Juke Box Saturday Night

 

 

 

For most people, `Big Band Music’ conjures up the image of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, or perhaps Artie Shaw, in some driving toe tapping number that was simply made to be danced to.

 

What was called `swing’ music.  

 

But Big Band encompasses so much more than just that. 

 

In fact, there are a  number of different types of big band music.  Some perhaps not as well remembered today, but at the time, still very popular.

 

1935 was a line of demarcation between the old style of big band music – which was played `sweet’, usually with a string section, and very little wandering from the melody line – to the `hot’ swing bands – that would dominate later

 

Paul Whiteman and his orchestra was probably the best known of the sweet bands, although Ben Bernie, Rudy Vallee, Ben Pollack, Shep Fields, and Fred Waring were immensely popular as well.

 

In the 1920s, Whiteman was dubbed by the media as The King of Jazz, although his version of jazz consisted of formal arrangements, not the sort of improvisation that most associate with the genre.

 

Whiteman brought respectability to jazz, and sold more records than any other band leader of the 1920s.

 

There were also jazzier jazz bands, many that played New Orleans or Kansas City style, and they too were popular during the 1920s and 1930s. 

 

Swing music as we know it today was looked upon as a curiosity before about 1935, and a number of famous band leaders of the late 1930’s and 1940s failed in their first  attempts to put together successful bands.

 

Benny Goodman playing Carnegie Hall in 1937 changed the landscape for the Swing Bands of the day, and for more than the next decade, Swing music dominated the music scene.

 

The Internet Archive has a number of excellent compilations of Swing & Big Band Music available to listen to or to download.

 

One of the best is a 4 1/2 hour radio broadcast on KUOW, Puget Sound Public Radio from March of 2007.  

 

 

 

Audio Files

NMS_20070310_swab_19h00_54m04s_96st44.mp3
25 MB

NMS_20070310_swab_20h00_51m03s_96st44.mp3
23 MB

NMS_20070310_swab_21h00_54m02s_96st44.mp3
25 MB

NMS_20070310_swab_22h00_54m21s_96st44.mp3
25 MB

NMS_20070310_swab_23h00_54m03s_96st44.mp3
25 MB

You can also download in 96Kpbs MP3, or Ogg Vorbis format by visiting the webpage.

 

 

Just a small sampling of some of the music from this collection includes:

 

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Lets Get Away From It All Sentimental

Kay Starr With The Charlie Barnett Orchestra Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen

Andrews Sisters Pennsylvania Polka Hits Of 42

Duke Ellington Harlem Suite

Doris Day Sentimental Journey Early Days 44-49/Asv

Ester Williams, Ricardo Mantalban, Red Skelton & Betty Garrett Baby Its Cold Outside Hollywood’s Best The 40s/Asv

When The Lights Go On Again Vaughn Monroe

Sing Sing Sing Pt 1

Andrews Sisters Rum And Coca Cola Hits Of 44/Living Era

Mario Lanza Be My Love

Casda Loma Orchestra Big Band Blast/Memoir

Bing Crosby Swinin On A Star

Mills Brothers Paper Doll Billboard

Jumpin At The Woodside  Count Basie Big Band

Edith Piaf La Vie En Rose (English 1950) 

Nat King Cole Guadalajara N/C/C/ Cole Espanol And More/Capitol

Ink Spots Java Jive 1940 Ink Spots Greatest Hits/Decca

Sarah Vaughn Black Coffee 1949 The Divine One/Living Era

Duke Ellington Jazz Cocktail Thye Young Duke 1927-40/Pavilion

Harry Belafonte Jamaica Farewell 1955 The Essential H.B./Rca Legacy

Fats Waller The Minor Drag 1929 Fats And His Buddies/Bluebird

Ella Fitzgerald The Lady Is A Tramp The Songbooks/Verve

Sammy Davis Jr That Old Black Magic 1955 The S.D.Jr.