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.
John Marshall Alexander Jr., known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and musician. He had a string of hit singles in the mid 1950s. Ace died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound playing silly-buggers backstage at a concert, aged 25 and had two children.
Born the son of a baptist preacher who allowed no blues in the house. Ace dropped out of high school to join the US Navy. He was reported AWOL for much of his time there.
On discharge he joined Adolph Duncan’s Band as a pianist, playing around Beale Street in Memphis. The network of local musicians became known as the Beale Streeters, which included B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Earl Forest, and Roscoe Gordon. Initially, they weren’t an official band, but at times there was a leader and they played on each other’s records.
In 1951 Ike Turner, who was a talent scout and producer for Modern Records, arranged for Ace and other Beale Streeters to record for Turner’s label. Alexander played piano on some of King’s records for RPM Records and backed King during broadcasts on WDIA in Memphis. When King departed for Los Angeles and Bland left the group, Ace took over both Bland’s vocal duties and King’s radio show on WDIA.
David James Mattis, program director at WDIA and founder of Duke Records, claimed that he created the stage name of Johnny Ace: “Johnny” for Johnny Ray and “Ace” for the Four Aces.
ACE
Ace signed to Duke in 1952 and released his first recording, “My Song”, an urbane “heart ballad” which topped the R&B chart for nine weeks beginning in September. He began heavy touring, often with Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. In the next two years, Ace had eight hits in a row, including “Cross My Heart”, “Please Forgive Me”, “The Clock”, “Yes, Baby”, “Saving My Love for You” and “Never Let Me Go”.
In November 1954, Ace ranked No. 16 on the Billboard 1954 Disk Jockey Poll for R&B Favorite Artists.
In December 1954, he was named the Most Programmed Artist of 1954, according to the results of a national poll of disc jockeys conducted by the U.S. trade weekly Cash Box.
Early in 1955, Duke Records announced that three of his 1954 recordings, along with Thornton’s “Hound Dog“, had sold more than 1,750,000 copies.
“Pledging My Love” was a posthumous R&B number 1 hit for ten weeks beginning February 12, 1955. As Billboard bluntly put it, Ace’s death “created one of the biggest demands for a record that has occurred since the death of Hank Williams just over two years ago.”
Soon after Ace’s death, in early 1955, Varetta Dillard recorded ‘Johnny Has Gone’ for Savoy Records. She incorporated many of Ace’s song titles in the lyrics. This was the first of the many teen tragedy records that were to follow in the later 50s and early 1960s
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.
As an artist, she was one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century.
Beloved, because she had a great voice.
Controversial, because she didn’t seek approval from ‘the gatekeepers’. And as you’ll hear in her Birdland radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer, she didn’t hold back from telling radio announcers to shut up or stop being corny.
The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.
This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 6 September at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/. This episode is a Phantom Dancer Classic which first went to air on 30 March 2021.
DINAH
Dinah Washington was the stage name of Ruth Lee Jones.
She was a jazz singer but also sang blues, R&B, and pop music.
As a child she sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Sallie Martin, co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. She joined the gospel choir after she won an amateur contest at Chicago’s Regal Theater, singing, ‘I Can’t Face the Music’.
HAMPTON
At 15, she started singing in clubs. By 1941–42 she was performing at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago with Fats Waller.
She was playing at the Three Deuces, a jazz club, when a friend took her to hear Billie Holiday at the Garrick Stage Bar. Club owner Joe Sherman was so impressed with her singing of “I Understand”, backed by the Cats and the Fiddle, who were appearing in the Garrick’s upstairs room, that he hired her. During her year at the Garrick, she sang upstairs while Holiday performed downstairs room. Sherman gave her her stage name.
Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick and invited her to join his orchestra
She made her recording debut singing Evil Gal Blues, written by Leonard Feather (who wrote Blow Top Blues you’ll hear Dinah sing in this week’s show, live on 1952 radio) and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band. Both that record and its follow-up, ‘Salty Papa Blues’, made the Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” in 1944.
In December 1945 she made a series of twelve recordings for Apollo Records, 10 of which were issued, featuring the Lucky Thompson All Stars.
She stayed with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra until 1946.
SOLO
Her first solo recording, Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, was another hit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.
‘Am I Asking Too Much?’ (1948) and ‘Baby Get Lost’ (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. Her version of Johnny Green’s 1930s hit, ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ (1950) crossed over to reach Number 22 on the US pop chart.
Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even a version of Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B Number 3, 1951). At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, including last week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley and Ben Webster.
In 1950, Dinah Washington performed at the sixth avalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Also featured on the same day were Lionel Hampton, PeeWee Crayton’s Orchestra, Roy Milton and his Orchestra plus Tiny Davis and Her Hell Divers. 16,000 were reported to be in attendance and the concert ended early because of a fracas while Lionel Hampton played ‘Flying High’.
Washington returned to perform at the twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1956. Performing that day were Little Richard, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgin’s Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Piece Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’. She followed it up with a version of Irving Gordon’s ‘Unforgettable’ and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’, which you’ll hear on this week’s show from a 1960 aircheck and ‘A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)’. Her last big hit was ‘September in the Rain’, in 1961.
She won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance, 1959, for ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’.
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.
As an artist, she was one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century.
Beloved, because she had a great voice.
Controversial, because she didn’t seek approval from ‘the gatekeepers’. And as you’ll hear in her Birdland radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer, she didn’t hold back from telling radio announcers to shut up or stop being corny.
The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.
This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 January at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/. This episode is a Phantom Dancer Classic which first went to air on 30 March 2021.
DINAH
Dinah Washington was the stage name of Ruth Lee Jones.
She was a jazz singer but also sang blues, R&B, and pop music.
As a child she sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Sallie Martin, co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. She joined the gospel choir after she won an amateur contest at Chicago’s Regal Theater, singing, ‘I Can’t Face the Music’.
HAMPTON
At 15, she started singing in clubs. By 1941–42 she was performing at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago with Fats Waller.
She was playing at the Three Deuces, a jazz club, when a friend took her to hear Billie Holiday at the Garrick Stage Bar. Club owner Joe Sherman was so impressed with her singing of “I Understand”, backed by the Cats and the Fiddle, who were appearing in the Garrick’s upstairs room, that he hired her. During her year at the Garrick, she sang upstairs while Holiday performed downstairs room. Sherman gave her her stage name.
Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick and invited her to join his orchestra
She made her recording debut singing Evil Gal Blues, written by Leonard Feather (who wrote Blow Top Blues you’ll hear Dinah sing in this week’s show, live on 1952 radio) and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band. Both that record and its follow-up, ‘Salty Papa Blues’, made the Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” in 1944.
In December 1945 she made a series of twelve recordings for Apollo Records, 10 of which were issued, featuring the Lucky Thompson All Stars.
She stayed with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra until 1946.
SOLO
Her first solo recording, Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, was another hit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.
‘Am I Asking Too Much?’ (1948) and ‘Baby Get Lost’ (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. Her version of Johnny Green’s 1930s hit, ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ (1950) crossed over to reach Number 22 on the US pop chart.
Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even a version of Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B Number 3, 1951). At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, including last week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley and Ben Webster.
In 1950, Dinah Washington performed at the sixth avalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Also featured on the same day were Lionel Hampton, PeeWee Crayton’s Orchestra, Roy Milton and his Orchestra plus Tiny Davis and Her Hell Divers. 16,000 were reported to be in attendance and the concert ended early because of a fracas while Lionel Hampton played ‘Flying High’.
Washington returned to perform at the twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1956. Performing that day were Little Richard, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgin’s Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Piece Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’. She followed it up with a version of Irving Gordon’s ‘Unforgettable’ and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’, which you’ll hear on this week’s show from a 1960 aircheck and ‘A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)’. Her last big hit was ‘September in the Rain’, in 1961.
She won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, 1959, for ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’.
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature. This is a repeat Phantom Dancer because of the current Covid lockdown in Sydney.
As an artist, she was one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century.
Beloved, because she had a great voice.
Controversial, because she didn’t seek approval from ‘the gatekeepers’. And as you’ll hear in her Birdland radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer, she didn’t hold back from telling radio announcers to shut up or stop being corny.
The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.
Dinah Washington was the stage name of Ruth Lee Jones.
She was a jazz singer but also sang blues, R&B, and pop music.
As a child she sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Sallie Martin, co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. She joined the gospel choir after she won an amateur contest at Chicago’s Regal Theater, singing, ‘I Can’t Face the Music’.
HAMPTON
At 15, she started singing in clubs. By 1941–42 she was performing at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago with Fats Waller.
She was playing at the Three Deuces, a jazz club, when a friend took her to hear Billie Holiday at the Garrick Stage Bar. Club owner Joe Sherman was so impressed with her singing of “I Understand”, backed by the Cats and the Fiddle, who were appearing in the Garrick’s upstairs room, that he hired her. During her year at the Garrick, she sang upstairs while Holiday performed downstairs room. Sherman gave her her stage name.
Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick and invited her to join his orchestra
She made her recording debut singing Evil Gal Blues, written by Leonard Feather (who wrote Blow Top Blues you’ll hear Dinah sing in this week’s show, live on 1952 radio) and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band. Both that record and its follow-up, ‘Salty Papa Blues’, made the Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” in 1944.
In December 1945 she made a series of twelve recordings for Apollo Records, 10 of which were issued, featuring the Lucky Thompson All Stars.
She stayed with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra until 1946.
SOLO
Her first solo recording, Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, was another hit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.
‘Am I Asking Too Much?’ (1948) and ‘Baby Get Lost’ (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. Her version of Johnny Green’s 1930s hit, ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ (1950) crossed over to reach Number 22 on the US pop chart.
Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even a version of Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B Number 3, 1951). At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, including last week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley and Ben Webster.
In 1950, Dinah Washington performed at the sixth avalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Also featured on the same day were Lionel Hampton, PeeWee Crayton’s Orchestra, Roy Milton and his Orchestra plus Tiny Davis and Her Hell Divers. 16,000 were reported to be in attendance and the concert ended early because of a fracas while Lionel Hampton played ‘Flying High’.
Washington returned to perform at the twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1956. Performing that day were Little Richard, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgin’s Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Piece Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’. She followed it up with a version of Irving Gordon’s ‘Unforgettable’ and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’, which you’ll hear on this week’s show from a 1960 aircheck and ‘A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)’. Her last big hit was ‘September in the Rain’, in 1961.
She won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, 1959, for ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’.
Lester Young, jazz tenor saxophonist called ‘The Prez’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist from live 1940s-50s broadcasts. Young was one of the most influential saxophonists, playing “a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike”. Alcohol killed him.
The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.
Lester Young grew up in a musical family. His brother, Lee, was a drummer. (You’ll hear a broadcast by Lester and Lee on this week’s Phantom Dancer). His father lead the family band in which he played trumpet, alto sax, drums and violin.
Joining Walter Page’s Blue Devils Orchestra, Lester switched saxes from alto to tenor. He also doubled clarinet, until his clarinet was stolen at a gig in 1939. (He was given a replacement clarinet in 1957).
One of Young’s key influences was Frank Trumbauer, who was famous in the 1920s Paul Whiteman Orchestra and who played the C-melody saxophone (between the alto and tenor in pitch)
Young moved to Kansas City in 1933 to play in the Count Basie Orchestra. During the 1930s he also played in the bands of Andy Kirk and Fletcher Henderson. He also played in small groups that included pianist Teddy Wilson and singer Billie Holiday who gave him the nickname, Prez.
1940s
Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He played in small groups often with his brother, drummer Lee Young, including more studio sessions with Billie Holiday and Nat “King” Cole in June 1942.
In December 1943 Young returned to the Basie Orchestra for a 10-month stint before he was drafted into the army during World War II.
PLASTIC REEDS
Lester Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed in the early 1940s. They gave his playing a heavier, breathier tone. He never abandoned the cane reed, but used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. His tone also thickened from this time with a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944 Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili’s short film Jammin’ the Blues.
In 1946 Young joined Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP), touring regularly with them over the next 12 years. He made many studio recordings under Granz’s supervision, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1946-7) and for Savoy (1944, ’49 and ’50), some sessions of which included Basie on piano.
KILLED BY PLONK
The quality and consistency of Lester Young’s playing ebbed gradually in the latter half of the 1940s.
And from 1951, his playing declined precipitously as his drinking increased.
He began to rely on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a “repeater pencil” (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one’s own past ideas. Young also coined the hipster words, ‘cool’ for good and ‘bread’ for money).
In November 1955 he was admited to hospital a ‘nervous breakdown’.
On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special ‘The Sound of Jazz’, performing, ‘Fine and Mellow’. You’ll hear this reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact over the years, on this week’s Phantom Dancer. Young’s solo was brilliant, acclaimed by some observers as an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. Nat Hentoff, one of the show’s producers, later commented, “Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard…in the control room we were all crying.”
Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate almost nothing and drank heavily. On a flight to New York City, he suffered from internal bleeding due to alcoholism and died in the early morning hours of 15 March, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York. He was only 49.
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.
As an artist, she was one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century.
Beloved, because she had a great voice.
Controversial, because she didn’t seek approval from ‘the gatekeepers’. And as you’ll hear in her Birdland radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer, she didn’t hold back from telling radio announcers to shut up or stop being corny.
The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.
Dinah Washington was the stage name of Ruth Lee Jones.
She was a jazz singer but also sang blues, R&B, and pop music.
As a child she sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Sallie Martin, co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. She joined the gospel choir after she won an amateur contest at Chicago’s Regal Theater, singing, ‘I Can’t Face the Music’.
HAMPTON
At 15, she started singing in clubs. By 1941–42 she was performing at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago with Fats Waller.
She was playing at the Three Deuces, a jazz club, when a friend took her to hear Billie Holiday at the Garrick Stage Bar. Club owner Joe Sherman was so impressed with her singing of “I Understand”, backed by the Cats and the Fiddle, who were appearing in the Garrick’s upstairs room, that he hired her. During her year at the Garrick, she sang upstairs while Holiday performed downstairs room. Sherman gave her her stage name.
Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick and invited her to join his orchestra
She made her recording debut singing Evil Gal Blues, written by Leonard Feather (who wrote Blow Top Blues you’ll hear Dinah sing in this week’s show, live on 1952 radio) and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band. Both that record and its follow-up, ‘Salty Papa Blues’, made the Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” in 1944.
In December 1945 she made a series of twelve recordings for Apollo Records, 10 of which were issued, featuring the Lucky Thompson All Stars.
She stayed with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra until 1946.
SOLO
Her first solo recording, Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, was another hit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.
‘Am I Asking Too Much?’ (1948) and ‘Baby Get Lost’ (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. Her version of Johnny Green’s 1930s hit, ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ (1950) crossed over to reach Number 22 on the US pop chart.
Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even a version of Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B Number 3, 1951). At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, including last week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley and Ben Webster.
In 1950, Dinah Washington performed at the sixth avalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Also featured on the same day were Lionel Hampton, PeeWee Crayton’s Orchestra, Roy Milton and his Orchestra plus Tiny Davis and Her Hell Divers. 16,000 were reported to be in attendance and the concert ended early because of a fracas while Lionel Hampton played ‘Flying High’.
Washington returned to perform at the twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1956. Performing that day were Little Richard, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgin’s Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Piece Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’. She followed it up with a version of Irving Gordon’s ‘Unforgettable’ and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’, which you’ll hear on this week’s show from a 1960 aircheck and ‘A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)’. Her last big hit was ‘September in the Rain’, in 1961.
She won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, 1959, for ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’.
Erskine Hawkins, that 20th Century Gabriel, from live 1940s radio is this week’s Phantom Dancer non-stop swing jazz feature artist.
Greg Poppleton has been bringing you The Phantom Dancer every week since 1985.
It’s your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
Hear The Phantom Dancer online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 25 August at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ where you can also hear two years of archived shows.
The finyl hour is vinyl.
ERSKINE
Erskine Ramsay Hawkins, ‘the 20th Century Gabriel’ was an American trumpeter, composer and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama.
His outstanding hit, ‘Tuxedo Junction’ (1939) written saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson, has become a jazz standard.
Vocalists who were featured with Erskine’s orchestra include Ida James, Delores Brown, and Della Reese.
Erskine Hawkins was named by his parents after Alabama industrialist Erskine Ramsay. The industrialist was rewarding parents who named their children after him with savings accounts.
At high schoold he played in the band directed by Fess Whatley, a teacher who trained numerous African-American musicians, many of whom populated the bands of famed band leaders such as Duke Ellington, Lucky Millinder, Louis Armstrong and Skitch Henderson (of the NBC Orchestra).
HAWKINS
From 1936 to 1938, he recorded for Vocalion Records as ‘Erskine Hawkins and his ‘Bama State Collegians’. In 1938, he signed with RCA Victor Records and began recording on their Bluebird label as, ‘Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra’.
In the late 1930s Hawkins and his Orchestra were one of the house bands at the Savoy Ballroom. They alternated with the Chick Webb band, and often used Tuxedo Junction as their sign-off song before the next band would take the stage, so that the dancing would continue uninterrupted. Hawkins also engaged in ‘battles of the bands’ with such bandleaders as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Lionel Hampton.
In the mid 1940s, he was transferred to the main RCA Victor label, recording many of his greatest hits for both labels during this decade. He remained with them until 1950 when he switched over to Coral Records. He continued to record for many years.
From 1967 – 93, Hawkins was trumpeter and band leader in the lobby bar and show nightclub at The Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, New York with his last performing group Joe Vitale piano, Dudly Watson bass, Sonny Rossi vocals and clarinet, and George Leary drums.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
A clip of Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra from 1938. Enjoy!
25 AUGUST PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #451
Facebook Live, Wednesday 12 August, 1:30pm – 2:30pm AEST (8:30 – 9:30 pm PDT). I’ll serenade you live on Facebook Live with 1920s – 30s songs backed by Grahame Conlon on guitar and banjo https://www.facebook.com/WhatsOnWaverley
For 15 years, I’ve been singing the songs of the 1920s – 1930s at a yearly concert held at Bondi Pavilion, right on iconic Bondi Beach.
This year, with the historic Pavilion being renovated and with social distancing due to Covid, the annual concert is being beamed on Facebook Live.
Over the years at Bondi, a number of audience requests have been added into the band’s song lists. These include You Are My Sunshine, Road to Gundagai and Falling in Love Again.
All these songs are now available to download. Visit the shop
You Are My Sunshine is from the latest album, Tin Pan Alley Vol 2, now on Apple Music and Spotify…
Another favourite 1920s song audiences ask for at a Greg Poppleton concert is Carolina in the Morning which is the final track of the new album Tin Pan Alley Vol. 2. Here’s the video.
I hope you can join me on Wednesday 12 August when I’ll sing the songs of the 1920s – 1930s and chat about the songs, too.
Frances Faye, cabaret singer and pianist, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Peter Allen credited her as a major influence. He had Faye sing the vocals on the track ‘Just a Gigolo’ on his 1974 album, Continental American.
Personally, I wonder whether the Continental in the name of that album refers to the Continental Baths in New York City where Allen re-launched his career after being rescued by a friend of mine, and Continental Baths owner, Steve Ostrow, who with, Bette Midler, found him unconscious one day on a Long Island beach.
You’ll hear Frances live from a NYC nightclub over NBC in 1956 on this week’s Phantom Dancer. And she’s your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week in a 1979 performance live on Sydney’s midday weekly variety TV show, ‘The Mike Walsh Show’. (Missed this one, I was either at a Chemical Engineering lecture at uni or on a bus working as a conductor. ‘The Mike Walsh Show’ audience were famously all bussed in ‘little old ladies’.)
The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. Presented and produced by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton, The Phantom Dancer’s been on-air over 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985.
Hear The Phantom Dancer online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 4 August at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ where you can also hear two years of archived shows.
As always, the finyl hour is vinyl.
FRANCES
Frances Faye was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye, whose TV show I used to watch, laughing my head off, as a toddler in the mid-1960s.
She entered showbiz at age 15 in nightclubs.
She made her solo recording debut in 1936 and appeared in the 1937 Bing Crosby movie, ‘Double or Nothing’ in which she sang ‘After You’. She wrote the song ‘Well All Right’ recorded by the Andrews Sisters.
Her act became famous for including double entendres and references to homosexuality. Faye herself was bisexual and hinted at this frequently in her act, playfully altering pronouns in love songs or weave her girlfriend’s name into lyrics of songs.
She recorded albums for Capitol Records, Imperial Records and the jazz labels Verve and Bethlehem Records.
FAYE
Faye was married twice in the 1940s. In the late 1950s, a woman named Teri Shepherd became her manager and lifelong partner. Shepherd discussed her relationship with Faye in Bruce Weber’s 2001 film Chop Suey.
She was arrested in 1955 on a narcotics charge in Los Angeles. Police alleged she and three men arrested at the same time possessed marijuana.
During the 1960s, Faye suffered a number of health related problems brought on by a hip accident in 1958. She nevertheless continued to tour into the early 1980s. Peter Allen credited her as a major influence.
She returned to film in 1978, playing an elderly cocaine-sniffing madam in the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. She retired shortly afterwards. At the time of her death in 1991, aged 79, she was living with Shepherd.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
And every week, right here, I find the jazzy or the quirky or both combined from YouTube, just for you, as your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week. This week it’s Francis Faye (she’s in today’s Phantom Dancer mix on NBC radio in 1956) live on Sydney TV (The Mike Walsh Show) in 1979 – singing, playing the piano, and being interviewed. Enjoy!
4 AUGUST PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #448
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 