RISING ABOVE
There are people who go out of their way to ruin another person’s career.
This week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Ferde Grofe, was a target of such abuse. He rose above it. The U.S composer, arranger, pianist and electronic music pioneer sought music rather than fame. You mightn’t know his name. You’ll certainly know his music. Here’s his story…
PHANTOM DANCER
The Phantom Dancer, with Greg Poppleton, is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. It’s been on 2SER since 1985, thanks to your financial support in 33 subscriber drives.
And over those years, Greg Poppleton and The Phantom Dancer have inspired musicians, painters, film, TV and theatre creatives.
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See this week’s full play list and video of the week below.
The last hour of the live mix is all vinyl.
FERDE GROFE
was born into a family with four generations of classical musicians.
Piano was his favourite instrument, but he also played viola, violin, baritone horn, alto horn and cornet. As a teenager he played in dance bands and brass bands. He later played violin in the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
Ferde arranged music and composed. He received his first composing commission at age 17.
PAUL WHITEMAN
Grofe joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, ‘the King of Jazz’, in 1920 as a jazz pianist and arranger. (Incidentally, on this week’s Phantom Dancer you’ll hear Paul’s daughter, Loyce Whiteman, singing with Gus Arnheim in Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcriptions from 1931.)
His most important arrangement for the Whiteman band was for the 1924 debut of George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. He transformed Gershwin’s two piano piece into an orchestral masterpiece. In fact, Grofe’s 1942 arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue is the one most often heard today.
THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAZZ
In 1932, The New York Times called Grofe ‘the Prime Minister of Jazz’, since his boss, Whiteman was ‘the King of Jazz’.
1932 was also the year Grofe left the Whiteman Orchestra.
Whiteman then tried to ruin Grofe’s career. First he created union problems for Grofe, then he slandered Grofe to the New York based advertisers who booked orchestras for the radio shows. He insinuated that Grofe was a sub-standard conductor and booking him would lower the quality of their programs.
RADIO
Whiteman’s rumours stymied Grofe’s career for over a year. He couldn’t get radio work so his management sent him on a conducting tour of B-grade orchestras.
However, one of his compositions did get aired in that first year, on band leader Nat Shilkret’s ‘His Masters Voice on the Air’ radio transcription series for RCA Victor. That was ‘On The Trail’, from Grofe’s famous ‘Grand Canyon Suite’. It became Grofe’s musical signature.
(Shilkret had also introduced a Grofe number on his Shilkret Novelties radio show the previous year when Grofe was still with Whiteman. That song was Mardi Gras, from Grofe’s Mississippi Suite.)
Grofe did end up getting gigs conducting radio orchestras throughout the 1930s, but they were all short term contracts.
Of relevance to this week’s Phantom Dancer is Grofe’s stint for ‘The Ford V-8 Revue’ in 1939.
Grofe was also hired by Ford in 1939 to be their orchestra leader for the New York World’s Fair. Grofe wrote his suite ‘Wheels’ for Ford. We’ll hear the ‘Bicycle’ movement from ‘Wheels’ on this week’s The Phantom Dancer.
Whiteman also commissioned Grofe to write music for the New York World Fair. Grofe’s compositions were Trylon and Perisphere, two futuristic buildings at the Fair.
NBC staff arranger, conductor and musical director (in the 1930s-40s) Tom Bennett credited Grofe with being one of the three great innovators in the history of orchestration along with Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov. Bennett wrote this in his article ‘Arranging Music for Radio’ for the book ‘Music in Radio Broadcasting’ by Gilbert Chase.
Grofe was hired by Ford in 1939 to be their orchestra leader for the New York World’s Fair. Grofe wrote his suite ‘Wheels’ for the Ford Dealers of America. We’ll hear the ‘Bicycle’ movement from ‘Wheels’ on this week’s The Phantom Dancer. Whiteman also commissioned Grofe to write music for the New York World Fair. His compositions were Trylon and Perisphere, two futuristic buildings at the Fair.
I’ve listed Grofe’s suites, many for corporate clients below.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
The Hammond Company asked Grofe in 1938 to conduct and arrange for ‘The New World Ensemble’ of four Novachords (electronic keyboards) and a solo Hammond organ.
He was reluctant at first to conduct a quintet after conducting symphony orchestras, but realised he’d be introducing a new way of expressing music to the world, so he accepted.
The Novochord was not a commercial success, but his involvement in writing and being spokesman for the instrument whetted Grofe’s interest in elctronica.
In the 1950s, Grofe became ‘the sound of Mars’ writing mainly science fiction film scores for novochord and theremin. The most famous example is the soundtrack for the 1950 classic ‘Rocketship X-M’ starring Lloyd Bridges.
Grofe continued writing and playing music up till his death in 1972.
CORPORATE SUITES
Some of Grofe’s corporate music and other curios works include:
Broadway at Night (1924)
Mississippi Suite (Tone Journey) (1925)
Theme and Variations on Noises from a Garage (1925)
Three Shades of Blue (1927)
Metropolis: a Fantasy in Blue (1928)
Free Air (1928)
Grand Canyon Suite (1931)
Knute Rockne (1931) tone poem
Tabloid Suite: Four Pictures of a Modern Newspaper (1933)
A Day At The Farm, for orchestra (1934–1935)
A Symphony in Steel (1935)
Madison Square Garden Suite (1930s)
Rudy Vallee Suite (1937)
Kentucky Derby Suite (1938)
Trylon and Perisphere for the New York World’s Fair of 1939–40
Wheels (1939) dedicated to the Ford dealers of America
An American Biography (1939–1940) about Henry Ford and dedicated to him
Six Pictures of Hollywood (1940)
Aviation Suite (1944)
Hudson River Suite (1955)
Dawn at Lake Mead, for orchestra (1956)
Valley of the Sun Suite (1957)
Yellowstone Suite (1960)
San Francisco Suite (1960)
Niagara Falls Suite (1961)
World’s Fair Suite (1964)
Hawaiian Suite (1965)
Requiem for a Ghost Town (1968)
VIDEO
This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week features Ferde Grofe’s ‘Aviation Suite’ (1944) recorded by an orchestra directed by Grofe.
1- Take Off (4.03)
2- Hostess (4.58)
3- Clouds (4.13)
4- Motor City (4.33)
6 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #340 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 6 November 2018 |
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Set 1
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Women Singers on the Ait | |
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Intro + I Love You
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Frances Langford
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‘Mail Call’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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You Belong To My Heart
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Trudy Irwin (voc) Ray Noble Orchestra
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‘By Request’
KNX CBS LA 13 Jun 1945 |
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Don’t You Know I Care?
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Phyllis Miles (voc) Frankie Masters Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Cedar Rapids Ia Blue Network Jan 1945 |
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Set 2
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1940s Radio Dance Bands | |
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The Girl With The Light Blue Hair
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Benny Kruger
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WOR Mutual
New York City 28 Apr 1940 |
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Caldonia
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Enoch Light and his Light Brigade
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‘One Night Stand’
New Park Casino Palisades Park NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 1944 |
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Bottoms Up
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Harry Owens Orchestra
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‘Songs of the Islands’
AFRS Hollywwod 1944 |
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Set 3
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Count Basie 1956 Rock Radio | |
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One O’Clock Jump (theme) + Perdido
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Count Basie Orchestra + Low Light + Beaver Junction
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‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’
WCBS CBS NY 2 Jun 1956 |
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Right Now, Right Now + Teeners’ Canteen
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Big Al Sears
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‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’
WCBS CBS NY 2 Jun 1956 |
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Send Me Someone To Love
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Joe Williams (voc) Count Basie Orchestra
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‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’
WCBS CBS NY 2 Jun 1956 |
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Set 4
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Ferde Grofe on the Wireless | |
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(theme) + Bicylcles (Wheels Suite)
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Ferde Grofe Orchestra
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‘Ford V-8 Revue’
Radio Transcription New York City 1939 |
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Daybreak
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James Melton (voc) Al Goodman Orchestra
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‘James Melton Show’
WABC CBS NY 1946 |
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(closing theme)
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Ferde Grofe Orchestra
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‘Ford V-8 Revue’
Radio Transcription New York City 1939 |
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Set 5
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1940s Swing Band Radio | |
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Rags to Riches
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Buddy Rich Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Quonset, Rhode Island Mutual Network 25 Jan 1946 |
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I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
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Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Collins
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Rose Room
Palace Hotel KQW CBS San Francisco Sep 1947 |
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Lucky Number
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Artie Shaw Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
San Diego Ca Blue Network 12 Sep 1945 |
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Perdido + Boogie Woogie Jamboree
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Bob Strong Orchestra
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Glen Island Casino
New Rochelle NY WOR Mutual NY 2 Sep 1944 |
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Set 6
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Eddie Condon Jazz Concerts 1944 | |
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D.A. Blues
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Eddie Condon Group
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‘Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NY 1944 |
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Rosetta + Memphis Blues
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Eddie Condon Group
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‘Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NY 23 Sep 1944 |
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Black and Blue
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Eddie Condon Group
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‘Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NY 1944 |
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Impromptu Ensemble
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Eddie Condon Group
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‘Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NY 9 Sep 1944 |
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Set 7
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Cocoanut Grove Transcriptions 1931-32 | |
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Music in the Moonlight (theme) + Stardust
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Jimmy Grier Orchestra (voc) Donald Novis
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Cocoanut Grove
Los Angeles Radio Transcription 1932 |
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St Louis Blues
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Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Loyce Whiteman
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Cocoanut Grove
Los Angeles Radio Transcription 1931 |
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Sugar
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Jimmy Grier Orchestra
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Cocoanut Grove
Los Angeles Radio Transcription 1932 |
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It’s Love
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Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Loyce Whiteman
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Cocoanut Grove
Los Angeles Radio Transcription 1931 |
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Set 8
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Jazz Trumpet Stars | |
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High Hat, Trumpet and Rhythm
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Valaida Snow (voc and tp)
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Comm Rec
London 6 Sep 1936 |
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Open + New York Blues
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Harry James Orchestra
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Radio Transcription
Los Angeles 1949 |
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Trinidad
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Erskine Hawkins Orchestra
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‘One Night Stand’
Blue Room Hotel Lincoln NY AFRS Re-broadcast 1 May 1946 |
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52 Street Theme
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Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Tadd Dameron (piano) Curley Russell (b) Max Roach (d)
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‘Symphony Sid Show’
Royal Roost WMCA NY 4 Sep 1948 |
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 