Bruce Glen’s Magical Soirées are best described as ‘storytelling magic shows for adults – but not necessarily grown-ups’.
They feature cutting-edge magic that seemingly defies the laws of physics – set amid intriguing stories guaranteed to leave you wondering.
He’s dazzled at sold-out Edinburgh International Magic Festival shows and at the London headquarters of The Magic Circle.
Greg Poppleton 1920s singer and The Gentleman Magician Bruce Glen – Sorcery & Magic Show
Venue: Cellos Grand Dining Room, Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, 169 Castlereagh St City Time: 6.30pm arrival for 7.00 pm start Dress Code: 1920s Guys in ties, Girls in pearls Single Tickets: $150.00 per person + booking fee Inclusive of sparkling wine “moonshine” and canapés on arrival, 3-course dinner, entertainment, GST and Members’ Discount.
Table of 8 Deal: $1100.00 + booking fee (save $100) You get 8 single tickets + 2 complimentary bottles of Silverleaf Sparkling Wine
WE’RE MAKING AN IMPACT – *We have chosen Humanitix as our ticketing partner, contributing to creating a positive impact on the world. Humanitix is making a difference by reinvesting 100% of profits back into helping the world’s most disadvantaged children.
Jean Sablon was the most widely acclaimed male French singer of his generation in the world after Maurice Chavalier. He’s this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.
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 7 March) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
JEAN
Jean Sablon was one of the first French singers to immerse himself in jazz. The man behind several songs by big French and American names, he was the first to use a microphone on a French stage in 1936. Star of vinyl and the radio, he left France in 1937 to take up a contract with NBC in the United States, which you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
His radio and later televised shows made him a huge star in America.
He made his singing debut at the age of seventeen in an operetta in Paris.
Sablon was the first singer to have recorded with Django Reinhardt and he sang in Reinhardt over the BBC in 1934.
In 1936, made the film “Le Petit Chemin” and presented the radio show Cadum Variétés, on which he also sang.
At the Théâtre Mogador and then at Bobino he created a scandal by using a microphone for the first time in France.
In 1937, he won the Grand Prix du Disque for the song “Vous qui passez sans me voir”.
Contracted by the producers of The Magic Key, thanks to his success in France, he left for New York, engaged at the NBC studios of Radio City.
In Hollywood, Sablon was contracted to star in “The Story of Irene and Vernon Castle” with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Due to production disagreements, he demanded the withdrawal of scenes in which he starred. The final version conserves merely his interpretation of the song “Darktown Strutters Ball”.
In the movie capital, he appeared at the Trocadero. He also presented and sang his songs on the radio show Hollywood Hotel on which he invited numerous big stars.
In the 1940s his “Jean Sablon Show” was on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio and was accompanied by the American accordionist and songwriter John Serry Sr, with Toots Camarata as musical arranger.
He returned to Paris to appear on the stage of the ABC and took part to television experiments.
Then he returned to star on Broadway and then Boston in the musical “Streets of Paris”. He was teamed him with Carmen Miranda, who appeared for the first time outside of Brazil.
Sablon made his debut at the Teatro Municipal in São Paulo in 1940, and then in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. In 1941, he had further engagements in New York, at the Waldorf Astoria, the Plaza and at the San Regis hotels, before going on, in 1942, in Los Angeles and in Cuba, and then touring in America, Brazil and Argentina. Some of his appearances were for war victims.
Meanwhile, in 1943, in London, his sister Germaine was the first to perform Le Chant des Partisans, which became the anthem of the French Resistance.
Sablon continued to sing in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, appearing there through 1945, when he returned to the US to perform in New York, Chicago and Washington.
His 1947-48 US tour took him to New Orleans, San Francisco, Hollywood (Ciro’s), Boston, Los Angeles (Beverly Hills) and Palm Beach, and then onto Brazil, Argentina and Canada.
Sablon’s recording of “Les Feuilles mortes” (Autumn Leaves) in the summer of 1947 in New York (RCA Victor 855332) is the earliest version of this classic.
SABLON
In 1950 in London he recorded on “C’est Si Bon” with the orchestra of Woolf Philips.
Gene Kelly unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to play the role of Henri Baurel in An American in Paris (subsequently taken by Georges Guetary).
Throughout the 1950s, Sablon traveled constantly (except for a year’s sabbatical in 1957). in Australia, New Zealand, India Tahiti, Panama, Venezuela, the US, the UK, France, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Mexico, Cuba and Spain.
In 1952, he starred in the film Paris Chante Toujours, and the same year became the first French entertainer to be featured in his own show in Las Vegas. Under the banner of the Moss Empire, Sablon toured the UK and Ireland. Later in the decade he extended his travels to include India, Australia and New Zealand, Tahiti, Panama and Venezuela.
In the 1960s, he drew crowds in Europe, South America, the US, South Africa, Bermuda, New Caledonia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, and Iran (where he appeared before the Shah at the royal palace).
The 1970s and the 1980s found Sablon performing regularly on TV in France, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and the US. In addition, he regularly offered his services on behalf of charitable causes: The Red Cross Gala in Monaco in 1972, the gala for the restoration of Versailles in 1973 and the International Festival of Song first in Brazil and then in Uruguay.
At the urging of US impresario George Wein and singer-pianist Bobby Short, Jean celebrated his 75th birthday at the Met (Lincoln Center) in New York, appearing with the orchestra of Frank Sinatra.
Sablon appeared in a number of motion pictures and television films performing as a vocalist or pianist, his last being in 1984 when he sang “April in Paris” in Mistral’s Daughter, the popular American TV miniseries filmed in France.
Carson Robison was a two-tone whistler, guitarist, banjoist, singer and composer. He recorded the first country record, early rap, and popularised radio via his radio shows. And he is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.
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 28 February) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
CARSON
Carson Jay Robison’s father was a champion fiddler; his mother played the piano and sang. Robison became a professional musician in the American Midwest at the age of 14, backing Wendell Hall on the early 1920s music hall circuit. He worked as a singer and whistler at radio station WDAF (Kansas City, Missouri).
With a continuous studio career from 1924 to 1956, Carson J. Robison is probably the most recorded singer-songwriter in country music history. He was also one of the first full-time country writers.
In 1924, he moved to New York City and was signed to his first recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company.
That year he started a professional collaboration with Vernon Dalhart, accompanying Dalhart on guitar, harmonica, whistling, and harmony vocals.
In one of their first collaborations, Robison accompanied Dalhart on the landmark recording of “Wreck of the Old ’97” b/w “The Prisoner’s Song” (1924), regarded as country music’s first million-seller. It sold over 7 million copies.
Dalhart reportedly treated Robison like a sideman and demanded one-third of his songwriting royalties. When this escalated to one-half of Robison’s royalties, the songwriter severed the partnership.
Robison immediately teamed up for duets with Frank Luther, who could sing almost exactly like Dalhart. They had an instant hit with “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” and followed it with four sequels. With Luther’s wife, fiddler Zora Layman, they also aped Dalhart’s trio records. The Luther-Robison partnership lasted until they parted amicably in 1932.
ROBISON
Next, Robison reinvented himself as a cowboy singer. He traveled with his group to Great Britain and Ireland in 1932, 1936 and 1939, becoming the first act to take country music overseas. Stateside, he starred in a string of national radio series for CBS and NBC throughout the 1930s. During this phase of his career Robison wrote such cowboy classics as “Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie.”
According to Billboard, his 1942 reworking of the standard “Turkey in the Straw”, with new lyrics relating to World War II, was that year’s most popular song.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. His most famous recording was 1948’s “Life Gets Tee-Jus Don’t It”, a worldwide hit for MGM Records.
Although he played country music for most of his career, he is also remembered for writing expurgated lyrics for “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” with music by Frank Luther.
Ever alert to changing tastes, he wrote and recorded “Rockin’ and Rollin’ with Grandma” in 1956, the year before his death.
Hans Rehmstedt was a 1930s-40s German swing band leader and violinist. He is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He recorded some moody atmospheric sides in the late 30s- early 40s, some of which you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer
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 21 February) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
HANS
Rehmstedt studied violin at the Berlin Academy of Music in the early 1930s.
After graduating he played in Berlin dance orchestras.
He formed his own dance orchestra, which played at Café Uhlandeck.
By 1938 his orchestra had grown to eleven musicians and became the house band of the Berlin Eden Hotel.
In 1940 Rehmstedt founded a smaller formation ( Hans Rehmstedt and his soloists ), but continued to make studio recordings with a big band.
Rehmstedt’s recordings were released under the Electrola and Columbia record labels.
His singers included Rudi Dreyer, Henriette Schäffler, Peter Igelhoff, Rudi Schuricke and Horst Winter.
His most famous recording was made in 1938 “The Lambeth Walk”.
After 1945, Rehmstedt was orchestra conductor at Radio Bremen. He was killed in a car accident in Hanover in the mid-1950s.
Enoch Light swing band leader, violinist, lounge music wizard and recording engineer, inventor of the ‘ping-pong sound’ on 1950s-60s hi-fi records, gatefold albums and distinctive commissioned album art, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.
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 14 February) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
ENOCH
Enoch Henry Light was an American classically trained violinist, danceband leader, and recording engineer.
His earliest dance band recordings are from March 1927. You’ll hear his ‘Light Brigade’ swing dance band on this weeks Phantom Dancer from a fun park broadcast aired in 1944.
In 1928 he led a band in Paris, where, in the 1930s he studied conducting with the French conductor Maurice Frigara. He studied classical conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Opera Comique in Paris.
Throughout the 1930s, Light and his orchestras played on the Society Band circuit in New York City playing polite dance music for well-heeled patrons..
When he formed his Light Brigade he got radio exposure in broadcasts from NYC’s Hotel Taft.
A head-on car accident interrupted his band leading for two years. In those 2 years, the big band business had died and Light turned to the business side of recorded music.
LOUNGE KING
Light is credited with being one of the first musicians to go to extreme lengths to create high-quality recordings.
He was particularly into stereo effects that bounced the sounds between the right and left channels (often described as “Ping-pong recording”).
He introduced recording practices now used in multitrack recording, including overdubbing and isolating various groups of musicians from each other in the recording studio.
His first LP produced for Command Records, Persuasive Percussion, became one of the first big-hit albums based solely on retail sales. Light’s music received little or no airplay on the radio, because AM radio, the standard of the day, was monaural and had very poor fidelity.
The album covers were generally designed with abstract, minimalist artwork that stood out boldly from other album covers. These pieces were usually the work of Josef Albers.
GATEFOLD ALBUMS
Light was so interested in the sound of his music that he would include lengthy prose describing each song’s sounds. In order to fit all of his descriptions on to the album sleeve, he doubled the size of the sleeve but enabled it to fold like a book, thus popularizing the gatefold packaging format.
Enoch Light released 25 albums in various genres of music under a variety of names during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some were released under Grand Award Records, which he founded in 1955. He founded Command Records in 1959. ABC-Paramount Records acquired the Light family of labels in October 1959. Light stayed on to manage and handle A&R.
During this time, he pioneered many recording techniques such as the use of 35 mm magnetic film instead of magnetic tape, reducing wow and flutter. The recordings were released under the “35MM” series, starting from “Stereo 35-MM” released by Command Records. Musicians who appeared on Light’s albums include The Free Design, The Critters, Rain, Doc Severinsen, Tony Mottola, Dick Hyman, and organist Virgil Fox. As an arranger, Lew Davies was one of the label’s most important contributors.
Light remained with tABC/Command until 1965. After his departure, the quality of the records plummeted dramatically. The signature gatefold format (along with Light’s prose) was immediately discontinued, and the covers changed to budget labels pressed on recycled vinyl. In 1975, they were completely discontinued.
Light joined forces with the Singer Corporation in August 1966, to help the company launch production of phonograph records, tapes, and tape cartridges. Plans called for a new company to be formed, with Light and Singer each having half-interest and Light as both president and chief executive officer.
Light’s new label was called Project 3. It did not concentrate as heavily on stereo effects. Light recorded several successful big band albums with group of top New York studio musicians. Many of them were veterans of the bands of the swing era.
Released as Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, the arrangements used on the recordings were transcribed note-for-note from some of what were the hallmark recordings by many of the best bands of the swing era.
REMEMBERED
Enoch Light holds the record for having the most charting LPs without having a Top 40 single.
Events coinciding with Light’s birthday near his birthplace of northeastern Ohio have occurred since the late 1990s. The most recent is 2014’s Enoch Light Birthday Memorial Go-Go Happening and features bands performing Light’s work and multimedia installations remixing the distinctive Command Records album cover designs.
Greg Poppleton returned by popular demand to the Great Art Deco Ball – celebrating 13 years, 4th February 2023 – in the timeless elegance of Katoomba’s wedding cake Carrington Hotel
Dinner, dancing and a dazzling entertainment ‘1920’s style’.
Greg Poppleton, Australia’s only authentic 1920s – 1930s singer, brings the ‘twenties’ to life with vintage glamour. With Greg in his band were Geoff Power (trumpet & sousaphone), Bradley Newman (grand piano) and Adam Barnard (washboard & snare).
A full fouse stepped out in fashion and danced the night away, a sumptuous 3-course dinner, and prize for best dressed. (won by Mary Grace).
I’ll be back with the band singing the songs of the 1920s at next year’s Great Art Deco Ball, Saturday 3 February 7 – 11pm.Tickets include a 3 course dinner, 3 hour beverage package and live entertainment by by Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer, Greg Poppleton.
Dancing to Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters
CARRINGTON HOTEL
The Carrington Hotel is a heritage-listed former spa, hotel and power station and now hotel and public bar located at Katoomba Street, Katoomba in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Kirkpatrick and Bosser in 1882; and by Edward H. Hogben with Goyder Brothers in 1911-13; and built from 1882 to 1913 by F. Drewett in 1882; and by Howie, Brown and Moffit in 1912-13. It is also known as Great Western Hotel. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The Carrington is the only 19th century grand resort hotel still in use in New South Wales. It also retains much of the fabric of its major phases of development and continues to occupy the commanding position in Katoomba that it has done since its construction. It was built in 1883 by Harry George Rowell, a large hotel owner from Sydney, and was owned by a series of prominent families over the next century. Today it is still operating as a high class hotel providing accommodation and restaurant services.
WHERE GREG POPPLETON WILL BE PLAYING
From 1885 Carrington began to make additions to the premises including an additional wing, dining hall, two drawing rooms and a music room, resulting in 119 bedrooms and seven suites of rooms, two tennis courts and flower and vegetable gardens.. He told a newspaper reporter in 1890 of the improvements he had made. The article read,
“Among the additions and improvements to the building are the following — a wing built (in 1886) of cut stone, and having a southerly aspect, consisting of 20 single rooms, and called ‘the bachelors’ wing.’ Early in 1888 Mr. Goyder, having taken advantage of his right, purchased the hotel, and, finding the accommodation insufficient, added 50 more rooms. This addition stands in the courtyard and is joined to the main building. It is higher than the remaining portions of the hotel and adds to the imposing appearance of the pile. A music-room has also been added to the drawing room, and is separated from it by large folding doors. The floor of the music room is of polished tallow-wood, and is partly covered with Austrian rugs, which are easily removed for dancing. The piano is a Brinsmead, and is considered one of the finest grands; its tone is full and soft. The dining hall is also new; it measures 60ft, by 40ft. The floor is carpeted, and everything conducive to comfort is present. The ceiling is lofty, the lighting good, and the table decorations and menu leave nothing to be desired. This hall is capable of seating 200 guests. There are now 135 rooms in the hotel, among which are seven suites of private apartments, most comfortably furnished and conveniently situated, including one of the prettiest bridal suites to be found in the colonies.”
Chubby Jackson is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. He was an American jazz double-bassist and band leader.
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 7 February) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
CHUBBY
Chubby Jackson Biography by Scott Yanow…
A fine bassist, Chubby Jackson is best-known for his association with Woody Herman’s first two Herds of the mid- to late ’40s, where he functioned not only in the rhythm section but as a sort-of cheerleader whose vocal interjections really pushed the band.
Although he started on the clarinet when he was 16, Jackson soon switched to bass and was a professional by the time he was 19, playing with many big bands, including those led by Raymond Scott, Jan Savitt, and Henry Busse.
Jackson was introduced to jazz music thru a fellow jazz musician as he recalled in a January 22, 1989 interview, “At the time in high school in Freeport, Long Island. He was a good enough string bass with The Bunny Barringan Band and I would hang around with the band as a gofer. And I became aligned with their lingo and hang out with musicians and enjoying the their abilities on the bandstand. So, it was very natural that I would combine the inners of me, which came from show business to the love of playing music.”
Chubby developed his talent as a singer during his stint with The Jan Savit Band. As I got into the game of playing with bands. “I used to sing a lot. So that brought about the need to perform. I was in a band called Jan Savit where I actually had to sing rhythm songs. So to sing rhythm songs at a mike in a theater? You don’t just stand in front of the mike. I made facial moves and danced a little bit, that brought out the performer in me.”
After touring with Charlie Barnet from 1941 to 1943 (sometimes with Oscar Pettiford as the second bassist), Jackson joined Woody Herman’s transitional orchestra and was partly responsible for the group adding many young modernists to the personnel, resulting in the First Herd.
Jackson was with Herman during 1943-1946 (appearing on many recordings). After Herman broke up the band, Jackson played with Charlie Ventura’s septet (1947) and had his own small group that toured Scandinavia.
A second tour with Herman (1948) was followed by a period leading his own big band (1948-1949), more work with Ventura (1951), and a period co-leading a combo with Bill Harris.
Chubby Jackson spent the 1950s as a studio musician, freelancer, and a host of his own children’s television show. After periods living in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, he eventually settled in San Diego in semi-retirement, although Jackson occasionally emerged, including for a stint with Lionel Hampton (1978-1979) and with Herman reunion groups.
Even in retirement, Jackson seemed tireless, helping to organize cultural events for senior citizens and briefly hosting a cable TV jazz program. Jackson passed away in San Diego on October 1, 2003 after a protracted battle with cancer.
Chubby’s son, Duffy Jackson (born July 3, 1953), is a fine drummer who played with Count Basie in the 1970s and has led his own sessions. In addition to his work as a sideman,
CHILDREN’S TV
The son of vaudeville performers, Chubby had a natural gift for performing comedy. Inheriting his dad’s talent for physical comedy.
Chubby hosted a number of New York City local children’s TV shows:
Chubby Jackson’s Little Rascals, weekday mornings on WABC TV Ch. 7 in New York from March 23, 1959, to July 14, 1961,
The Chubby Jackson Show, Saturday afternoons also on WABC TV Ch.7, from July 22, 1961, to August 5, 1961,
WOR TV Ch.9 in New York Space Station Nine, which was seen weekday evenings from January 1, 1962, to January 26, 1962,
briefly served as the fourth and last emcee of WOR TV’s Looney Tunes Show/The Chubby Jackson Show weekday afternoons. The last series was aired from January 12, 1962, to June 14, 1962.
Ernest Hutcheson is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist in a broadcast from 1936. He was an internationally renowned concert pianist born in Australia and was president of Juilliard, the prestigious Arts school in New York City.
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 31 January) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
ERNEST
From his bio on the Steinway pianos’ website…
Ernest Hutcheson (1871-1951) was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher. Born in Melbourne, he toured as a child prodigy at the age of five. He later traveled to Leipzig and entered the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of fourteen to study with Carl Reinecke, Bernhard Stavenhagen, and Bruno Zwintscher. Prior to the outbreak of World War I he taught at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, but in 1914 he settled in New York, where he made his U.S. debut.
He is believed to have been the first pianist to play three concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven in a single concert: his performances of Beethoven’s third, fourth and fifth with the New York Symphony Orchestra in the Aeolian Hall in 1919.
JUILLIARD
Hutcheson had studied under Carl Reinecke (who studied with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt), Bernhard Stavenhagen (a pupil of Liszt) and Bruno Zwintscher (who studied under Moscheles, among others). He would become Dean and then President of the Juilliard School, teaching eminent pianists that included Bruce Hungerford and Abram Chasins. He wrote two important books, “The Literature of the Piano” and “The Elements of Piano Technique,” and it is thanks to Hutcheson’s support that Gershwin was able to have the seclusion he required at Chautauqua Institution in order to meet the deadline to finish his Piano Concerto in F.
He became a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School, and successively Dean (1926–1937) and President (1937–1945) of the school. At Juilliard, he championed the use of radio musical broadcasts in education.
Hutcheson was also associated with the Chautauqua School of Music in Western New York State. Hutcheson provided a much needed refuge for George Gershwin at Chautauqua while composing and refining the Piano Concerto in F. Thanks to Ernest Hutcheson’s kind offer of seclusion for Gershwin at Chautauqua where his quarters were declared off limits to everyone until 4 p.m. daily, Gershwin was able to successfully complete his piano concerto on time.
You’ll hear him broadcasting from Chautauqua in the clip above. (I prefer his piano interpretation of the Emporer Piano Concerto to Walter Gieseking in 1944)
Ernest Hutcheson wrote concertos for piano; 2 pianos; and violin, and many solo piano works, such as a transcription of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. His music has been little heard in concert or on recordings, but his Australian compatriot Ian Munro has recorded some of his piano pieces.
Hutcheson wrote important books The Literature of the Piano, The Elements of Piano Technique, and Elektra, by Richard Strauss: a Guide to the Opera with Musical Examples from the Score, among others.
Bud Freeman was an American jazz musician, bandleader and composer. He is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Bud Freeman was one of the first tenor saxophonists in jazz along with Coleman Hawkins.
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 24 January) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
SCHOOL
Freeman was one of the young musicians inspired by New Orleans ensembles and the innovations of Louis Armstrong to synthesize the Chicago style in the late 1920s.
He was one of the ‘Austin High Gang’.
One hundred years ago, in 1922, five kids from Austin High School in Chicago, Illinois formed a little band: Jim Lanigan on piano, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody tenor saxophone.
Bud was the greenhorn of the group and the only one who did not also play the violin. At the time, their ages ranged from Jimmy McPartland, who was fourteen, to Jim Lanigan and Dick McPartland, seventeen. Teschemacher was sixteen and Freeman was slightly younger.
The boys, like many other students from their high school, frequented an ice cream parlor across the street known as “The Spoon and the Straw.” One of them would feed a nickel to the automatic phonograph and one day they discovered a record by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. They were so enthralled by the sound of such authentic jazz that they played the record over and over. Then and there, they named their band “The Blue Friars,” after The Friar’s Inn on the Chicago Loop where the Rhythm Kings played.
They went and heard King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band live, rounding off their identity with New Orleans jazz.
Sometimes the Austin High Gang played at Lewis Institute, which Dave Tough attended, and he added his drums to the little band. Later, Jim Lanigan picked up the bass through Chink Martin’s playing and soon became the band’s bassist; Teschemacher also began practicing the clarinet, his style showing traces of the glissandi from violin playing. Dave found Floyd O’Brien playing trombone at a University of Chicago jam session. Then, recruiting him and pianist Dave North, they named themselves Husk O’Hare’s Wolverines and were ready to play professionally. They got a job at White City, a large dance hall of Chicago’s south side amusement park, where they played until their disbandment at the end of the White City engagement.
In 1927, Eddie Condon recorded the Austin High Gang as the “Mackenzie-Condon Chicagoans”. These recordings catapulted the young musicians into the spotlight and they all subsequently developed acclaimed careers in New York, playing and recording with established musicians like Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Of the original Austin High Gang, Jimmy McPartland and Bud Freeman sustained the longest careers in jazz
EEL
By the 1930s, Bud Freeman was working in New York City, typically in the company of ex-Chicagoans, especially Eddie Condon, in whose band Freeman recorded a noted solo, “The Eel” (1933).
By then he had developed a fluent, romantic style featuring sinuous legato melodies. His tenor saxophone sound was especially distinctive—full and smooth, with a rough edge and a large vibrato—and he played with a robust, at times almost violent swing.
Along with a Chicago friend, drummer Dave Tough, Freeman played in the big bands of Tommy Dorsey (1936–38) and Benny Goodman (1938) before embarking on a freelance career as bandleader and soloist.
He formed the Summa Cum Laude Orchestra (1939–1940) which you’ll hear live from Chicago on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
Freeman led a U.S. Army dance band based in the Aleutian Islands during World War II, then lived in New York and Chile.
He often reunited with Condon and other former Chicagoans in concert. Among his notable albums are The Bud Freeman All-Stars and the 1957 Cootie Williams–Rex Stewart album, The Big Challenge, which brought together Freeman and his great tenor saxophone rival, Coleman Hawkins.
After touring with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band (1969–71), Freeman lived in England (1974–80) and performed there and in Europe; thereafter he was based in Chicago.
He wrote two short volumes of reminiscences, You Don’t Look Like a Musician (1974) and If You Know of a Better Life, Please Tell Me (1976), and an autobiography, Crazeology (with Robert Wolf, 1989).
The King’s Jesters, billed as America’s ‘biggest little band’ is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artists. They were a vocal group who accompanied themselves on guitar, banjo and other instruments and with orchestra. They were household names in the 1930s and early 1940s.
You’ve heard them previously on The Phantom Dancer featured as a male vocal trio with Ben Bernie’s Orchestra on 1942 episodes of the weekday ‘Ben Bernie’s War Workers’ Program’.
Here’s a 1938 Standard radio transcription ofThe King’s Jesters…
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 17 January) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
The King Jesters’s singing for Paul Whiteman in the early 1930s…
START
The King’s Jesters began as a comic vocal trio that also played instruments along with an accompanist.
They were John Ravencroft – sax and clarinet, Francis “Fritz” Bastow – banjo and guitar, George Howard – drums and vibraphone, along with Ray McDermott – piano, accordion, and arranger.
They were hired by Paul Whiteman to replace The Rhythm Boys and sang with him from 1930 to 1931.
When they left Whiteman, they added vocalist Marjorie Whitney and called her their queen. These five were the core of the King’s Jesters.
Here are The King’s Jesters on a 1932 LP released by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1932…
BREAK
The King’s Jesters were discovered by Ray McDermott. He managed them and set up an audition for Paul Whiteman, the leading orchestra leader of the 1920s, while he was touring with his band in Cincinnati.
Whiteman named them The King’s Jesters. They toured and recorded with the Whiteman band from 1931 – 32, replacing Whiteman’s famous Rhythm Boys which had included Bing Crosby.
AFTER
In 1932, after leaving Paul Whiteman, The King’s Jesters formed a new band of seven members: Fritz Bastow, George Howard and John Ravencroft, Ray McDermott who was the piano accompanist, Jimmy Awad on trumpet, Bob Casey on string bass, and singer, Marjorie Whitney, who you’ll hear this week singing, ‘Same Old Lines’, and with George Howard on ‘I’ll Love You Coast to Coast’.
The King’s Jesters broadcast daily over NBC from the Hotel Morrison in Chicago.
In June 1936 The King’s Jesters begin playing at the Bismark Hotel in Chicago, from where you’ll hear them on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
Their repertoire mixed instrumental fox trots for dancing and and vocal harmony numbers.
Pianist Ray McDermott died of pneumonia in 1937. The King’s Jesters and band then opened a new floor show in the Blue Fountain Room at the La Salle Hotel.
In July 1937, The King’s Jesters were on the front cover of the July 3, 1937 issue of the trade music bible, Billboard. They were billed as “America’s Biggest Little Band.”
After their months-long engagement at the La Salle Hotel in 1937, The King’s Jesters moved to the Fairview Hotel & Dance Gardens in Chicago.
Their 1937 show included songs like ‘Turkish Delight’,’The Deacon Steps Out’, sung with the ‘Peck-in’ dance introduced in ‘New Faces of 1937’ and ‘Today I am a Man’. Their queen, Marjorie Whitney, had a number of songs to herself, which include ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ and ‘There’ll be Changes Made’.
BENNY GOODMAN
The King’s Jesters band made two guest radio appearances with Benny Goodman and his orchestra on July 7, 1941, and one on July 24, 1941.
They appeared in the Sir Francis Drake hotel in San Francisco; William Penn hotel in Pittsburgh; LaSalle hotel in Chicago; the Carlton hotel in Washington, and the Philadelphia hotel in Philadelphia. For all these spots they broadcast over the NBC and Mutual.
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 