Big Band Library: September 2011 "Big Band News"

The big bands are back

in a new and exciting way!

NEW DVD

Lionel Hampton. "Lionel Hampton & The Golden Men of Jazz," Kultur. 79 minutes.

NEW LIVE PERFORMANCES

Count Basie Orchestra directed by Dennis Mackrel. Sept. 3, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Tokyo,

Japan; Sept. 5, Blue Note Jazz Club, Nagoya, Japan; Sept. 6-9, Blue Note Jazz Club,

Tokyo Japan; Motsuji Temple (benefit concert), Ichinoseki City, Japan; Sept. 24,

Corning Civic Music Association, Corning, NY.

Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra directed by Bill Tole. Sept. 10, Huntingdon, TN.

Les Elgart Orchestra directed by Russ Dorsey. Sept. 29, Hurst Activity Center, Hurst, TX.

Jan Garber Orchestra directed by Howard Schneider. Sept. 17, University of Missouri

(private), Columbia, MO; Sept. 18, Crystal Ballroom, Staunton, IL.

Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians directed by Al Pierson. Sept. 11, Capitol Theatre,

Rome, NY.

Glenn Miller Orchestra directed by Gary Tole. Sept. 8, University of Minnesota,

Minneapolis, MN; Sept. 9, Saint Roman Parish, Milwaukee, WI; Sept. 10, LaCrescent

Fine Arts Center, LaCrescent, MN; Sept. 11, Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, IA; Sept. 12,

Central Performing Arts Center, DeWitt, IA; Sept. 14, Crofton Community High School,

Crofton, NE; Sept. 17, McPherson Opera House, McPherson, KS; Sept. 19,

Lexington Opera House, Lexington, NY; Sept. 21, Church-McKee Arts Center, Keyser,

WV; Sept. 22, Frank Arts Center Theatre, Shepherdstown, WV; Sept. 23, Parkland

High School Center for the Arts, Allentown, PA; Sept. 26, LYCC Paul Porter Arena,

Boiling Springs, NC; Sept. 27, Lander University, Greenwood, SC; Sept. 30,

Cumberland County Playhouse, Crossville, TN.

NEW VOCALISTS FOR THE GMO

Valerie Duke, the female vocalist who has recently been getting much praise for her work with The Glenn Miller Orchestra directed by Gary Tole this year, has left the band unexpectedly. The search is on for her permanent replacement.

The Miller Orchestra is also looking for a new male vocalist, as Brian Hemstock will be getting married soon and plans to leave the group in 2012.

NEW PLANS FOR VAUGHN MONROE'S CENTENARY

"This is the centennial celebration you've been waiting for!," Claire Schwartz, co-founder of The Vaughn Monroe Appreciation Society, exclaims. "We would like to invite you to attend a celebration of Vaughn Monroe, his life and his music, with others who appreciate exceptional talent and good taste."

Monroe was born 100 years ago this October, and, to mark the occasion, Schwartz and the "moon racers" have planned an extended weekend at the Meadowlands Plaza Hotel in Secaucus, NJ (just across the river from Manhattan), including a dinner buffet on October 8th.

Since launching the Society in 2001, there have been three successful gatherings - at Indiantown, FL in January 2005; Boston, MA in May 2007; and New York City in May 2009.

For more details, contact Schwartz via info@vaughnmonroesociety.org.

NECROLOGY

Frank Driggs, 81, d.Sept. 21, 2011, "natural causes." Music historian and record producer

(RCA Bluebird "Complete" LP sets, Columbia multi-disc sets by Henderson and

Ellington, the 1967 Columbia "Lunceford Special" album, etc.). He also had a world-class

archive of jazz and popular music memorabilia, including more than 100,000 jazz

images, and, with Harris Lewine, wrote Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of

Classic Jazz (New York City: William Morrow & Co., Inc., 1982).

Uan Rasey, 90, d.Sept. 26, 2011. Trumpeter with Dunham '41-'42; Crosby '44; May '51-'64

(various studio dates) / "Billy May Today" '66 LP / Time-Life "Swing Era" '69-'72.

NEW CANDLES ON THE BIRTHDAY CAKE

Stumpy Brown, b.September 1, 1925. Trombonist - vocalist with Brown '43-'01?.

Trigger Alpert, b.September 3, 1916. Bassist with Rey '40; Miller '40-'42; Miller AAF '43-'45.

Gerald Wilson, b.September 4, 1918. Trumpeter with Lunceford '39-'42 and bandleader.

Virginia Maxey, b.September 4, 1923. Vocalist with Barnet '43 / '48 "Red Skin Rhumba"

[ sic ] Universal film short; Pastor '44; Elman '47.

Herb Jeffries, b.September 24, 1913. Vocalist with Ellington '39-'42.

BIG BANDS INTERNATIONAL CALLS IT QUITS

After 34 years, Big Bands International, from the United Kingdom, has ceased publication. A dwindling subscription list, the deaths of BBI Founder Roy Belcher last November and Publisher Tony Mundell this past June, and the costs of printing were blamed.

NEW IN-PRINT AND / OR ONLINE

Brian Belton. "B.B.'s Big Band Beat: Brian Belton takes a look at the big band scene,"

In Tune International, No. 235 / Sept. 2011, pp.34-35. Reviews of various CDs including

"The Lost Transcriptions Volume 2" (Guild GLCD 5181) which includes Duke Ellington

guesting with Percy Faith's orchestra on Night Creature.

Grant Cairns and Chris Ferreira. "Joe Showler Jack Teagarden Specialist," IAJRC Journal,

Vol.44, No.3 / Sept. 2011, p.88. Remembrance of Showler, who died of liver cancer at

the age of 65 on February 10, 2009.

Derek Collier, ed. "Rex Stewart: A Memoir by Dick Cary, January 1968," IAJRC Journal,

Vol.44, No.3 / Sept. 2011, pp.25-28. Biographical information about Stewart, a

trumpeter with Henderson '26-'30; Ellington '34-'46; and Barnet '46.

Charles De Stefano. "On the Road with your favorite bands," Glenn Miller Productions Inc.

Newsletter #096 / Sept. 7, 2011. Includes "News from the Glenn Miller Orchestra tour

bus" by Jaime Parker.

Margalit Fox. "Frank Driggs, Collector of Jazz Photos, Dies at 81," New York Times,

Sept. 25, 2011.

Don Manning. "Swing High / Big Band Life in Fiction Part Two," IAJRC Journal, Vol.44,

No.3 / Sept. 2011, pp.21-23.

Jon Maurer. "Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians at the Capitol," Rome [ NY ] Observer,

Sept. 7, 2011. The leader of the band, Al Pierson, told Maurer, "“People really like how

the old bands sound . . . It has come to the point that the people [ who ] originally liked

the big bands introduced their children to it and now they are in introducing their children

to it…We have had audiences from 5 years old to 101.”

Michelle J. Mills. "Covina show remembers the music of Harry James," Pasadena [ CA ]

Star-News, Sept. 1, 2011. "Dr. Jack Poster's Tribute to Harry James" takes place at

the Covina Center for the Performing Arts from the 8th through the 10th of this month.

Poster was a former trumpet player with James.

Philip Nifield. "Music review: Glenn Miller Orchestra, St. David's Hall, Cardiff," South

Wales [ UK ] Echo, Sept. 26, 2011. Nifield acknowledges that the UK Miller band,

directed by Ray McVay, is still popular, but comments, "The orchestra could . . . learn

from today's bands which use video as part of their stage act. Surely a big screen

evoking the wartime years would have added nostalgia . . . it's difficult to see a long-term

future for this music - because where is the new audience coming from?"

Dick Raichelson, ed. "Dr. Ian Crosbie's sidemen correspondence: Insights into Jack

Teagarden's Orchestra," IAJRC Journal, Vol.44, No.3 / Sept. 2011, pp.31-35.

Reminiscences by former Teagarden band members, namely reedman-arranger Hub

Lytle, drummer Ernie Austin Augustine, bassist Arnold Fishkind, vocalist Marianne

Dunne, and pianist Ernest Hughes.

Gerry Stonestreet. "Book Review: Thinking of You: The Story of Kay Kyser," In Tune

International, No. 235 / Sept. 2011, p.5.

SNEAK PEEK

In the "News" next month, a big list of late 2011 CD releases of Armstrong, Basie, Carter, T. Dorsey, Ellington, Goodman, G. Gray, C. Hawkins, Kenton, Norvo, and others - even two long out-of-print albums by The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra directed by Lee Castle.

go to Big Band Library homepage

The new Beneke disc (DSOY864), with a handsome photo of Tex holding his tenor saxophone and singing into a microphone, continues what Highton started recently with his first "Glenn Miller Formula" CD (DSOY846).

It includes over two dozen more of Beneke's Thesaurus for-radio-only transcriptions, and some of them, such as Tuxedo Junction, The Hucklebuck, and Blue Orchids, have been especially elusive to collectors over the years. Never before have the Thesaurus recordings been gathered as complete sessions, until Highton began this present series.

I can recommend their purchase without hesitation, and hope that Highton can see the entire run of them through!

The Miller disc (DSOY863) is more of a mixed bag, offering songs as performed by various male vocalists (Tony Martin, Artie Malvin, Johnny Desmond, Garry Stevens, and Glenn Douglas) with variations of Glenn's AAF ensemble, and then offering, in toto, Desmond's 1959 Columbia LP "Once Upon a Time" (CS 8194), for which one of Miller's wartime arrangers, Norman Leyden, conducted.

Although the Desmond recordings were already issued on CD in 1995 (Columbia [ UK ] 481016), together this new Sounds of YesterYear CD makes for an interesting comparison of how these songs were interpreted by the different singers.

SEPTEMBER 2011

"BIG BAND NEWS"

compiled by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA

NEW COMPACT DISCS

Michael Highton, a devoted aficionado of Tex Beneke and longtime member of The International Glenn Miller Society headquartered in London, England, continues to produce desirable CDs for Sounds of YesterYear, the two latest titles being "The Tex Beneke Orchestra: The Glenn Miller Formula Part II" and "Glenn Miller's AAF Band Arrangements."

MORE NEW CDS

Ray Anthony. "International Dance Orchestra," RED

General Catalog. 2-CD set including Lonely Night

in Paris and Love Is Here to Stay.

Count Basie. "The Complete Frank Sinatra-Count

Basie Reprise Studio Recordings," Concord

33152.

Duke Ellington. "The Treasury Shows, Volume 15,"

DETS [ Sw ] 903 9015. 2-CD set.

Benny Goodman. "AFRS Benny Goodman Shows

Volume Eight," Sounds of YesterYear [ UK ] DSOY

865.

Stan Kenton. "Double Feature: The Stan Kenton

Orchestra and The Nova Jazz Orchestra," Tantara

Records 1127. 2-CD set.