMAS, sung by Gary thinking about a lot of things. It’s one thing to conduct Stevens. I heard him one day and listened to an something, it’s another thing to have written it AND interview with him and he mentioned WHITE CHRIST­ conduct it. You see a lot of flamboyant classical music MAS. It was a big hit record for Charlie. conductors, none of which are responsible for the music they’re performing, so my father’s listening for every­ BBJ: Have you taken the Nelson Riddle Orchestra thing and at the same time he’s trying to keep every­ on a cruise? body together to make sure they don’t go too fast. Listen to all thatrubato, out-of-tempo music thathe did, CR: Yes, I’ve been on the QE2, and I’ll be on the especially with Frank Sinatra and later with Linda ship again this September 21 st, 2002. There’s Ronstadt.... I sat in the band for a lot of those things.... only one this year, and I’ll be one of the featured bands not in the ’50s, obviously, but I never had any trouble on the QE2. staying with him. I don’t know what musicians dispar­ aged my father’s conducting abilities to that extent. The music of Nelson Riddle will live on not only in Look at that wonderful album, CLOSE TO YOU, he "live” performance as conducted by son Chris, did with Frank Sinatra. That’s almost in the realm of but on record and in motion pictures. Mozart and Beethoven as far as I’m concerned. It’s just brilliant, the Hollywood String Quartet augmented by a woodwind or a french horn and those things are all LETTERS TO THE EDITOR out-of-tempo, and he did all that himself. The idea that Felix Slatkin stood up there and conducted. I wonder Letters to BIG BAND JUMP or the BBJ NEWS­ who played his part. Felix Slatkin was the concert LETTER may be sent to the address below, or e- master. In fact, at one time in his life he did study a bit mailed to: [email protected]. All letters of conducting with no less than Leonard Bernstein. are answered, but the volume of mail sometimes delays a timely response. BB J: Y ou’re leading the Nelson Riddle Orchestra now. BBJ NEWSLETTER Box52252 CR: Sometimes all over the world. I would very Atlanta, GA 30355 much like to get over to the United Kingdom, where my father has a very loyal and very sophisticated The published letters have been edited for space audience. I think I could put together a couple of considerations, but the meaning has been preserved. successful tours over there in the United Kingdom. Paul Madden I recall an item that appeared in B B J : What do you see for the future of music? Why Haverhill, MA Walter Winchell ’ s column after are American bands more popular overseas the “Benny Goodman Story” was than they are in this country? released. It stated that Ziggy Elman did not do the actual playing in the Carnegie Hall Concert scene and was paid C R : I choose to consider this time we ’re living in as $27.50 for his appearance in the film. AND THE celebrated mediocrity. I think there’s such an ANGELS SING was not in the original concert, as we avalanche of free and very cheap garbage to listen to all know, but the producers apparently thought it would and distract people with that it’s hard.... be better for the movie. The actual playing was done by 5 VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

Manny Klein. He was paid $350.00.1 thought I’d pass out your website and have found it convenient to listen this bit of music trivia along and hope that some of on line. What grand music! It makes me wish I’d been your readers will find it interesting. bom a generation (or two) earlier. Thanks so much for sharing the Big Band Era Thank you! There were, as we all know, along with your insight. many inaccuracies in the Goodman movie as well as other bandleader mov­ Letters and phone calls ies. We were particularly amused when from younger generations the young Benny sat on the roofplaying are increasing, we ’re the first notes o f his closing theme, happy to say. An article GOODBYE. Gordon Jenkins hadn’t in the next issue profiles written it yet, but that didn ’t bother the a young man who not movie folk. only digs the music, but does a radio program Randall Sykes I am 38 years old, about it. Marietta, GA and my folks are big into classic radio Bruce Omura I'm a music and have given me a wonderful Hawaii very appreciation for music that, well, to be b i g honest you don’t hear much anymore. But Martha Tilton fan and was after getting to your website and webcast, listening to one show about I can now hear the music. I just wanted to female vocalists with an let you know that there are those of us interview with her. Is there who, while we weren’t around to appreci­ any chance that particular ate radio’s classics when they were origi­ show would be on your nally aired, appreciate them now. Keep it website archive? up! We’ve started putting VictorChecketts I w a s g o in g special website one hour Salt Lake City through some of versions of BBJ on every my d ad ’s Big so often, and the Martha Tilton comments are on the Band recordings and found a recording by one currently posted at www.bigbandjump.com. that Billie Holiday sang, ANY OLD TIME. Do you know when the song was recorded, also did she do any Gary Rzentkowski I wish a local AM or FM sta- other recordings with Artie Shaw? Keep up the Amherst, WI tion would carry your broad­ awesome work. cast. I’m a regular on line and To our knowledge, it’s the only recording Billie wanted to let you know how much I enjoy BIG BAND Holiday made with Artie Shaw. It was cut at the JUMP and the DON KENNEDY SHOW. They make RCA Victor New York City studios on July 14th, my workday a lot more enjoyable. The history you 1938. Billie Holiday was called originally by Artie research is interesting and the music was truly done by Shaw to work a Shaw Band date in Boston, and then what I consider the most professional musicians ever. briefly toured with the band, although Billie Holi­ Not bang clang a lang, just good music and vocals. I day herself said a black singer with a white band look forward to each new show. Thank you! wouldn't be accepted. It turned out to be a difficult situation and Helen Forrest was hired. Gloria Pease I am a home health aid and New Windsor, NY care for two elderly women on Phil Davis I discovered your gem of a show weekends. We plan our dinner T orrington, CT on AM radio, but then I checked around your show and they love to recall the days when

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(Tape or Staple Here) VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002 they would swing or slow drag to the 40s tunes, but I drummer. I would like to know the name of the piece. have a question. Could you PLEASE (her caps) tell me.... what in the world is a Begeen?

A beguine is a dance with a distinctive rhythm.... the beat you hear when BEGIN THE BEGUINE is played. That melody was written by for a Broadway Musical in the early 1930s, but was made popular by the Artie Shaw recording you undoubtedly are referring to.

Dick Goodman Mt. Dora, FL

The trumpet solo on BEAT ME DADDY, EIGHT TO THE BAR is terrific. Do you know who that was? Bauduc playing on Haggart’s bass strings It was Joe Wiedman. There- What is remarkable is that BIG NOISE FROM cording was made WINNETKA, which was so popular in the late ’30s, in two parts for is ALSO appealing to younger generations. It was, two sides o f a 78 as all Big Band fans know, an intermission enter­ at Columbia’s tainment by bassist Bob Haggart and drummer Ray The screamin’ Ray McKinley New York studios Bauduc at Chicago’s Blackhawk Restaurant. A kid on May 21st, from Winnetka, Illinois was loudly verbal in his 1940. Legend has it that songwriter Don Raye was praise ofthe number, hence the name put on the label in the audience at the Famous Door one night when when it was recorded a few days later. The record drummer Ray McKinley spontaneously shouted involved some blues whistling and Bauduc playing “Beat me daddy, eight to the bar. ” Raye asked if he on the strings o f Haggart’s bass, Bob Haggart could write a song by that name. Ray McKinley was composed WHAT’S NEW and SOUTH RAMPART given to verbal inserts during drum breaks, you ’ll STREET PARADE as well as arranging a generous recall. On ’s LONG JOHN SIL VER portion o f the Bob Crosby Orchestra book. An album he shouted “Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest, ’’ is in preparation with just such hard-to-find but key and when the Bradley Band recorded CELERY Big Band Era recordings as BIG NOISE, with the STALKS A T MIDNIGHT it was Ray McKinley who working title “Gems From The Archives. ” gave the recording added character with his fal­ setto exclamation, “Celery stalks along the high­ way! " 3-01 <3-6 a-8 v-i a-9 Don Griffiths You played a piece that you said was Denver, CO an impromptu performance during an TS 3-k o-e E-Z a-i intermission when a member of the shsavsny band started whistling and was accompanied by a zin6 avis aiAOw awva oia ox 7 VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002 show, and the theater man­ GENE KRUPA REMEMBRANCE ager told Krupa to cancel that appearance and open Generally this space is reserved for occasional sideman the day with theNoon show. profiles, but today may we remember Gene Krupa from “No,” Krupa said. “Those two personal recollections? The only time I met Gene people came to see Gene Krupa was in 1949 at a 12:30 AM interview session after Krupa, and we owe them his band’s last show at a theater in Youngstown, Ohio. I a show.” The 10 AM show was a nineteen year old kid, and my dad who was a former went on as scheduled, march band drummer, went along to keep me company. Krupa displaying the same Please imagine the scene; a tired Gene Krupa has just enthusiasm he would if the finished seven shows extending from 10 that morning to theater had been packed Midnight, and some kid carrying a tape recorder and a with standing room only. microphone arrives in his dressing room with his 65 year old retired father when Krupa is undoubtedly wanting to Foremost Big Band writer go to bed, or at the very least eager to get out of the theater. and enthusiast, the late Is he impatient while the kid sets up the bulky equipment, George Simon recalls Gene ignoring his visitors until it’s time to talk to the kid on Krupa as quite a showman, tape? No, just the opposite. chewing gum and gesticu­ lating as he tossed his hair around demonstrating his Gene Krupa was the perfect gentleman, welcoming us to torrid drumming, but Simon said Krupa the man was the dressing room, dismissing the kid’s apology about the vastly different from Krupa the showman. George time it’d take to set up the recorder, and engaging the 65 Simon described Gene Krupa as sober, serious, self- year old father in conversation about paradiddles and disciplined, always on time and a gentleman. He rolls, rim shots and cymbals, or whatever drummers talk recalled that he knew few musicians as reliable and about. Here was one of the most renowned drummers in trustworthy as Gene Krupa, absolutely the opposite of the world talking to a retired light company worker who the wild, unreliable musician stereotype. hadn’t touched drums for a couple of decades, treating him as an equal.... a fellow drummer.... and engaging in Gene Krupa died at his home in Yonkers, New York in relaxed conversation about their “shared” craft. The 1973, having spent the last two decades of his life interview was nearly anti-climactic and has been lost in teaching, studying timpani and classical techniques, and time, but the kindness of that moment remains in memory. once in a while leading a small group. He most certainly contributed a great deal to jazz and to increasing the Former Long Island radio station owner Jack Ellsworth public’s awareness of drumming and drummers gener­ expressed a similar view about Gene Krupa. He tells a ally, but everyone who ever met him uses the same word story reflective of the Krupa personality, tied-in with a to describe him. He was truly, a “gentleman.” theater appearance in . Ellsworth recalls that only five or ten people showed up for the 10 AM Don Kennedy

MUSICIAN'S LIMERICKS

There was an old man from Killamey, Who loved Cootie, Hodges and Carney. , who This caused bitter strife often closed his Between him and his wife, For she simply adored Mantovani. appearances

There was a young fellow named Bradley, with the phrase, Who did almost everything badly. He took up the uke, "Love you madly." And played songs by the Duke, But nobody loved him too madly.

8 VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

C RECORDS t o c o n s i d e r which time it will be available from BBJ Sales at 1-800-377-0022. THE GROUPS SING From The Big Band Era And Beyond THE ELLIOT LAWRENCE BIG BAND (Pre-release review) Swings Cohn and Kahn Fantasy FCD 24761-2 This album is a fol­ low-up to an earlier If you enjoy bright, Jasmine album innovative, challeng­ called “The Ladies ing music, this al­ Sing” and contains bum is for you. It’s 52 songs by groups the later Elliot popular in the Big Lawrence Big Band Band Era, and a few recorded in the stu­ groups whose dio for part of the popularity contin­ album, and then cap­ ued into the ’50s. tured in “live” per­ The album hasn’t formance at Atlantic yet been released, City’s Steel Pier. The but we were supplied with an early one-of-a-kind master tracks are a comp­ copy giving us the basis for this review. As with previous ilation from four different ’50s Fantasy albums, condens­ Jasmine offerings, the technical quality is excellent, ing some of the best of Lawrence into this one collection. considering the fact that all the recordings represented are The curse of the Elliot Lawrence Orchestra is that it came originals from half a century ago. along too late in history. By the time a very young Elliot Lawrence organized his group in the mid-forties, the band As you might imagine, the Ink Spots and the Mills business was winding down. Despite that, however, the Brothers are well represented, for they were among the quality of the Lawrence music remained high, and this most heard of the independent vocal groups of the time. album reflects that enviable musical standard. The Mills Brothers tracks include: PAPER DOLL and YOU ALWAYS HURT THE ONE YOU LOVE, the Ink There are cuts for dancing and for listening (sounds like Spots JAVA JIVE is one of their key numbers, but the list a radio announcer’s program introduction) but the most also includes Six Hits and a Miss, , The fun ofthis collection is pure listening. Top musicians play Modemaires, the Song Spinners, The Meltones, The King some fresh material written by such people as Tiny Kahn, Sisters, The Merry Macs, , Kay Johnny Mandel and A1 Cohn, arrangers whose work in the Kyser’s Campus Kids and even The Weavers and Ames middle of the last century is still a standard. Brothers. Earlier groups represented include the Boswell Sisters and the Delta Rhythm Boys. Add to this list the There is a total of 24 selections, including some standards Dinning Sisters, the King Sisters and the Clark Sisters and such as Rodgers and Hart’s BLUE ROOM and MY you can see that the album represents as complete a HEART STOOD STILL, the delightful JEEPERS CREEP­ representation as possible on a two CD set. ERS and BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, a moody TENDERLY and ALONE TOGETHER The Clark Sisters, for example, sing SUNNY SIDE OF plus the bounce and anticipatory mood of WALKING MY THE STREET with Tommy Dorsey as well as BABY BACK HOME. Combine these standards, all given ATCHESON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE. (They were a fresh approach, with the originals mostly contributed by known as the Sentimentalists with the Dorsey Band, but composer/arranger/sax man A1 Cohn, and you can imag­ they were actually four sisters.) There are single appear­ ine the variety of auditory' delights available to you. Some, ances on this set by the Snowflakes singing THERE’S we must point out, are not for the faint of heart for the jazz A SMALL HOTEL with ’s Orchestra solos built into the crisp arrangements often stretch our and ’s Skyliners who perform LULLABY layman’s understanding, but repeated hearing begins to OF BROADWAY. explain the musical value of all that lies within this album.

Release of this album is expected in early June, at Available at record stores.

9 VOLUME LXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

BIG BAND MOVIE STAR QUIZ

Before they became famous on the big screen in movies, many of the stars either sang or played an instrument in one of the Big Bands. Can you match the stars names on the left to the bands with which they worked? As always, please don’t look at the answers, which appear on page 7 in this issue.

Our thanks to a reader who supplied this quiz. We’ve done the movie star/Big Band quiz before, but there are some new names here, allowing you to stretch your thought process, and our reader ’ s submission of the quiz makes us think there must be a bundle of folks who missed it when a similar quiz was published years ago. If you get eight to ten correct, you’re either a dedicated movie fan or a highly knowledgeable music enthusiast. Five to seven matches certainly are worthy ofhonorable mention, but four or less and you ’ 11 be cursed with having a STING recording running through your mind for a period of not less than an hour nor more than two hours. (Any penalty that severe has to have some kind of a limit on pain of being considered cruel and unusual punish­ ment, you see.) some of the matches are either well-known or highly logical. Others are perhaps more obscure, but we have Logical elimination should help you in this effort, for faith in your superior mental processes!

1 Dorothy Lamour A) Ted Weems

2 Fred MacMurray B) Ted FioRito

3 Doris Day C) Vincent Lopez

4 Buddy Rogers D) Anson Weeks

5 Harriet Hilliard E) Buddy Rogers

6 Alice Faye F) Herbie Kay

7 Marilyn Maxwell G)

8 Betty Grable H) California Collegians

9 Dale Evans K) Phil Harris

10 Betty Hutton L) Ozzie Nelson

10 VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

UPCOMING BBJ PROGRAM TITLES Betty Hutton appeared in the movies and on record with DOCTOR, LAWYER, INDIAN CHIEF. It’s our good May 4-5, 2002 (Repeat listing for conveni- fortune that Doris Day was still with Les Brown, and NOVELTY SONGS ence of new subscribers.) Marjorie Hughes was recording with her dad, Frankie Amusing is what some novelty Carle. All those and others made up the rapidly changing songs are, a few are downright hilarious.... but it’s all in music scene of 1946. the ears of the beholder. You’ll get the opportunity to check out a variety of that May 25-26, 2002 Approaching category for two solid hours. Some, such THE ‘B’FILE programming as JUKEBOX SATURDAY NIGHT, may alphabetically not fit in your personal definition of a yields a different, more eclectic mix of novelty song, but others such as A GOOD music. We went to both the CD and LP file MAN IS HARD TO FIND can hardly be for this program, coming up with Basie considered anything else. Buddy Clark will (plus a Basie with the Mills Brothers), Les sing, Spike Jones’ City Slickers will make Brown, Pearl Bailey, the Baja Marimba calculated noises, will make his Band, Billy Butterfield's smooth trumpet guitar talk and the Kay Kyser Orchestra will and orchestra, Charlie Barnet, Randy Brooks, get in on the action. Maybe two hours of pianist Joe Bushkin, some rarely heard cuts novelty will turn out to be a bit much, but we of Bunny Berigan and even one by clarinet­ suspect it’ll be entertaining. BBJ host Don Kennedy ist Acker Bilk. We promise this’ll be a varied and we would hope, entertaining May 11-12, 2002 W e a t B B J a re program. BIG BANDS IN MOVIES acutely aware that regular listeners can­ June 1-2, 2002 This two hours is just not hear every program, and that new listeners are SURPRISE PACKAGE as it’s titled, a sur­ coming on board every week. With that in mind, we’ve prise for both of us. scheduled this program, the subject of which was first Every so often we schedule one of these un-planned, and presented in 1992. To keep it fresh for regular listeners, thus often appealing programs, for one selection suggests we’re excerpting parts of two ’92 programs dealing with another in true random style. There’s the old story about different phases of Big Bands in the movies, plus adding book authors sometimes being influenced by the charac­ some magnificent new soundtrack sounds only recently ters in their story leading them in a different direction than made available. By mixing those sources, we hope to they had planned, as if some outside force is dictating their produce a program fresh enough to satisfy the long-time, actions. The same is frequently true of this kind of regular BBJ listeners, but complete enough to present to program; the music we play points us in unexpected new listeners material they may have missed. There will directions as one recording points to another, making full be a sampling of inspired music composed by the late use of the depth of the library of music available to us. We Ralph Bums for an early ’90s motion picture that was a look forward to these spontaneous on-air moments, for box office bomb but an auditory delight; some Big Band they often yield a fresh dynamic to the program. Era soundtrack lifts and even some lyrics by the likes of June 8-9, 2002 A couple of months ago Lena Home and Betty Hutton, plus a surprise or two. ROMANTIC MUSIC we presented the unlikely combination of romance May 18-19, 2002 During that first peacetime and boogie woogie, which encouraged some of the CLASS OF’46 year following WWII the listeners to suggest a full program of romance. That’s music spoke of happiness and the basis of this BBJ. We bring former Les Brown renewal. Even the had a positive lilt as vocalist Betty Bonney back into the spotlight, as well Goodman’s JERSEY BOUNCE hit the charts, and Jack as the emotionally pleasing alto sax of Johnny Hodges, Fina’s nimble piano style combined with Freddy Martin’s plus the piano of Gene Harris presented in both a Orchestra to introduce us to BUMBLE BOOGIE, but that sentimental and bluesy mood, all perfect as a back­ was about it for full band successes that ground for romance. Frank Sinatra will be repre­ year. The vocalists sang of romance, both with the Big sented, as will Vaughn Monroe, Kay Kyser and even Bands and as singles. was on his own with in a musically challenging but gentle PRISONER OF LOVE, left Benny Goodman presentation. A featured vocalist along with way will to write and perform IT’S A GOOD DAY and bouncy be Lynn Roberts.

11 VOLUMELXXX BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER MAY-JUNE 2002

June 15-16, 2002 One of our listeners of the last century, and perhaps the one best able to reflect FIFTIES INSTRUMENTALS took exception to a the feelings of an ordinary person in both words and comment from a Big music. The program starts with Mercer’s earliest lyrics Band fan who said there were no decent written for Broadway and then with ’s instrumental hits after the 40s, resulting in this program. melodies, progressing to Mercer’s songs for the motion We searched the files for the most visible instrumental picture screen and ending with his final work with Henry recording successes in the ’50s, and came up with Mancini. enough of them to put together a BBJ, with a few ’40s numbers thrown in along the way for illustrative pur­ June 29-30, 2002 Dance band remotes were im- poses. We’ll hear some of arranger ’s “LIVE” FROM THE portant for both the listeners MEADOWBROOK and the bandleaders; the contributions to the ’50s Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, a l i steners for the enj oyment they Richard Maltby ’50s opus, after hearing what he did got out of being part of the celebratory feeling from hearing a name dance band playing from a famous location, the bandleaders for the priceless promotion those remote broadcasts gave them. This program concentrates on the broadcasts from one of the most famous remote locations, noted by announcers as “Frank Daly’s Meadowbrook within easy driving distance of Times Square in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.” We’ll hear from the Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey band of the ’50s in a nostalgic return to the Meadowbrook, plus each of the brother’s musical organizations in original appearances there during the Big Band Era. There will also be Gene Krupa, Glen Gray, , Jack Teagarden, Woody Herman, , Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller among others, moving us audibly to another time and place.

July 6-7, 2002 W e first became THILO WOLF SPEAKS/ aware of young Ger- OVERSEASBROADCASTS man bandleader Thilo Wolf nearly seven years ago, in the fall of 1995. Since that time he’s become a favorite of many U. S. Big Band enthusiasts, and Ray Anthony & Bookends from ’50s Las Vegas review it’s time to re-visit Thilo Wolf and his Basie-like music. earlier for Goodman, and a later Sy Oliver contribution During the hour we’ll hear some of Thilo’s own arrange­ among other items. Roger Williams and Jackie Gleason ments, including his version of I GOT RHYTHM and will also be represented, as will Ray Anthony.... but only TAKE THE A TRAIN. There will be excerpts from a Big instrumentally. The picture of Mr. Anthony and his Band television program that featured the Wolf band with bookends is strictly for decorative purposes, although it jazz harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielmans and the British was taken in the ’50s and thus represents the period to be vocal group calling themselves “Wall Street Crash.” presented on this program. The second hour will be devoted to some of the music selected by radio announcers overseas, indicating their June 22-23, 2002 This year music taste as reflected in the recordings they select for JOHNNY MERCER SONGBOOK marks the their programs. We’ll become acquainted with Erwin 60th anniver­ Lane and Kurt Edelhagen as well as the BBC Big Band, but sary of that dynamic little record company, Capitol. It also hear from Ray Anthony, Harry James, Kay Starr, began as the dream of three men, one of whom was and the Elgarts as selected for air play by songwriter Johnny Mercer. He tells the story of its European radio music hosts. beginnings as well as filling us in on the origin of many of his songs during this bio-musical program. You’ll hear Sports or news events sometimes alter BBJ program not only Johnny’s voice, but the voices of his wife Ginger times or subjects, so please checkwith your local Adult and long-time friend and Capitol recording artist, Marga­ Standard station for exact day, time and subject of ret Whiting. Johnny Mercer was one of the great lyricists BIG BAND JUMP in your area. 12 BIG BAND JU IS NOW ON THE RNET Hear BIG BAND JUMP and its ompanion P H DON NNEDY SHOW repeated each wee th ar broadcasts at www.bigbandjump.com re available on aehd your questions and comments to; [email protected].

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