Ben Pollack – ‘Father of Swing’ – Phantom Dancer – 6 October 2026

Ben Pollack was an American drummer and bandleader from the mid-1920s through the swing era. His eye for talent led him to employ musicians such as Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Jimmy McPartland, and Harry James. This ability earned him the nickname the “Father of Swing”. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 6 October) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

BEN

Pollack was born in Chicago, learned to play drums in high school and formed groups on the side, performing professionally in his teens.[3] He joined the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in Chicago in 1923 and later joined the Los Angeles-based Harry Bastin Band.

In 1924, he returned to Chicago, where he played for several bands, including Art Kessel’s, which ultimately led to his forming a band, the 12-piece Venice Ballroom Orchestra,[3][5] there in 1925, also known as Ben Pollack and his Californians,[3] which had some performances broadcast on WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Over time the band included Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, and Jimmy McPartland.[3][4] One of the earliest members of his band was Gil Rodin, a saxophonist whose business acumen served him well later as an executive for the Music Corporation of America.

From about 1928, with involvement from Irving Mills, members of Pollack’s band moonlighted at Plaza-ARC and recorded a vast quantity of hot dance and jazz for their dime store labels — Banner, Perfect, Domino, Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo — under the names Mills’ Merry Makers, Goody’s Good Timers, Kentucky Grasshoppers, Mills’ Musical Clowns, The Lumberjacks, Dixie Daises, The Caroliners, The Whoopee Makers, The Hotsy Totsy Gang, Dixie Jazz Band, and Jimmy Bracken’s Toe Ticklers. Combining Pollack’s regular recordings with these side groups made Pollack’s one of the more prolific bands of the 1920s and 1930s.

Pollack’s band played in Chicago and moved to New York City in 1928, having obtained McPartland and Teagarden around that time. This outfit enjoyed immense success, playing for Broadway shows and winning an exclusive engagement at the Park Central Hotel. Pollack’s band was involved in extensive recording activity at that time, using a variety of pseudonyms in the studios. The orchestra also made a Vitaphone short subject sound film.

Pollack, in the meantime, had fancied himself as more of a bandleader-singer type instead of a drummer.[1] To this end, he signed Ray Bauduc to handle the drumming chores.[1] The band was booked by the Park Central Hotel in New York, during which time they became known as Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orchestra.[3] Benny Goodman and Jimmy McPartland left the band in mid-1929. They were replaced by Matty Matlock on clarinet and Jack Teagarden’s brother, Charlie, on trumpet. Eddie Miller was also signed as a tenor saxophonist in 1930.

Breakup and reformation The band broke up in 1935.[3] Many of its members soon formed a group led by Bob Crosby, brother of Bing Crosby.

Pollack formed a new band with Harry James and Irving Fazola.[1] With James he wrote the hit “Peckin'”. In the early 1940s, he organized a band led by comedian Chico Marx. He started Jewel Records, and appeared as himself in the movie The Benny Goodman Story, and made a cameo in The Glenn Miller Story.

He also ran the restaurant “Pick-A-Rib” in Hollywood in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1965, he moved to Palm Springs where he and his sister, Esther Mendelson, operated up a nightclub called Easy Street North. The nightclub, however, never became successful, which led to many financial problems that would later contribute to his suicide.

Pollack’s bands from the 1920s through the 1940s included Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman, Dick Cathcart, Eddie Miller, Frank Teschemacher, Freddie Slack, Glenn Miller, Charlie Spivak, Harry James, Irving Fazola, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy McPartland, Joe Marsala, Matty Matlock, Muggsy Spanier, and Yank Lawson.

POLLACK

In 1934, Bradshaw formed his own swing orchestra, which recorded eight side for Decca Records that year in New York City.

The band’s next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records, when its music was closer to rhythm and blues.

In 1947, Bradshaw recorded for Savoy Records.

The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records, between late 1949 and early 1955, and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart.

His most successful record at the time was “Well Oh Well”, which reached number two on the R&B chart in 1950 and remained on the chart for 21 weeks.

Two follow-ups were, “I’m Going to Have Myself a Ball” (no. 5, 1950) and “Walkin’ The Chalk Line” (no. 10, 1951) also made the chart

What is now Bradshaw’s best known recording was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'” (1951) – not a chart hit at the time – which passed from rhythm and blues to rock.

The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette in 1956, The Yardbirds in 1965, Aerosmith in 1974 and Motörhead in 1977.

Jimmy Page said that the first song played at the first rehearsal of what would become the English rock band Led Zeppelin, was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”.

Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with “Soft” (no. 3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and “Heavy Juice” (no. 9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.

Bradshaw’s later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first of which in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed.

He made his last two sides in 1958.

As a bandleader, Bradshaw was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, Big Nick Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curley Russell, Calvin “Eagle Eye” Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble “Thin Man” Watts, and Shadow Wilson.</h4ben

6 October PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #784
107.3 2SER Tuesday 6 October 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Society Dance Music
Blues Serenade (theme) + Alexander’s Ragtime Band	Henry King Orchestra	Empire Room Palmer House WENR ABC Chicago 21 Jul 1943
Keep it Gay	Henry King Orchestra (voc) Ann Anderson	Empire Room Palmer House WENR ABC Chicago 21 Jul 1943
Medley: Should I Be Sweet? / I’ve Got a Crush on You	Henry King Orchestra (voc) Ann Anderson	Empire Room Palmer House WENR ABC Chicago 21 Jul 1943
Begin the Beguine + In The Mission of St Augustine + Blow Out the Candles + Blues Serenade (theme)	Henry King Orchestra (voc) Ann Anderson	Empire Room Palmer House WENR ABC Chicago 21 Jul 1943
Set 2	Dizzy Gillespie Records + Shower of Stars 1955
He Beeped When He Shoulda Bopped	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra (voc) Alice Roberts	Comm Rec 9 Jul 1946
Ow!	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Comm Rec 22 Aug 1947
The Champ Part 2	Dizzy Gillespie Sextet	Comm Rec 16 Apr 1951
The Champ Part 2	Dizzy Gillespie Sextet	Comm Rec 16 Apr 1951
Set 3	Ben Pollack Orchestra
Open + Let’s Go Native	Ben Pollack Orchestra	Radio Transcription World Broadcasting Service NYC 1930
So Beats My Heart For You	Ben Pollack Orchestra (voc) Helen Rowland	Radio Transcription World Broadcasting Service NYC 1930
My Future Just Passed	Ben Pollack Orchestra (voc) Chester Gaylord	Radio Transcription World Broadcasting Service NYC 1930
Blue is the Night + Raggin’ the Scales	Ben Pollack Orchestra (voc) Ben Pollack	Radio Transcription World Broadcasting Service NYC 1930
I Still Get a Thrill Thinking of You	Ben Pollack Orchestra (voc) Helen Rowland	Radio Transcription World Broadcasting Service NYC 1930
Set 4	Charlie Barnet
Theme + Jump Session	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Famous Door WEAF NBC Red NYC Feb 1939
Night and Day + Every Tub	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Famous Door WEAF NBC Red NYC Feb 1939
The Gal From Joe’s	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Famous Door WEAF NBC Red NYC Feb 1939
Echoes from Harlem + Theme	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Famous Door WEAF NBC Red NYC Feb 1939
Set 5	Cab Calloway
Minnie the Moocher (theme) + Hard Times	Cab Calloway Orchestra (voc) Cab Calloway	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue 27 Jul 1940
Fifteen Minute Intermission	Cab Calloway Orchestra (voc) Cab Calloway + Band	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue 27 Jul 1940
I’ll Pray for You + Boog It!	Cab Calloway Orchestra (voc) Cab Calloway	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue 27 Jul 1940
King Porter Stomp + Minnie the Moocher (theme)	Cab Calloway Orchestra (voc) Cab Calloway	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WJZ NBC Blue 27 Jul 1940
Set 6	Artie Shaw
Nightmare (theme) + A Kid Named Joe	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Tony Pastor	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WEAF NBC Red NYC 1 Dec 1938
When I Go a’Dreamin’	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WEAF NBC Red NYC 1 Dec 1938
Leaping at the Lincoln	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WEAF NBC Red NYC 1 Dec 1938
Set 7	Duke Ellington
Take the A Train (theme) + A Door Will Open	Duke Ellington Orchestra	New Zanzibar WOR Mutual NYC 18 Oct 1945
Lilibelle + West Indian Dance	Duke Ellington Orchestra	New Zanzibar WOR Mutual NYC 18 Oct 1945
Waiting for the Train + Blues on the Double	Duke Ellington Orchestra	New Zanzibar WOR Mutual NYC 18 Oct 1945
Set 8	Stan Kenton
Open + Intermission Riff	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 1952
Thermopylae	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 1952
Cool Eyes + Peanut Vendor	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 1952
A Night in Tunisia	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Blue Note WMAQ NBC Chicago 1952

Tiny Bradshaw – Band Leader’s Legacy Goes from Sonny Stitt to Heavy Metal – Phantom Dancer – 29 September 2026

Tiny Bradshaw was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, composer, singer, pianist, and drummer. His, “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”, has been recorded by bands like Motorhead and was the first song Led Zeppelin ever rehearsed. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 29 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

TINY

Graduating from university with a degree in psychology, Bradshaw turned to music for a living.

In Ohio, he sang and played drums with Horace Henderson’s campus-oriented Collegians.

In 1932, Bradshaw relocated to New York City, where he drummed for Marion Hardy’s Alabamians, the Charleston Bearcats (later the Savoy Bearcats), and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and sang for Luis Russell.

BRADSHAW

In 1934, Bradshaw formed his own swing orchestra, which recorded eight side for Decca Records that year in New York City.

The band’s next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records, when its music was closer to rhythm and blues.

In 1947, Bradshaw recorded for Savoy Records.

The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records, between late 1949 and early 1955, and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart.

His most successful record at the time was “Well Oh Well”, which reached number two on the R&B chart in 1950 and remained on the chart for 21 weeks.

Two follow-ups were, “I’m Going to Have Myself a Ball” (no. 5, 1950) and “Walkin’ The Chalk Line” (no. 10, 1951) also made the chart

What is now Bradshaw’s best known recording was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'” (1951) – not a chart hit at the time – which passed from rhythm and blues to rock.

The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette in 1956, The Yardbirds in 1965, Aerosmith in 1974 and Motörhead in 1977.

Jimmy Page said that the first song played at the first rehearsal of what would become the English rock band Led Zeppelin, was “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”.

Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with “Soft” (no. 3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and “Heavy Juice” (no. 9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.

Bradshaw’s later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first of which in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed.

He made his last two sides in 1958.

As a bandleader, Bradshaw was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, Big Nick Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curley Russell, Calvin “Eagle Eye” Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble “Thin Man” Watts, and Shadow Wilson.

29 September PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #783
107.3 2SER Tuesday 29 September 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Shep Field New Music
Fire Dance (theme) + Sheik of Araby	Shep Field New Music	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mutual Network Orlando FL 21 Jul 1943
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore + In My Arms	Shep Field New Music	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mutual Network Orlando FL 21 Jul 1943
Let’s Get Lost	Shep Field New Music (voc) Meredith Blake	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mutual Network Orlando FL 21 Jul 1943
All or Nothing at All + Love Come Back to Me + Fire Dance (theme)	Shep Field New Music	‘Spotlight Bands’ Mutual Network Orlando FL 21 Jul 1943
Set 2	Louis Armstrong
Open + Ain’t Misbehavin’	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 24 May 1943
Tea for Two	Red Callander (db) Louis Armstrong Orchestra	‘Swingtime’ ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 24 May 1943
A Woman Always Pays	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Teresa Harris	‘Swingtime’ ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 24 May 1943/div>
Peanut Vendor + Lazy River + Close	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Swingtime’ ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 24 May 1943
Set 3	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra
Theme + Bradshaw Bounce	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom NYC AFRS Hollywood 18 Jan 1945
St Louis Blues	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra (voc) Honey Brown	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom NYC AFRS Hollywood 18 Jan 1945
I Hope to Die	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom NYC AFRS Hollywood 18 Jan 1945
All of Me + Deep Purple (theme)	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra (voc) Tiny Bradshaw	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom NYC AFRS Hollywood 18 Jan 1945
song	Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom NYC AFRS Hollywood 18 Jan 1945
Set 4	Yank Bandstand
Theme + Midnight Snack	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	‘Yank Bandstand’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Rum Boogie	Andrew Sisters	‘Yank Bandstand’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
I Got Rhythm	Barney Bigard	‘Yank Bandstand’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Main Stem + C Jam Blues	Duke Ellington (p) Harry Levine Orchestra + Close	‘Yank Bandstand’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Set 5	Chicago Jazz
Come On, Get Happy (theme) + You’re Driving Me Crazy	Whitey Berquist and the NBC Orchestra	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
I Know That You Know	Art van Damme Quartet	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
Stompin’ at the Savoy	The Chicago Wolverines	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
St Louis Blues + Johnson Rag + Come On, Get Happy (theme)	Lucille Reid + Whitey Berquist and the NBC Orchestra	‘Chicago Jazz’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 12 Jun 1952
Set 6	The Revelers
Oh Miss Hannah	The Revelers (piano) Frank Black	‘The Magic Key’ WJZ NBC Blue 11 Nov 1936
The Way You Look Tonight	The Revelers with Frank Black and Orchestra	‘The Magic Key’ WJZ NBC Blue 11 Nov 1936
I’m an Old Cowhand	Frank Black and the Magic Key Orchestra	‘The Magic Key’ WJZ NBC Blue 11 Nov 1936
Set 7	Bobby Swain
Open + Not For Me + The Breeze and I	Bobby Swain Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ KMOX CBS St Louis 1952
Snuggled on Your Shoulder	Bobby Swain Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ KMOX CBS St Louis 1952
Lullaby of Birdland + The Gentleman is a Dope	Bobby Swain Orchestra	‘Treasury Bandstand’ KMOX CBS St Louis 1952
Set 8	Miles Davis
All of Me	Miles Davis	Birdland WABC ABC NYC Oct 1957
Four	Miles Davis	Birdland WABC ABC NYC Oct 1957
Nature Boy	Miles Davis	Birdland WABC ABC NYC Oct 1957
A Night in Tunisia	Miles Davis	Birdland WABC ABC NYC Oct 1957

Bob Chester – From Big Band Leader to Car Factory Worker – Phantom Dancer – 22 September 2026

Bob Chester was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 22 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

BOB

Bob Chester began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack.

He formed his own group in Detroit in the mid-1930s with a Glenn Miller-influenced sound. This band was unsuccessful in local engagements but quickly dissolved.

He then put together a new band on the East Coast under the direction of Tommy Dorsey and with arrangements by David Rose.This ensemble fared much better, recording for Bluebird Records.

CHESTER

Chester’s group, billed “The New Sensation of the Nation,” had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the autumn of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time).

Chester’s Bluebird records were excellent sellers, both for retail dealers and coin phonograph operators such as “From Maine to California”; “Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie”; “Madeliaine”; and two songs from “Banjo Eyes” – “Not a Care in the World” and “A Nickel to My Name”.

His only national hit was “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair” (b/w “I Walk With Music”), which featured Dolores O’Neill on vocals and went to No. 18 on the chart in April 1940.

Chester’s orchestra included trumpeters Alec Fila, Nick Travis, Lou Mucci, and Conrad Gozzo, saxophonists Herbie Steward and Peanuts Hucko, drummer Irv Kluger, and trombonist Bill Harris.

His female singers included Dolores O’Neill, Kathleen Lane, and Betty Bradley; among his male singers were Gene Howard, Peter Marshall, Bob Haymes, and Al Stuart.

The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s, due in part to the shrinking market for big band sound.

After a stint as a disc jockey at WKMH radio, Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s, but after it failed he retired from music and returned to Detroit to work for the rest of his life in car manufacturing.

22 September PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #782
107.3 2SER Tuesday 22 September 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Cee Pee Johnson Orchestra
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Sherman Shuffle	Cee Pee Johnson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
That Old Black Magic	Delta Rhythm Boys	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Mop Mop	Cee Pee Johnson Orchestra (voc) Cee Pee Johnson	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Swing Crazy + One O’Clock Jump (theme)	Cee Pee Johnson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Set 2	1920s
Hallucinations	Coon Sanders Nighthawks	‘Swingtime’ Comm Rec 31 Aug 1927
There Goes My Ball and Chain	Coon Sanders Nighthawks (voc) Joe Sanders	‘Swingtime’ Comm Rec 27 Nov 28
Open + Harold Teen + Way Down in the Deep Low South	Coon Sanders Nighthawks (voc) Carleton Coon	‘Swingtime’ ‘Maytag Frolics’ Radio Transcription 17 Jan 1929
Mississippi + Sittin’ and Whittlin’ All Day Long	Coon Sanders Nighthawks (voc) Joe Sanders	‘Swingtime’ ‘Maytag Frolics’ Radio Transcription 17 Jan 1929
Set 3	Bob Chester Orchestra
Theme + Shoot the Sherbert to Me Herbert	Bob Chester Orchestra (voc) Kathleen Lane	Mayfair Room, Hotel van Cleve, Dayton OH WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939
What’s New?	Bob Chester Orchestra (voc) Kathleen Lane	Mayfair Room, Hotel van Cleve, Dayton OH WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939
Dancing in the Dark	Bob Chester Orchestra	Mayfair Room, Hotel van Cleve, Dayton OH WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939
Stay in My Arms, Cinderella + Theme + News + Weather + Station Close	Bob Chester Orchestra (voc) Stu Bradon	Mayfair Room, Hotel van Cleve, Dayton OH WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939
Set 4	A Musical Journey with George Sterney
Theme + Don’t Fence Me In + Don’t You Know I Care?	George Sterney Orchestra (voc) Jimmy Reid	‘One Night Stand’ Bronze Room, Hotel Cleveland, Cleveland OH AFRS Re-broadcast 27 Feb 1945
Don’t Blame Me	George Sterney Orchestra (voc) Gayle Stafford	‘One Night Stand’ Bronze Room, Hotel Cleveland, Cleveland OH AFRS Re-broadcast 27 Feb 1945
Latin Medley	George Sterney Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Bronze Room, Hotel Cleveland, Cleveland OH AFRS Re-broadcast 27 Feb 1945
Does Your Heart Beat For Me?	George Sterney Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Bronze Room, Hotel Cleveland, Cleveland OH AFRS Re-broadcast 27 Feb 1945
Set 5	Count Basie
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Blee Blop Blues	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Shake a Hand + I’ll Be True	Faye Adams (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956 1944
Alright OK, You Win	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Joe Williams	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Basie Land + One O’Clock Jump (theme)	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Set 6	Basin Street Jazz
Open + The Dart Game	Shelly Manne Quintet	Basin Street WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
B’s Flat	Shelly Manne Quintet	WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
		WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Set 7	Stan Getz
Little Girl Blue	Stan Getz Quartet	WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Lover Come Back to Me + Jumping with Symphony Sid (theme)	Stan Getz Quartet	WCBS CBS NYC 21 Apr 1956
Set 8	Eddie Condon
Relaxin’ at the Touro	Eddie Condon Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945
I Can’t Get Started	Eddie Condon Group (voc) Lee Wiley	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945
Ensemble Bles	Eddie Condon Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945

Eartha Kitt – ‘The Most Exciting Woman in the World,’ Orson Welles – Phantom Dancer – 15 September 2026

Eartha Kitt was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and a real activist who put her career at risk to help people. Orson Welles called her the “most exciting woman in the world”. Kitt starred as Catwoman in the the TV series Batman in 1967. She’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 15 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

EARTHA

Kitt began her career in 1942 and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway theatre production of the musical Carib Song.

In the early 1950s, Kitt had six US Top 30 entries, including “I Want to Be Evil”, “Uska Dara” (1953), based on the Turkish folk song “Kâtibim” which Kitt heard in an Istanbul bar as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company. She began performing the song in Turkish and English, the song received abundant play on Ankara Radio and became a hit.

Her other recordings include the UK Top 10 song “Under the Bridges of Paris” (1954), “Just an Old Fashioned Girl” (1956) and “Where Is My Man” (1983).

In 1968, Kitt’s career in the U.S. deteriorated after she made anti-Vietnam War statements at a White House luncheon with Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Ten years later, Kitt made a successful return to Broadway in the 1978 original production of the musical Timbuktu!, for which she received the first of her two Tony Award nominations.

Kitt’s second was for the 2000 original production of the musical The Wild Party. She wrote three autobiographies.

Kitt found a new generation of fans through her various voice acting roles in the last decade of her life. She was the voice of two villainous characters in animated works during the twenty-first century: Yzma in The Emperor’s New Groove franchise, and Vexus in My Life As A Teenage Robot, with the former role earning her two Daytime Emmy Awards. Kitt posthumously won a third Emmy in 2010 for her guest performance on Wonder Pets!

CHILDHOOD

Eartha Kitt’s mother was of Cherokee and African descent. She had little knowledge of her father and Eartha’s mother went to live with a black man who refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion.

Kitt was raised by a relative named Aunt Rosa, in whose household she was abused. Interviewed on BBC Wales’ Late Call in 1971, Kitt said:

“I remember at times when we didn’t have anything to eat for what seemed like an insurmountable amount of time. We had to rely on the forest and whatever we could dig out of the ground, such as weeds or a grass I remember that had a kind of onion growing at the bottom of it. And when we could find things like that to eat then we were alright. … I’m very glad that [her childhood self] will always be a part of me because she helps me do what she knows I have to do out there on that stage.”

After the death of Annie Mae, Eartha was sent to live with another close relative named Mamie Kitt, who Eartha later came to believe was her biological mother.

CAREER

Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, Kitt’s unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in French during her years performing in Europe. Kitt spoke four languages and sang in 11, which she demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.

In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first starring role as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus.

Two years later, Kitt was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing “Monotonous” and “Bal, Petit Bal”.

In 1954, 20th Century-Fox distributed an independently filmed version of the revue entitled New Faces, in which Kitt performed “Monotonous”, “Uska Dara”, “C’est si bon”, and “Santa Baby”.

Her other films in the 1950s included The Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1958).

Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly’s Progress (in 1959).

In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. In the late 1960s, Batman featured Kitt as Catwoman after Julie Newmar had left the show in 1967. She appeared in a 1967 Mission: Impossible episode “The Traitor”, as Tina Mara, a contortionist.

The Royal Variety Performance in the London Palladium on 29th October 1962 featured Kitt singing solo, but also appearing in a skit with Harry Secombe. The review of the event in the Illustrated London News described them as “perhaps the two outstanding performers of the evening.

In 1963, Kitt traveled to the Philippines for a concert at the Araneta Coliseum, where she learned the song phonetically entitled “Waray-Waray,” which she included in her repertoire and later appeared in her live album.

WHITE HOUSE INCIDENT

On January 18, 1968, during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. Kitt was asked by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War. She replied: “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.” During a question-and-answer session, Kitt stated:
“The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons—and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson—we raise children and send them to war.”

Kitt’s remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears. It is widely believed that Kitt’s career in the United States was ended following her comments about the Vietnam War, after which she was branded “a sadistic nymphomaniac” by the CIA.

A CIA dossier about Kitt was discovered by Seymour Hersh in 1975. Hersh published an article about the dossier in The New York Times. The dossier contained comments about Kitt’s sex life and family history, along with negative opinions of her that were held by former colleagues.

Kitt’s response to the dossier was to say: “I don’t understand what this is about. I think it’s disgusting.” Following the incident, Kitt devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia.

Kitt would return to the White House on January 29, 1978 after accepting an invitation from U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attend a reception honouring the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Ford’s Theatre.

BROADWAY

In the 1970s, Kitt appeared on television several times on BBC’s long-running variety show The Good Old Days, and in 1987 took over from fellow American Dolores Gray in the London West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and returned at the end of that run to star in a one-woman show at the same Shaftesbury Theatre, both to tremendous acclaim. In both those shows, Kitt performed the show-stopping theatrical anthem “I’m Still Here”.

Kitt returned to New York City in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! in 1978. Kitt was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

In the late 1990s, Kitt appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz.

In 2000, she again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party.

Beginning in late 2000, Kitt starred as the Fairy Godmother in the U.S. national tour of Cinderella.

In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. Kitt reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.

From October to early December 2006, Kitt co-starred in the off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck.

1980s SINGING CAREER

In 1984, Kitt returned to the music charts with a disco song titled “Where Is My Man”, the first certified gold record of her career. “Where Is My Man” reached the Top 40 on the UK singles chart, where it peaked at No. 36. The song became a standard in discos and dance clubs of the time and made the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard dance chart, where it reached No. 7.

The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the United States, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organisations. Kitt’s 1989 follow-up hit “Cha-Cha Heels” (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs, reaching No. 32 in the charts in that country.

In 1988, Kitt replaced Dolores Gray in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies as Carlotta, receiving standing ovations every night for her rendition of “I’m Still Here” at the beginning of act 2.

Kitt went on to perform her own one-woman show at the Shaftesbury Theatre to sold-out houses for three weeks in early 1989 after Follies.

1990s

In 1991, Kitt returned to the screen in Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore.

In 1992, she had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in Boomerang.

In 1995, Kitt appeared as herself in an episode of The Nanny, where she performed a song in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).

In November 1996, Kitt appeared in an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!. She also did a series of commercials for Old Navy. In 1996, she had a supporting role as Agatha K. Plummer in Harriet the Spy.

2000s

In 2000, Kitt won an Annie Award for her starring voice role as Yzma in the Disney feature film The Emperor’s New Groove, later reprising the role in 2005 in Disney’s Kronk’s New Groove.

Kitt returned once again to the silver screen in 2003 with the role of Madame Zeroni in the film Holes based on the book by the same name, by author Louis Sachar.

In December 2004 and 2005, Kitt was a guest narrator at Disney’s Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World.

In August 2007, Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics’ Smoke Signals collection. She re-recorded “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month. Kitt also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.

In her later years, Kitt made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.

Kitt did voice work for the animated projects The Emperor’s New Groove and its spinoffs, as well as for My Life as a Teenage Robot.

In April 2008, just months before her death, Kitt appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Kitt voiced herself in The Simpsons episode “Once Upon a Time in Springfield”, where she is depicted as a former lover of Krusty the Clown.

ACTIVISM

Kitt was active in numerous social causes in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1966, she established the Kittsville Youth Foundation, a chartered and non-profit organization for underprivileged youths in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

Kitt was also involved with a group of youths in the area of Anacostia in Washington, D.C., who called themselves “Rebels with a Cause”.

She supported the group’s efforts to clean up streets and establish recreation areas in an effort to keep them out of trouble by testifying with them before the House General Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor.

In her testimony, in May 1967, Kitt stated that the Rebels’ “achievements and accomplishments should certainly make the adult ‘do-gooders’ realise that these young men and women have performed in one short year—with limited finances—that which was not achieved by the same people who might object to turning over some of the duties of planning, rehabilitation, and prevention of juvenile delinquents and juvenile delinquency to those who understand it and are living it”.

Kitt added that “the Rebels could act as a model for all urban areas throughout the United States with similar problems”. “Rebels with a Cause” subsequently received the needed funding.

Kitt was a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; her criticism of the Vietnam War and its connection to poverty and racial unrest in 1968 can be seen as part of a larger commitment to peace activism.

Like many politically active public figures of her time, Kitt was under surveillance by the CIA, beginning in 1956. After The New York Times discovered the CIA file on Kitt in 1975, she granted the paper permission to print portions of the report, stating: “I have nothing to be afraid of and I have nothing to hide.”

Kitt later became a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she considered a civil right. She had been quoted as saying: “I support it [gay marriage] because we’re asking for the same thing. If I have a partner and something happens to me, I want that partner to enjoy the benefits of what we have reaped together. It’s a civil-rights thing, isn’t it?”

In a 1992 interview with Dr. Anthony Clare, Kitt spoke about her gay following, saying:
“We’re all rejected people, we know what it is to be refused, we know what it is to be oppressed, depressed, and then, accused, and I am very much cognizant of that feeling. Nothing in the world is more painful than rejection. I am a rejected, oppressed person, and so I understand them, as best as I can, even though I am a heterosexual.”

DEATH

Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008 at her home in Weston, Connecticut; she was 81 years old.

Her daughter, Kitt McDonald, described her last days with her mother:
“I was with her when she died. She left this world literally screaming at the top of her lungs. I was with her constantly, she lived not even 3 miles from my house, we were together practically every day. She was home for the last few weeks when the doctor told us there was nothing they could do any more. Up until the last two days, she was still moving around. The doctor told us she will leave very quickly and her body will just start to shut down. But when she left, she left the world with a bang, she left it how she lived it. She screamed her way out of here, literally. I truly believe her survival instincts were so part of her DNA that she was not going to go quietly or willingly. It was just the two of us hanging out [during the last days] she was very funny. We didn’t have to [talk] because I always knew how she felt about me. I was the love of her life, so the last part of her life we didn’t have to have these heart to heart talks. She started to see people that weren’t there. She thought I could see them too, but, of course, I couldn’t. I would make fun of her like, “I’m going to go in the other room and you stay here and talk to your friends.”

15 September PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #781
107.3 2SER Tuesday 15 September 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Will Osborne Orchestra
Theme + Hallelujah	Will Osborne Orchestra	“Spotlight Bands” Blue Network 1943
Sugar + Goodnight Wherever You Are	Will Osborne Orchestra	“Spotlight Bands” Blue Network 1943
I’ll Get By	Will Osborne Orchestra	“Spotlight Bands” Blue Network 1943
South Rampart Street Parade	Will Osborne Orchestra	“Spotlight Bands” Blue Network 1943
Set 2	Swingtime with Bob Crosby
South Rampart Street Parade (theme) + Shoo Shoo Baby	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Swingtime’ AFRS Hollywood 1943
Why Don’t We Do This More Often?	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Swingtime’ AFRS Hollywood 1943
Jingle Jangle Jingle	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Swingtime’ AFRS Hollywood 1943
Piano Concerto Bb + South Rampart Street Parade(theme)	Freddy Martin Orchestra (piano) Jack Fina	‘Swingtime’ AFRS Hollywood 1943
Set 3	Eartha Kitt
Open – Heart of Darkness	Eartha Kitt Co-Star Credit	‘Playhouse 90’ CBS TC 6 Nov 1958
Uska Dara	Eartha Kitt	‘The Red Buttons Show WCBT CBS TV NYC 1 Jun 1953
Lead Role – Theodora ‘Teddy’ Hicks	Eartha Kitt	‘Mrs Patterson’ BBC Sunday Night Theatre, London 17 Jun 1956
Sandy’s Tune + C’est si bon	Eartha Kitt	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription 25 Sep 1955
Set 4	Fame & Fortune
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + Hymn to the Sun	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Fame & Fortune’ KECA NBC Blue LA 21 Nov 1940
Rhum Boogie	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Connie Haines	‘Fame & Fortune’ KECA NBC Blue LA 21 Nov 1940
That’s How It Goes	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers	‘Fame & Fortune’ KECA NBC Blue LA 21 Nov 1940
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme)	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Fame & Fortune’ KECA NBC Blue LA 21 Nov 1940
Set 5	Across the Radio June 1944
Open + Somebody Loves Me	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Imogen Lynn	‘Mirth and Madness’ WEAF NBC LA 1944
Knightsbridge March	Roy Shield Orchestra	WMAQ NBC Chicago 1944
Kirkwood for Mayor	Irving Miller Orchestra	1944
Martial Music	NBC Orchestra	WEAF NBC NYC 6 Jun 1944
Set 6	Jerry Livingstone & his Young Men of Manhattan
Theme + Medley: Change Partners / Say it Isn’t So / Back to Back	Jerry Livingstone & his Young Men of Manhattan	Miami Room NYC WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Medley: Day in Day Out / Address Unknown / South of the Border + Close	Jerry Livingstone and	Miami Room NYC WJSV CBS Washington DC 21 Sep 1939
Set 7	Freddy Rich
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + Oh, That Kiss + Goodnight Sweetheart	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Friendly Fred	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I Wouldn’t Change You for The World	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Friendly Fred	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Alabamy Bound	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme)	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Set 8	Eddie Condon
Should I?	Eddie Condon Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945
Song of the Wanderer	Eddie Condon Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NYC 10 Feb 1945

Don’t Risk the Rails – in Ad Campaign for Level Crossing Safety

Meet Judy and Phil from the Australian Railway Crossing Safety Education Guide

They are a proud bunch and take their work very seriously.

They have just created their own video and audio series to teach people how to behave around level crossings and are excited to share their work with the community.

The simplicity of their safety messages, delivered in a uniquely Australian way makes them relatable, likeable, and sharable amongst our target audience.

They make sure the message come across in a non-patronising, common-sense way, reiterating that the easiest way to stay out of danger at a level crossing is to follow the signs and stay alert

Data from the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator showed an average of almost 950 near hits every year at level crossings on Australia’s heavy rail network between 2016 and 2025.

Tragically 35 people died and 149 were injured in train and vehicle collisions over the same period, while 16 deaths and 23 injuries were caused by collisions between trains and pedestrians at heavy rail level crossings.

Created by Publicis Groupe, directed by cowboys.

Phil: Greg Poppleton
Judy: Amy McDonald

Client of National Heavy Vehicle Regulator – Senior Media and Campaigns Officer, Corporate Affairs: Sean Carr
Client of Department of Transport and Main Roads – Program Manager (National Level Crossing Safety), Program Management Office: John Pearson
Client of Queensland Rail – Customer and Stakeholder Interface Manager: David Reis

Agency: Publicis Australia @publicisgroupeanz
ECD: Jim McKeown @jim.stagram
Senior Art Director: Andrew Leftley
Producer: Chris Moore
Senior Account Director: Anna Hellinger

Production Company: Clockwork Films @clockwork_films
Managing Director: Jamie Cohen
Executive Producer: Heath George
Directors: cowboys. (Alex Gibbs & Luke Hackett) @thanksihateit @iamnewtothisplanet
Senior Producer: Anouk Ratnawibhushana @anouk_ratna
Production Manager: Josh Nicholas @hazy.beats_
Production Runner / 1st Aid: Daniel Glossip
1st AD: Jason Faulkner
DOP: Benjamin L’Aiguille @benlaiguille
1st AC: Josh Bailey
2nd AC / Data Wrangler: Jonathan Bowes-Onions
Gaffer: Glenn Jones
Best Boy: Ryan Dein
Sound Recordist: Tristan Atkins
Production Designer: Laura Elkington @elkartdirection
Art Department Assistant: Datten Morgan (Pix)
Wardrobe Stylist: Danielle Soglimbene @danielle_soglimbene
HMU / Wardrobe Assistant: Emma Louise @emmalouise_makeupartist
Post-Production: Clockwork Films @clockwork_films
Post Producer: Heath George
Offline / Online Editor: Benjamin L’Aiguille @benlaiguille
Casting: Wayward Casting @waywardcreative_casting

www.clockworkfilms.tv

Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five – Phantom Dancer 8 September 2026

Artie Shaw and his Gramercy Five was a jazz combo led by bandleader ‘King of the Clarinet’, swing band leader and composer, Artie Shaw.  The Gramercy Five had different line-ups when it ran between 1940 and 1954. After his Australian tour in 1954, Shaw gave up clarinet and the Gramercy Five, saying he’d done all he could with it. The Gramercy 5 is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 8 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

 

FIRST GRAMERCY FIVE 1940-41

The Gramercy Five was a six-piece small group Artie Shaw formed out of his strongest jazz players. The name was his telephone number.

Big band leaders live Tommy Dorsey (The Clambake 7), Bob Crosby (the Bobcats) and Benny Goodman had their own ‘bands within a band’.

The Gramercy Five was born out of the 19 September 1939 broadcast of the  ‘Melody & Madness’ radio series when Shaw arranged the rhythm section of his orchestra, with his clarinet, to accompany vocal trio, The King Sisters.

The Gramercy Five the formed in 1940 after Shaw had quite band leading, went to Mexico, then returned, was like a jazz chamber orchestra using harpsichord instead of piano.

For Artie Shaw, the sextet was an opportunity for him to stretch out as a clarinettist although his solos were never longer than 16 bars.

The Gramercy 5 featured with the Shaw Orchestra on radio broadcasts and went into the recording studio twelve times between 1940 and 1954

The foriginal line-up had Johnny Guarnieri (harpsichord), Billy Butterfield (trumpet), Artie Shaw (clarinet, arrangement), Al Hendrickson (guitar), Jud DeNaut (bass) and Nick Fatool (drums). 

Shortly before his death in 1988, Billy Butterfield said about working The Gramercy Five :

“It was a great little band. We rehearsed a lot, we worked on it, and every number we played was well prepared before we did it. Artie was a perfectionist , like Benny Goodman. Both were perfectionists. He treated us very well. He once said to me ‘you know, to be a good player you need practice and you always have to live with the horn’.”

SECOND GRAMERCY FIVE 1945

Artie Shaw reassembled the Gramercy Five for Victor records in 1945 with tunes that straddled swing and bebop.

Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Artie Shaw, Dodo Marmarosa (piano), Barney Kessel (guitar), Morris Rayman (bass) and Lou Fromm (drums) recorded the two tracks “The Grabtown Grabble” and “The Sad Sack “.

Commercially, the new recordings were not very successful.

In March 1945, two more titles, “I Was Doing All Right” and ” You Took Advantage of Me ” was recorded for NBC in Hollywood.

Then on July 31 and August 2, 1945, they recorded the track “Scuttlebutt”, two days later “The Gentle Grifter”, “Hop, Skip and Jump” and two takes of “Misterioso”.

THIRD GRAMERCY FIVE 1949 -54

In December 1949 Shaw recorded five radio transcriptions including the standard Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and the Pied Piper Theme with a new Gramercy Five.

The, in January 1950, with a similar line-up, the Gramercy Five recorded “There Must Be Something Better Than Love” ( Dorothy Fields / Morton Gould ) and “Nothin’ from Nothin'” with Mary Ann McCall (vocals) For Decca.

This edition of the Gramercy Five included Don Fagerquist (trumpet), Gil Barrios (piano), Jimmy Raney (guitar), Dick Nivison (bass) and Irv Kluger (drums).

In April, the Five recorded “Crumbum” and  “Sheckomeeko Shuffle” with Fagerquist replaced by Lee Castle , Nivison by Teddy Kotick and Irv Kluger by Dave Williams. They were joined by tenor saxophonist Don Lanphere.

January 1951, Artie Shaw and his Gramercy Five accompanied pop vocalists June Hutton (“My Kinda Love”/”Dancing on the Ceiling”) and Don Cherry (“I Apologise”/”Bring Back the Thrill”) on four tracks.

This band had Stan Freeman (piano), Danny Perri (guitar), Bob Haggart (bass) and Bunny Shawker (drums).

Also for Decca, in 1952, Shaw’s Gramercy Five (this time featuring Bob Kitsis (piano), George Barnes  (guitar), Trigger Alpert, Buddy Schutz) accompanied singer Connee Boswell singing “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” and “My Little Nest of Heavenly Blue”.

The Five recorded an EP for Bell Records with Tal Farlow, Hank Jones, Joe Roland, Tommy Potter and Irv Kluger.

The Gramercy Five’s final recording was in June 1954 for the Clef LP Artie Shaw and his Grammercy Five Album #3.

With Artie Shaw were Hank Jones, Joe Puma, Tommy Potter and Irv Kluger. It was an album of standards including My Funny Valentine, Too Marvelous for Words, Yesterdays, Tenderly and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

8 September Play List

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #780
107.3 2SER Tuesday 8 September 2026 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Count Basie
One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Perdido	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 14 May 1956
Blues Backstage	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 14 May 1956
Alright, OK, You Win	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Joe Williams	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 14 May 1956
April in Paris	Count Basie Orchestra	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 14 May 1956
Set 2	Trad Jazz
Station ID + A Kiss to Build a Dream On	George Gerard & the New Orleans Five (voc)	O’Dwyer’s WWL CBS New Orleans 1951
Mahoghany Hall Stomp	George Gerard & the New Orleans Five (voc) Band	O’Dwyer’s WWL CBS New Orleans 1951
Mississippi Mud	George Gerard & the New Orleans Five	O’Dwyer’s WWL CBS New Orleans 1951
I’m Sitting on Top of the World	George Gerard & the New Orleans Five	O’Dwyer’s WWL CBS New Orleans 1951
Set 3	Gramercy Five
Summit Ridge Drive	Artie Shaw’s Gramercy 5	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast San Diego Ca 12 Sep 1945
The Sad Sack	Artie Shaw’s Gramercy 5	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast Santa Ana AFB Ca 3 Oct 1945
Hop, Skip and Jump	Artie Shaw’s Gramercy 5	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast San Luis Obispo Ca 26 Sep 1945
Scuttlebutt	Artie Shaw’s Gramercy 5	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast Fort Ord Ca 19 Sep 1945
Set 4	Freddy Martin
Open + Lily Belle	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Poinciana	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
There Must Be Someone For Me	Freddy Martin Orchestra (voc) The Martin Men	‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Warsaw Concerto + So Long (theme)	Freddy Martin Orchestra	‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Set 5	Jazz Piano
Me + Football Song	Sam Lanin Orchestra with vocals	Hit of the Week Record 1931
Love Letters in the Sand + Football Song	Sam Lanin Orchestra with vocals	Hit of the Week Record 1931
Set 6	1930s Hot Swing
Open + Murdy Purdy	Gene Krupa Orchestra	Aircheck Palomar Ballroom Los Angeles 28 Nov 1938
Let’s Get Together (theme) + Breakin’ ’em Down	Chick Webb Orchestra	Southland Cafe WNAC NBC Red Boston 4 May 1939
Hartford Stomp	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ Hartford Conn WDRC CBS 7 Feb 1939
St Louis Blues + One O’Clock Jump	Count Basie Orchestra	Chatterbox Hotel William Penn WCAE NBC Red Pittsburgh 8 Feb 1937
Set 7	Louis Armstrong
When It’s Sleepy Time Down South (theme)	Louis Armstrong All-Stars	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription NYC 12 Dec 1954
Indiana	Louis Armstrong All-Stars	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription NYC 12 Dec 1954
You’re Just in Love	Louis Armstrong All-Stars (voc) Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription NYC 12 Dec 1954
Basin Street Blues + Close	Louis Armstrong All-Stars (voc) Louis Armstrong	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription NYC 12 Dec 1954
Set 8	Bop Sides
Yardbird Suite	Charlie Parker Septet	Comm Rec Hollywood 28 Mar 1946
Oo Bop Sh’Bam	Charlie Parker Quintet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NYC 1 Jan 1949
Open + Blue’n’Boogie	Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WLZ ABC  NYC 31 Mar 1951

Billy May: I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat – Phantom Dancer – 1 September 2026

Billy May was a US composer, arranger, band leader and trumpet player. He composed for film and TV including Cocoon (1985) and Batman (1966). He was know for his brassy arrangements and slurping saxes. His most successful title was, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, (1950). He’s your Phantom Dancer feature this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 1 September) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

BILLY

May started playing tuba in his high school band. By 17 was playing with Gene Olsen’s Polish-American Orchestra.

May moved to New York City in 1939 to become chief arranger for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra.

He held this position from February 1939 until October 1940, and joined its trumpet section in June 1939.

May’s contract with Barnet called for four new arrangements per week. About 70 were recorded and commercially released by RCA Victor on the Bluebird label.

May arranged some of Barnet’s best-selling records, including, Pompton Turnpike, and, Leapin’ at the Lincoln. May’s arrangement of Ray Noble’s, Cherokee, launched Barnet and his Ork to stardom.

At Barnet’s request, May closely studied the musical language of Barnet’s idol, Duke Ellington. May soon developed a harmonic and sonic palette rich with Ellingtonian colours. The Ellington influence is apparent in some of May’s arrangements of new pop songs including, Danger in the Dark, and, Strange Enchantment. They are on full display in May’s arrangements of Ellington’s own compositions, particularly, The Sergeant Was Shy, Ring Dem Bells, and, Rockin’ in Rhythm. Ellington reciprocated the musical respect by recording his own arrangement of, In a Mizz, a Charlie Barnet original arranged by May in June 1939.

May’s first recorded serious composition for jazz orchestra was Wings Over Manhattan, a three-part suite celebrating the “aviation” theme of the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair for which it was written. It is also a musical salute to Ellington, showing the influence of Ellington’s longer-form works like Reminiscing in Tempo and Symphony in Black.

HUMOUR

May’s sense of musical humour, one of the hallmarks of his sound, took shape with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, as in his arrangements of novelty numbers like, Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga, and The Wrong Idea.

May and Barnet remained close throughout their lives, and May arranged another 36 titles for the Barnet Orchestra between 1954 and 1970.

The original manuscript scores, and some of the original band parts, for about 80 of May’s arrangements for Barnet are now housed at the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where they are open to the public for research. Many others were destroyed in the 1939 fire at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.

MILLER

Bandleader Glenn Miller hired May away from Barnet in 1940.

“May points out that he was not responsible for any of the [Glenn Miller] band’s signature hits, but he did write the beautiful left-field introduction to [Bill] Finegan’s [arrangement of] Serenade In Blue”.

Miller and May had a wary relationship. According to Will Friedwald, by 1942 May was ready to resign from the Miller band. Miller refused to record half of May’s arrangements, and May objected to Miller’s regimented style. But since Miller was joining the military, he convinced May to stay on until the band broke up. May said around 1995 (after a life of heavy drinking and rehabilitation for alcoholism) that working with Miller “helped me immensely. I learned a lot from Glenn. He was a good musician and an excellent arranger.”

POST 1940s

When the era of the Big Bands ended in the late 1940s, May relocated to Los Angeles, where he became a much-coveted arranger and studio orchestra leader, working for top recording stars as Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Anita O’Day, and Bing Crosby.

At Capitol Records May wrote arrangements Frank Sinatra on the albums Come Fly with Me (1958), Come Dance with Me! (1959) and Come Swing with Me! (1961); Nat King Cole on the albums Just One of Those Things and Let’s Face the Music!; Peggy Lee on the albums Pretty Eyes and Christmas Carousel; Sue Raney on Songs for a Raney Day; Vic Damone on the albums The Lively Ones and Strange Enchantment; Jeri Southern on the album Jeri Southern Meets Cole Porter; Keely Smith on the album Politely and on a duet single, Nothing In Common/How Are Ya Fixed For Love?, with Sinatra; Bobby Darin on the album Oh! Look at Me Now; Nancy Wilson on the albums Like In Love, Something Wonderful, Tender Loving Care, Nancy – Naturally! and various tracks from the albums Just For Now and Lush Life; Matt Monro on several tracks from the albums Invitation to the Movies, Invitation to Broadway, and These Years; Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney on the albums Fancy Meeting You Here and That Travellin’ Two-Beat; and Sir George Shearing on the albums Satin Affair and Burnished Brass, co-arranged with Shearing (May also conducted Shearing’s album Concerto for My Love, on which Shearing had sole credit for the arrangements).

May’s orchestra was featured on many Capitol Records children’s projects, including cowboy star, Hopalong Cassidy.

GRAMMY AWARDS

May won two Grammy Awards, including Best Performance by an Orchestra in 1958 and Best Arrangement in 1959.

In the late 1960s into the early 1970s, May conducted many recreations of big band era classics, recorded by Capitol. May transcribed note for note from the original recordings of big band legends such as Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and others and then conducted a group of all-star veteran musicians on the sessions, including some of the original performers such as singers Helen Forrest, Helen Ward and Tex Beneke.

After Sinatra left Capitol to start his own label, Reprise Records, May continued to write arrangements for him for nearly thirty more years, working on the albums Sinatra Swings, Francis A. and Edward K. (with Duke Ellington) and Trilogy 1: The Past, as well as two charts for one of Sinatra’s last ever solo recording sessions, My Foolish Heart, and, Cry Me a River (1988).

FILM and TV

May can be seen on trumpet with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in Sun Valley Serenade (1941), including a solo in, In the Mood, and in Orchestra Wives (1942).

In 1957, May made his debut as a film composer with Jane Russell’s The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown; the soundtrack was released on Imperial Records. His film scores include the Rat Pack film Sergeants 3 (1962), Johnny Cool (1963), Tony Rome (1967), The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968), The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969), and The Front Page (1974), and several big band arrangements used in the 1991 Disney film The Rocketeer, including Melora Hardin performing Cole Porter’s, Begin the Beguine.

His compositions for television include Somewhere in the Night – the theme for Naked City (1960), and his jazzy arrangement of, Flight of the Bumblebee, for The Green Hornet (1966) with trumpet by Al Hirt. He composed the Batgirl theme for Batman (1966). He and Nelson Riddle wrote music for episodes of Naked City (1960), Batman (1966), The Green Hornet (1966), Emergency! (1972), and CHiPs (1977).

May also arranged and produced the song, River of No Return, for Tennessee Ernie Ford to sing in the 1954 film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum. Billy May and His Orchestra are also credited as playing themselves in the 1956 film Nightmare, starring Edward G. Robinson, with May as music and vocal arranger of music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, who was the musical director.

1 September PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #779
107.3 2SER Tuesday 1 September 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Duke Ellington Orchestra
Take the A Train (theme) + Caravan	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Pitter Patter Panther	Duke Ellington Orchestra (db) Junior Raglan	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
One O’Clock Jump	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Jump for Joy + Take the A Train (theme)	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ray Nance	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Set 2	Cliff Edwards – Ukelele Ike
I Love a Parade (theme) + Vamp + Lady of Spain	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Florida’s Treat’ Radio Transcription 1935
Sandman + Frost on the Moon	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Cliff Edwards (Ukelele Ike)	‘Florida’s Treat’ Radio Transcription 1935
Puttin’ on the Ritz	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Harry Richman	‘Florida’s Treat’ Radio Transcription 1935
Vamp + I Love a Parade(theme)	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Florida’s Treat’ Radio Transcription 1935
Set 3	Billy May
My Pretty Baby(theme) + Thou Swell	Billy May Orchestra	‘Music Views from Hollywood’ AFRTS Hollywood 1955
Run, Manny, Run	Manny Klein (tp) Ronnie Gray and The Jets	‘Music Views from Hollywood’ AFRTS Hollywood 1955
How Important it Can Be?	Billy May Orchestra	‘Music Views from Hollywood’ AFRTS Hollywood 1955
Medley: Chicago + My Mama Done Told Me	Billy May Orchestra	‘Music Views from Hollywood’ AFRTS Hollywood 1955
My Pretty Baby (theme)	Billy May Orchestra	‘Music Views from Hollywood’ AFRTS Hollywood 1955
Set 4	Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
Basin Street (theme) + I’ve Got You Under My Skin	Paul Lavalle Orchestra	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Jun 1944
I’m Coming Virginia	Paul Lavalle Orchestra (tb) Vernon Brown	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Jun 1944
Swingin’ Down the Lane	Paul Lavalle Orchestra	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Jun 1944
Don’t Sweetheart Me + Close + Basin Street (theme)	Paul Lavalle Orchestra	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Jun 1944
Set 5	Ray Pearl Orchestra
Theme + Leanin’ on the Ol’ Top Rail	Ray Pearl Orchestra (voc) Buddy Madison	Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca KHJ Mutual-Don Lees LA 3 Apr 1940
How High the Moon + Ragtime Cowboy Joe	Ray Pearl Orchestra (voc) Walter Bloom and Nick Barrelle	Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca KHJ Mutual-Don Lees LA 3 Apr 1940
Say Si, Si	Ray Pearl Orchestra (voc) The Three Senors	Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca KHJ Mutual-Don Lees LA 3 Apr 1940
On The Isle of May + Theme	Ray Pearl Orchestra (voc) Walter Bloom	Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca KHJ Mutual-Don Lees LA 3 Apr 1940
Set 6	Buddy Rich
Quiet Riot (theme) + Cool Breeze	Buddy Rich Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville Pa AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945
Minding My Business	Buddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Reed	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville Pa AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945
I Can’t Begin to Tell You	Buddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Reed	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville Pa AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945
Desperate Desmond	Buddy Rich Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville Pa AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945
Set 7	Freddy Rich
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + Oh, That Kiss + Goodnight Sweetheart	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Friendly Fred	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I Wouldn’t Change You for The World	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Friendly Fred	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Alabamy Bound	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme)	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Set 8	Whitey Berquist Orchestra
Open + Sugarloaf Mambo	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955
My Guitar	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955
Bar-Too-Karg-Da	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955

Billy Taylor: Foremost Spokesman for Jazz – Phantom Dancer – 25 August 2026

Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, educator, and jazz activist. Critic Leonard Feather called Dr. Billy Taylor, the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz. He is your Phantom Dancer feature this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

BILLY

Billy Taylor grew up in a musical family and learned to play guitar, drums and saxophone as a child, but was most successful at the piano. He had classical piano lessons with Henry Grant, who had educated Duke Ellington. Taylor made his first professional appearance playing piano in 1934 at age 13 and was paid one dollar.

He did a music degree, graduating in 1942.

Taylor moved to New York City after graduation and started playing piano professionally from 1944, with Ben Webster’s Quartet.

The same night he joined Webster’s Quartet, he met Art Tatum, who became his mentor. Among the other musicians Taylor worked with was Machito and his mambo band, from whom he developed a love for Latin music.

After an eight-month tour with the Don Redman Orchestra in Europe, Taylor stayed there with his wife, Theodora, and in Paris and the Netherlands.

Taylor returned to New York was pianist for Billie Holiday in a successful show called Holiday on Broadway.

A year later, he became the house pianist at Birdland and performed with Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.

Taylor played at Birdland longer than any other pianist in the club’s history.

In 1949, Taylor published his first book, a textbook about bebop piano styles.

In 1952, Taylor composed one of his best known tunes, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”, which achieved more popularity with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

He made dozens of recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including Billy Taylor Trio with Candido with Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, My Fair Lady Loves Jazz, Cross Section and Taylor Made Jazz.

In 1958, he became music director of NBC’s The Subject Is Jazz, the first television series focusing on jazz.

The 13-part series was produced by the new National Educational Television Network with guests such as Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Rushing, and Langston Hughes.

Taylor also worked as a DJ and programme director on radio station WLIB in New York in the 1960s.

During the 1960s, the Billy Taylor Trio was a regular feature of the Hickory House on West 55th Street in Manhattan.

From 1969 to 1972, he served as music director for The David Frost Show and was the first African American to lead a talk-show band.

Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich were just a few of the musicians who played on the show.

In 1964, he established Jazzmobile in New York City as a way to promote jazz through educational programmes.

Taylor hosted two long-running jazz programs on National Public Radio. Jazz Alive! ran from 1977 to 1983, and Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center ran from 1995 to 2001. The former program won the Peabody Award.

In 1981, after being profiled by CBS News Sunday Morning, Taylor was hired as an on-air correspondent and then conducted more than 250 interviews with musicians. He received an Emmy Award for his segment on the multi-talented Quincy Jones.

In 1989, Taylor formed his own “Taylor Made” record label to document his own music. You Tempt Me (1996), by his 1985 trio (with Victor Gaskin and drummer Curtis Boyd), includes a rendition of Ellington’s/Strayhorn’s “Take the “A” Train”. White Nights (1991) has Taylor, Gaskin, and drummer Bobby Thomas performing live from Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Then came Solo (1992), and Jazzmobile Allstars (1992). In 1997, he received the New York State Governor’s Art Award.

TAYLOR

Taylor appeared on hundreds of albums and composed more than 300 songs during his career, which spanned over six decades.

Engaging and educating more audience and young people was a central part of Taylor’s career. He was the Wilbur D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale.

Besides publishing instructional books on jazz, he taught jazz courses at Howard University, Long Island University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he had studied under Roland Wiggins and earned his master’s degree and EdD degree in Music Education in 1975.

His extensive appearance in television series and jazz educational programs brought the music he loved to the masses at the grassroots level as well as more formal arenas.

He was sometimes better known as a television personality than a pianist. He was quoted in a 2007 article in the Post Magazine: “there’s no question that being an advocate eclipsed my reputation as a musician. It was my doing. I wanted to prove to people that jazz has an audience. I had to do that for me.”

Taylor had more than 20 honorary doctoral degrees and was the recipient of two Peabody Awards for Jazzmobile, NEA Jazz Masters Award (1998), an Emmy Award (1983) for carrying out over 250 interviews for CBS News Sunday Morning, a Grammy Award (2004)[16] Down Beat magazine’s Lifetime Achievement award (1984), National Medal of Arts (1992), and the Tiffany Award (1991). In 1981, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Berklee College of Music.

He was honoured in 2001 with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award,[18] and election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education.

He served as artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he developed many critically acclaimed concert series, including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series, and the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.

He performed at the White House seven times and was one of only three jazz musicians to be appointed to the National Council of the Arts.

25 August PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #778
107.3 2SER Tuesday 25 August 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Duke Ellington Orchestra
Take the A Train(theme) + On the Alamo	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Sugar Hill Penthouse	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Stomp, Look And Listen	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Jumpin Punpkins + Body and Soul	Duke Ellington Orchestra	WFIL ABC Phildalphia Sep 1945
Set 2	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + Hawaiian War Dance	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘The Tommy Dorsey Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jun 1943
Medley: Heat Wave + Don’t Get Around Much Any More	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Pied Pipers + Jo Stafford	‘The Tommy Dorsey Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jun 1943
Well, Get It!	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘The Tommy Dorsey Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jun 1943
Instrumental + Swing Low Sweet Chariot(theme)	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘The Tommy Dorsey Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jun 1943
Set 3	Billy Taylor
Tune for Tex (theme) + I Only Have Eyes for You	Billy Taylor Trio	‘The All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Composers Club WRCA NBC NYC 7 May 1956
Kiiroi Sakuranbo (Yellow Cherry)	Three Cats	‘The All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Composers Club WRCA NBC NYC 7 May 1956
Cheek to Cheek	Billy Taylor Trio	‘The All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Composers Club WRCA NBC NYC 7 May 1956
It’s a Grand Night for Swinging	Billy Taylor Trio	‘The All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Composers Club WRCA NBC NYC 7 May 1956
Aviento	Billy Taylor Trio	‘The All-Star Parade of Bands’ The Composers Club WRCA NBC NYC 7 May 1956
Set 4	Stan Kenton
Open + The Overture	Stan Kenton Orchestra (bass) Don Bagley	‘Concert in Miniature’ Aviatrix Club KGNC NBC Amarillo TX 3 Mar 1953
Limelight	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Aviatrix Club KGNC NBC Amarillo TX 3 Mar 1953
Yesterdays	Stan Kenton Orchestra (bass tb) George Roberts	‘Concert in Miniature’ Aviatrix Club KGNC NBC Amarillo TX 3 Mar 1953
Round Robin + Love for Sale + Frank Speaking + Close	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Aviatrix Club KGNC NBC Amarillo TX 3 Mar 1953
Set 5	Benny Goodman
Let’s Dance (theme) + Russian Lullaby + I’ve Got a Pocket Full of Dreams	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ KMBC NBC Kansas City 20 Sep 1938
Moten Swing + Margie + Star Dust	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ KMBC NBC Kansas City 20 Sep 1938
Chinatown	Benny Goodman Trio	‘Camel Caravan’ KMBC NBC Kansas City 20 Sep 1938
Bumble Bee Stomp + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘Camel Caravan’ KMBC NBC Kansas City 20 Sep 1938
Set 6	Bunny Berrigan
I Can’t Get Started (theme) + Back in Your Own Backyard	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 1938
Rose Room	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 1938
Round My Old Deserted Farm	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 1938
	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 1938
Set 7	Freddy Rich
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + I Idolise My Baby’s Eyes + Was it Wrong?	Freddy Rich Orchestra (voc) Friendly Fred	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I’m With You	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Roll On, Mississippi	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme)	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1931
Set 8	Whitey Berquist Orchestra
Open + Sugarloaf Mambo	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955
My Guitar	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955
Bar-Too-Karg-Da	Whitey Berquist NBC Orchestra	‘Monitor’ WMAQ NBC Chicago 16 Jun 1955

1950s Tokyo Swing – Phantom Dancer – 18 August 2026

Tokyo Swing records from the 1950s in one set is your Phantom Dancer feature this week. If you’re a fan of the TV show MASH you may have already heard one of the songs on this week’s playlist, Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 18 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

IZUMI YUKIMURA

Izumi is a Japanese popular singer and actress who made made her debut with the song “Omoide no Warutsu” (想い出のワルツ, “Till I Waltz Again with You”) in 1953. Her style of singing varied from jazz to rock and roll. She became one of the three most popular female singers in early postwar Japan, known as the “Sannin Musume (three daughters), along with Chiemi Eri and Hibari Misora.

Yukimura, Eri, and Misora starred in a trilogy of hit musical movies for Toho, one of Japan’s main movie studios. These films were Janken Musume (So Young, So Bright), 1955, Romance Musume (Romantic Daughters), 1956, and Ohatari Sanshoku Musume (On wings of Love), 1957.

PEGGY HAYAMA

was the stage name for Japanese actress and singer (森 繁子 Mori Shigeko). She made her first commercial record age 18 and was the voice for Mother of Ultra and portrayed her human form, The Lady In Green, in the movie, Ultraman Taro (1973). She also acted in Jigoku ni makkana hana ga saku (1961) and Musume jûroku jazz matsuri (1954).

TIB KAMAYATSU

Was born Tadashi Kamayatsu in Los Angeles, California. He is famous for helping spread jazz music in post-war Japan and was the father of the prominent Japanese rock singer Hiroshi “Monsieur” Kamayatsu.

In 1971 he released the album “Father and Mad Son”, featuring his son, Hiroshi.

AKATSUKI TERUKO

暁テル子 was the stage name for Sekine Hisa, a Japanese singer and actress who was active in the 1940s and 50s. Her nickname was “Teri-ichi”.

As a child she sang in the Shochiku Girls’ Opera Company and debuted as a child actress in 1933.

After the war, she became an exclusive performer at the Ernie Pyle Theater (Tokyo Takarazuka Theater) and gained popularity, being affectionately called “Terry” by foreign soldiers.

In 1948, she signed a contract with Daiei and made her film debut in “Haru Ranman Tanuki Matsuri”.

In February 1949 she became an exclusive performer for Victor Records and debuted with “Minami no Koiuta” and “Kore ga Boogie Woogie”.

Her “Tokyo Shoeshine Boy” released in 1951, became a hit.

Fans of the MASH TV series would have heard the song played over the camp PA. It also plays incongruously during a terrorist attack in “Akira”.

Johnathan Clements writes in An Armchair Traveller’s History of Tokyo: “Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy with its recognisable English words and frisky rhythm is a flatly hopeless elegy, loaded with subtle clues, starting with the slang term for a Ginza promenade, Gin-bura. As the novelist Tanizaki Junichirō once archly observed, only a country hick would use such a phrase. That poor migrant labourer has nothing to offer her – he literally couldn’t even shine her red shoes with his boot-black polish, nor can he pile her with presents like GI-issue chocolate and chewing gum, or take her for an exotic Coke in swanky Ginza. ‘I’m sure she’ll come back tomorrow,’ he says brightly. ‘Someday we’ll go out dancing together.’ It is a triumph of Japanese melancholy, never once letting its enthusiasm slip, even though any listener can plainly hear what has happened.”

ICHIRO WAKAHARA

was the stage name of Nakayoshi Tanokura（田野倉仲義). His career started when he won a prize at the 1948 NHK (Radio) Nodo Jiman（のど自慢）contest, and released his first record in 1949. Wakahara made his last commercial record in 1988.

 18 August PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #777
107.3 2SER Tuesday 18 August 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) + Dig Down Deep	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) The Pied Pipers	‘Tommy Dorsey Show’ KECA Blue LA Hollywood 16 Oct 1942
I Found a New Baby + It Started All Over Again	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) The Pied Pipers	‘Tommy Dorsey Show’ KECA Blue LA Hollywood 16 Oct 1942
Well, Get It!	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Tommy Dorsey Show’ KECA Blue LA Hollywood 16 Oct 1942
Medley: If It’s the Last Thing I Do + I Love the Life I Live + Exactly Like You + Close	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Dick Haymes + Jo Stafford	‘Tommy Dorsey Show’ KECA Blue LA Hollywood 16 Oct 1942
Set 2	Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra
I Sustain the Wings (theme) + Caribbean Clipper	Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra	‘I Sustain the Wings’ WEAF NBC NYC 25 Sep 1943
Tuxedo Junction	Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra	‘I Sustain the Wings’ WEAF NBC NYC 25 Sep 1943
Stardust	Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra	‘I Sustain the Wings’ WEAF NBC NYC 25 Sep 1943
Put Your Arms Around Me Honey + I Sustain the Wings(theme)	Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra (voc) Johnny Desmond + The Modernaires	‘I Sustain the Wings’ WEAF NBC NYC 25 Sep 1943
Set 3	1950s Tokyo Swing
I Want to Be Your Baby + Call of the Far Away Hills (1953 movie soundtrack)	Izumi Yukimura	Comm Rec Tokyo 1956
Kiiroi Sakuranbo (Yellow Cherry)	Three Cats	Comm Rec Tokyo 1959
Bye Bye Baby	Peggy Hayama and Tib Kamayatsu (voc) Hiroshi Watanabe and His Star Dusters	Comm Rec Tokyo 1953
Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy	Akatsuki Teruko	Comm Rec Tokyo 1951
Ooi Nakamura Kun	Wakahara Ichirou	Comm Rec Tokyo 1959
Set 4	Stan Kenton
Open + These Things Remind Me of You	Stan Kenton Trio (bs) Boots Mazzuli	‘Concert in Miniature’ Kentner Auditorium NBC Decatur Ill. 11 Nov 1952
Portrait of a Count	Stan Kenton Orchestra (tp) Conti Condoli	‘Concert in Miniature’ Kentner Auditorium NBC Decatur Ill. 11 Nov 1952
Solo Alto + Close	Stan Kenton Orchestra (as) Lee Konitz	‘Concert in Miniature’ Kentner Auditorium NBC Decatur Ill. 11 Nov 1952
Set 5	Friendly Five
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + One Man Band	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932
Nobody’s Sweetheart	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932
I Know That You Know	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932
San + Close	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932
Set 6	Bunny Berrigan
Caravan	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 26 Sep 1939
Night Song	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 26 Sep 1939
Swingin’ and Jumpin’	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 26 Sep 19394
Little Gate Special + I Can’t Get Started (theme)	Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Manhattan Centre WNEW NYC 26 Sep 1939
Set 7	Harry James
Memphis Blues	Harry James Orchestra	Hotel Astor Roof WABC CBS NYC 28 Aug 1942
But Not For Me	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Hotel Astor Roof WABC CBS NYC 28 Aug 1942
Tangerine	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Johnny McAfee	Hotel Astor Roof WABC CBS NYC 28 Aug 1942
Feet Draggin’ Blues + Crazy Rhythm	Harry James Orchestra	Hotel Astor Roof WABC CBS NYC 28 Aug 1942
Set 8	Dizzy Gillespie
Theme + Dizzy’s Blue	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Birdland WCBS CBS NYC Jul 1956
Night in Tunisia	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Birdland WCBS CBS NYC Jul 1956
Stella By Starlight + Doodlin’	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Birdland WCBS CBS NYC Jul 1956

Wild Bill Davison – Chewed Gum While Playing Cornet – Phantom Dancer – 11 August 2026

Wild Bill Davison, called Wild Bill because of heavy drinking and womanising, was an American jazz cornetist who emerged in the 1920s playing the music of Louis Armstrong. He’s best remembered for his association with bandleader Eddie Condon, with whom he worked and recorded from the mid-1940s until Condon’s last concert at the New School for Social Research in New York in April 1972. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 11 August) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at,  https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

You’ll see Wild Bill Davison on stage in these 1940s clips from Eddie Condon’s Club. Turn the sound off. The music that’s been used as a soundtrack is ridiculous…

WILD BILL

Poet Philip Larkin, a fan, described his playing thus:
“…a player of notable energy, he uses a wide range of conscious tonal distortions, heavy vibrato, and an urgent, bustling attack. At slow tempos he is melting, almost articulate. Humphrey Lyttelton has compared him with the kind of reveler who throws his arm round your neck one moment and tries to knock you down the next.”

“All the same, his stylistic mannerisms-the deep hoarse blurrings, the athletic in-front-of-the-beat timing, the flaring shakes-are highly conscious (the ‘Wild’ is more a personal than a musical sobriquet), and, imposed as they are on a conventional Armstrong basis, make Davison one of the most exciting of white small-band cornetists.

His sessions with Sidney Bechet for Blue Note are collisions of two furious jazz talents which at the same time were oddly sympathetic, and prove his ability to play in any kind of milieu; his numerous sides in the Condon tradition show him uniting with (Pee Wee) Russell in the same way.

But solo after solo demonstrates that he is not a ‘wild’ player: each note is perfectly shaped and pitched as if the cornet were his speaking voice, in the style of his favorites (Louis) Armstrong and (Bobby) Hackett, and with an emotional immediacy always hard to parallel.”

Richard M. Sudhalter described first seeing Wild Bill at Eddie Condon’s club in New York City in the 1950s:
“Up there, incredibly, is Bill Davison himself, looking like anything *but* the standard image of the cornet or trumpet player. Not like Louis Armstrong, horn tilted up and eyes rolled back as the tone takes flight; not like Maxie Kaminsky, so tiny that his instrument seems gigantic in his hands. Not like Bix Beiderbecke, in some old photo or other, dented cornet pointed resolutely to the floor.

“Nope. This guy is seated, one leg crossed casually over the other, drink on an upended barrel in front of him. He sweeps the cornet into the side of his mouth to expel some supercharged phrase, then jerks it away as if it’s too hot to keep there. And I realize, awe-struck, he’s chewing gum! Where in the world does he keep that stuff when he’s blowing?

“In short, he looked just the way he sounded – like a guy from Ohio (a town named, aptly, Defiance) with a fierce, uninhibited way of attacking the beat, driving a band of whatever size halfway into tomorrow. The music comes out as from a flame-thrower, but with a density and momentum only suggested by even the best (of his) records”.

 11 August PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #776
107.3 2SER Tuesday 11 August 2026 12:00 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 7RGY Huon and Kingston Tuesday 10 – 11pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Tommy Pedersen Orchestra
Theme + One For the Boys	Tommy Pedersen Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast March 1947
It’s the Talk of the Town	Tommy Pedersen Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast March 1947
If You Were the Only Girl	Tommy Pedersen Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast March 1947
That’s Where I Came In	Tommy Pedersen Orchestra (voc) Billie Rogers	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast March 1947
Set 2	Phil Harris Orchestra
Rose Room (theme) + Look Who’s Here	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) The Three Ambassadors	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription 1933
Here You Come With Love	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Phil Harris	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription 1933
You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Leah Ray	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription 1933
Rose Room (theme)	Phil Harris Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription 1933
Set 3	Wild Bill Davison
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (theme) + I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby	Wild Bill Davison and Band (voc) George Brunies	‘This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 24 May 1947
Wild Cat Blues	Wild Bill Davison and Band	‘This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 24 May 1947
Squeeze Me	Wild Bill Davison and Band	‘This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 24 May 1947
Ain’t Misbehavin’	Wild Bill Davison and Band	‘This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 24 May 1947
Set 4	Sarah Vaughan
That Ol’ Devil Moon	Sarah Vaughan	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Sardi’s KFI NBC LA 7 May 1956
How Am I to Know?	Sarah Vaughan Trio	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Sardi’s KFI NBC LA 7 May 1956
Tenderly	Sarah Vaughan	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Sardi’s KFI NBC LA 7 May 1956
Lingering Awhile + s’Wonderful + Close	Sarah Vaughan	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Sardi’s KFI NBC LA 7 May 1956
Set 5	1930s-40s Pop Singers
Open + Open the Door Richard	The Hit Paraders	‘Your Hit Parade’ WNBC NBC NYC 1 Mar 1947
Whistle While You Work	Gail Reese (voc) Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 8 Apr 1938
Oh, You Crazy Moon	Bea Wain	‘Your Hit Parade’ WEAF NBC Red NYC 7 Oct 1939
Stardust	Dick Wharton(voc) Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC Aircheck 8 Apr 1938
Set 6	Count Basie
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Jimmy Rushing	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 17 Apr 1944
Rock-a-Bye Basie	Count Basie Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 17 Apr 1944
Dance of the Gremlins	Count Basie Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 17 Apr 1944
When They Ask About You + Close	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Thelma Carpenter	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 17 Apr 1944
Set 7	Harry James
Intro + Save the American Way	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	‘Treasury War Bond Show’ Radio Transcription Mar 1942
This is Worth Fighting For	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Jimmy Saunders	‘Treasury War Bond Show’ Radio Transcription Mar 1942
My Beloved is Rugged	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	‘Treasury War Bond Show’ Radio Transcription Mar 1942
Back Beat Boogie + Close	Harry James Orchestra	‘Treasury War Bond Show’ Radio Transcription Mar 1942
Set 8	Charlie Shavers
Undecided (theme) + Pennies from Heaven	Charlie Shavers Quartet	London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962
A Tisket A Tasket + Over the Rainbow	Charlie Shavers Quartet	London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962
I Want a Little Girl + Bernie’s Tune	Charlie Shavers Quartet	London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962