2SER Supporter Drive 2018 – Week 1 Phantom Dancer

SUPPORT

This is the first week of the annual 2SER Supporter Drive.

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.

On-air Tuesdays 12:04-2:00pm AEST (+11 GMT) and online

COMMUNITY

2SER is community radio with a wide range of specialist music, like The Phantom Dancer, plus independent news and current affairs unavailable on any other station.

2SER runs on your financial support. Give any amount you want this year and you’ll be in the running for some great prizes in the daily prize draw.

Standard annual subscriptions are:
$40 concession
$80 standard
$160 passionate
$600 life member

Support 2SER now.
Any money amount enters you into the daily prize draw.

FAVOURITE

Over the next fortnight, I’ll be sharing with you some of my favourite 2ser Phantom Dancer musical moments mixed from shows recorded ten years ago.

I’ve got some of my kids on-air moments to share with you, moments from when they were aged 4 and 6. And I’ve got some of your great listener stories to share with you, too!

Check out more 2SER listener stories on the 2SER home page, or read quotes from our listeners on this page.

You can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too, at 2ser.com.

LOVE

At 2SER, we’re really lucky to air such a wide range of specialist music shows, in depth news programs, and plenty of local and alternative stories from our community every day.

Listeners like yourself truly shape that content, sending us comments, letting us know about your events and businesses, and giving us all feedback too. And of course, being able to send all this into your earlobes wouldn’t be possible without your support!

STORIES

“I love your radio show! ” Harri
“Will keep listening for sure. I really love your show” Michelle, Melbourne
“Love your program. We tape it each week” Trish
“Your program is wonderful,” Tim
“Loving it! ” Nathan
“Knocked out by your show. We’ll be regular listeners from now on” Trevor & Betty
“Your show rocks!” Sonja
“Love your show” Tara

GIVE

Support 2SER now
You can also call in your support 61 2 9514 9500

VIDEO

Inside the Phantom Dancer 2SER study filmed just last month…

16 OCTOBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #337
107.3 2SER Tuesday 16 October 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 24 other stations.
Set 1	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
Swing That Music	Louis Armstrong (voc) Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Comm Rec Los Angeles Aug 1936
You Old Son of a Gun	Rosemary Clooney (voc) Buddy Cole Music	‘Stars for Defense’ Radio Transcription Nov 1959
Sherlock Holmes & Wine Ad	Nigel Bruce	‘Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ KHJ Mutual LA Sep 1945
Wabash Blues	Jerry Thomas Quintet	Comm Rec Zurich, Switzerland 1942
Set 2	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 95000
Open + Bridegroom Special	Yiddish Swing Orchestra	‘Yiddish Melodies in Swing’ WHN NY 1940
China Boy	Sidney Bechet (sop sax)	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue Network NYC Feb 1945
Stage Coach	Wally Portingale Orchestra	‘Army on Parade’ 2CH AWA Sydney Oct 1943
That’s Love	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) The Three Ambassadors	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1933
Set 3	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
Unidentified	Jan Garber Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Trianon Ballroom Southgate Ca AFRS Re-broadcast Mar 1945
Easter Parade	Martha Mears	’10-2-4 Time’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles Mar 1948
Don’t Blame Me	Dinah Shore	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City Dec 1948
Set 4	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
Isn’t It Romantic?	Chet Baker Quartet	Storyville Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 16 Mar 1954
Good Evening (theme) + April Showers	Del Courtney Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Rose Room Palace Hotel San Francisco AFRS Re-broadcast 7 Jan 1948
Drifting and Dreaming (theme) + Cheek to Cheek	Orrin Tucker Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cocoanut Grove Wiltshire Centre Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 1955
Pretending + Hold My Hand + Theme	Griff Williams Orchestra	Empire Room Palmer House WGN Chicago 5 Mar 1947
Set 5	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
Love, Nuts and Noodles	Phil Harris Orchestra (voc) Jack Smith	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1933
I’d Rather Lead A Band + Farewell Blues + Theme	Bob Crosby Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby and The Four Freshman	‘Ford V-8 Revue’ Radio Transcription 1936
Arabian Lover	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Comm Rec New York City 3 May 1929
These Foolish Things	Count Basie Nonet	Boston 7 Sep 1954
Set 6	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
Levee Blues	Jimmy Dorsey’s Dorseyland Band (voc) Charlie Teagarden	Radio Transcription Hollywood 1950
Till The End of Time	Woody Herman Orchestra (voc) Frances Wayne	‘Woody Herman Show’ ABC 1 Dec 1946
Margie	Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights	‘Trianon Time’ Trianon Ballroom Southgate Ca KECA ABC LA 1945
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + Ooh! That Kiss!	Freddy Rich Orchestra	‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932
You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It	Harry James Orchestra	Trianon Ballroom Southgate Ca KECA ABC LA Dec 1945
Section A + Theme	Raymond Scott Orchestra	‘Raymond Scott Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast
Set 7	Subscribe to 2SER Call 9514 9500
When My Dreamboat Comes Home	Jimmy Rushing (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	Aircheck Savoy Ballroom New York City 30 Jun 1937
The Glider	Artie Shaw Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Santa Barbara Ca 10 Oct 1945
Artistry in Rhythm (theme) + Eager Beaver	Stan Kenton Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 28 Nov 1944
Savoy Blues	George Lewis	‘Dixieland Jamboree’ WDSU ABC New Orleans 7 Oct 1950
Get Out Of Town	Leah Matthews (voc) Woody Herman’s Third Herd	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1954
Tangerine	Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberle (voc) Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Aircheck
Chicago	Benny Goodman	NBC TV 1967

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love – Phantom Dancer 9 Oct 2018

‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ was a 1928 hit for composer Jimmy McHugh and lyricist Dorothy Fields. This week’s Phantom Dancer, presented by authentic 1920s-30s singer Greg Poppleton, features an ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’-a-thon.

SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1929 – 65 radio.

Mixed live-to-air by 1920s – 1930s singer and actor, Greg Poppleton, on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985, The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.

You can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too, at 2ser.com.

PLAYLIST

A countdown of Australian Jazz from recordings made in 1930, 1940, 1950 and 1960, the ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ feature feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-50s radio. Read the full play list below.

And remember the ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.

Lyricist Dorothy Fields

I

‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’is now a jazz standard. Music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Introduced in Januray 1928 by Adelaide Hall at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York for Lew Leslie’s Blackbird Revue.

CAN’T

The revue opened later in 1928 on Broadway and was a hit with 518 performances.

GIVE

‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby’ is 24th in the 100-most recorded songs from 1890 to 1954.

YOU

Producer Lew Leslie wanted a hit tune for his Blackbirds revue. McHugh and Fields had already written the revue’s score. They were scratching their heads about coming up with a hit song.

ANYTHING

The story goes that Fields and McHugh were strolling along Fifth Avenue in New York City when they saw a young couple window-shopping at Tiffany’s. They heard the man say to his girlfriend, “Gee, honey I’d like to get you a sparkler like that, but right now, I can’t give you nothin’ but love!”

BUT

On hearing this, Fields and McHugh, came up with lyrics and music for Lew Leslie’s requested hit within an hour while as they sat on a train.

LOVE

Fats Waller’s son reported that his composer, piano playing father would always angrily switch off the song when he heard it on the radio. Waller believed that he had sold the melody to McHugh in 1926.

SONG

Here’s a link to my own version of the song from the album ‘Sweet Sue’ on Bandcamp, CDBaby and iTunes https://gregpoppleton.bandcamp.com/track/i-cant-give-you-anything-but-love

Sweet Sue digital download album, including ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, at Bandcamp

9 OCTOBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #336
107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 October 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 24 other stations.
Set 1	Spotlight Bands 1945-46 Radio
Open + Cool Breeze	Buddy Rich Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Phoenixville PA AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945
I’ll Never Be The Same	Charlie Venyura (ts) Gene Krupa Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 1946
Dark Eyes + Close	George Olsen Music (voc) Judith Blair, Sherman Hayes and Chorus	‘Spotlight Bands’ Waukegan, Ill. Blue Network 17 Mar 1945
Set 2	Your Hit Parade
Open + So Long As You’re Not In Love With Anyone Else + Brazil	Mark Warnow Orchestra (voc) Barry Woods and The Hit Paraders	‘Your Hit Parade’ AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jan 1943
I’m Gonna Love That Guy	Mark Warnow Orchestra (voc) The Hit Paraders	‘Your Hit Parade’ AFRS Re-broadcast 29 Sep 1945
I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams + Close	Al Goodman Orchestra	‘Your Hit Parade’ WABC CBS NY 22 Oct 1938
Set 3	Stan Kenton 1952 Radio
Artistry in Rhythm + Francesca	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ CBC Canada / NBC Palace Pier Toronto ON 3 Jun 1952
Opus in Pastels	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom WTMJ NBC Milwaukee WI 10 Jun 1952
Jump For Joe + Close	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Concert in Miniature’ Club Harlem KYW NBC Philadelphia 30 May 1952
Set 4	Miles Davis 1950s Radio
Move	Miles Davis	Birdland WJZ ABC NY 16 May 1953
Deep Sea Blues	Herbie Fields & Miles Davis	Comm Rec New York City 24 Apr 1945
Nature Boys + Anthropology	Miles Davis	‘ABC Dancing Party’ Birdland WABC ABC NY 30 Oct 1957
Set 5	Australian Jazz Through the Decades
I’m Sailing on a Sunbeam	Des Tooley (voc) Frank Coughlan (tb) Beryl Newell (piano)	Comm Rec Sydney Mar 1930
Cuckoo in the Clock	Trocadero Dance Orchestra (voc) Olive Lester	Comm Rec Sydney 10 Jan 1940
Katzenjammers Ball	Jack Allen’s Original Katzenjammerd	Comm Rec Sydney 23 Feb 1950
Dream Lover	Graeme Bell (voc) Kerrie Neilson	Comm Rec Sylvania Hotel Sydneu Jan 1960
Set 6	I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love	Joe Turner (voc) Joe Sullivan and his Cafe Society Orchestra	Comm Rec New York City 9 Feb 1940
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love + Close	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) LA	‘Jubilee’ AFRS NYC 1943
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love	POrt Jackson Jazz Band (voc) Marie Harriot	Comm Rec Sydney 25 Jun 1947
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love	Claude Thornhill Orchestra (voc) Gene Williams	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Aug 1956
Set 7	1940s Radio ‘Jubilee’ Swing Bands
Jeep Rhythm	Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Vine Street Boogie	Jay McShann Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Benny’s Original	Benny Carter Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS NYC 1943
Cuban Jam	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1945
Set 8	1940s-1950s Mod Radio
C-Jam Blues/div>	Stan Hasselgard	AFRS Hollywood 1948
Koko + Hot House	Barry Ulanov’s All-Stars	‘Bands for Bonds’ WOR Mutual NY 9 Mar 1947
Bebop Boogie	Lester Young	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal roost WMCA NY 4 Dec 1948

Bop Clarinet 1940s Radio – Phantom Dancer 2 October 2018

Bop is often associated, instrument-wise, with Charlie Parker alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie trumpet, Bud Powell piano, Curley Russell double bass, Max Roach drums and many others. But what about Stan Hasselgard clarinet, Buddy deFranco clarinet and even Benny Goodman, clarinet? This week’s Phantom Dancer feature set is bop clarinet from live 1940s radio.

SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1929 – 65 radio.

Mixed live-to-air by 1920s – 1930s singer and actor, Greg Poppleton, on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985, The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.

You can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too, at 2ser.com.

PLAYLIST

The Bop clarinet feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-50s radio. Read the full play list below.

Remember – from 1-2pm on 107.3 2SER it’s the ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.

BOP CLARINET

What is bop? Well, for all you squares out there you’re 70 years too late to write to Symphony Sid c/- WMCA NY for your booklet ‘What is Bop?’. So I suggest you check out the definition somewhere online, or listen to this week’s Phantom Dancer for some aural clues.

This week, The Phantom Dancer features the common swing and trad jazz instrument least associated with bop – clarinet. In particular, well hear airchecks from three of its practitioners.

BENNY GOODMAN

The ‘King of Swing’ had a short dalliance with bop in 1948-49. The pianist in Goodman’s bop group, Buddy Greco had this to say about Goodman’s take on the new music,

“Benny respected boppers like Fats Navarro as the musicians they were, but I don’t believe he understood bop or ever really liked it. I know he didn’t like it. He had a habit of putting us on a little bit, making musical fun of what we were doing. Sometimes he did try to stretch out and play more modern, but he was so good at what he did that when he soloed on the new charts in his usual style, to my way of thinking he fit in just fine. It would have been a shame for him to change.”

Stan Hasselgard and Benny Goodman

STAN HASSELGARD

Hasselgård was a swing clarinetist in Sweden before moving to New York City in 1947. He was a Benny Goodman fan and joined the Goodman group, switching to bop when Goodman made his foray into the new music in 1948.

Hasselgård was the “famous bop clarinettist who died in an Illinois car crash recently” the memory of which spooked Sal Paradise on his journey to Chicago in Jack Kerouac’s 1957 book, On the Road.

Buddy de Franco

BUDDY DE FRANCO

De Franco picked up the clarinet aged nine and by age 14 had won a national Tommy Dorsey swing contest.

He remained largely a swing player, leading the Glenn Miller orchestra in the 1960s and 70s.

But he also rose to the challenge of jazz clarinet, playing in bands lead by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis in 1947 and 1949 respectively.

VIDEO

Benny Goodman and Stan Hasselgård duet on ‘All The Things You Are’ in a 1948 broadcast from The click in Philadelphia, just five days before Stan was killed in a car crash.

2 OCTOBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #335
107.3 2SER Tuesday 2 October 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	Sweet Bands on 1944-45 Radio
Open + On The Sunny Side of the Street	Ted Straeter Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast 9 Apr 1945
Blues Concerto	Jerry Wald Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ AFRS Re-broadcast 28 Oct 1955
Dark Eyes + Close	Billy Bishop Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Trianon Ballroom, Chicago AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Set 2	Dixieland Club
Open + Copenhagen	Preacher Rollo and the Five Saints	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Sep 1951
Canadian Capers	Marie Marcus	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Sep 1951
Bye Bye Blackbird + Close	Preacher Rollo and the Five Saints	‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Sep 1951
Set 3	Modern Jazz on 1951-60 Radio
Theme + No Name Number One	Gilbert Lacombe	‘Jazz du Canada’ Radio Canada Montreal 1960
I Had The Craziest Dream	Helen Forrest	‘The Navy Swings’ Radio Transcription 1959
Golden Bullet + One O’Clock Jump (close)	Count Basie Septet	‘Stars on Parade’ Radio Transcription 1951
Set 4	Bop Clarinet
Swedish Pastry	Stan Hasselgard (cl 2nd solo) Benny Goodman Sextet	Westchester County Centre White Plains NY WNEW NYC 26 Jun 1948
Open + Undercurrent Blues	Benny Goodman Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Hollywood Palladium AFRS Re-broadcast 28 Mar 1949
The Squirrel	Buddy deFranco (cl) Miles Davis (tp)	‘All-Star Jazz Session’ WPIX TV NYC 17 Jan 1949
Set 5	Harry James on 1940s-50s Radio
In The Still of the Night	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Paula Gilbert	Radio Transcription 1954
Temptation	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	‘One Night Stand’ Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 10 Feb 1946
Open + How High The Moon?	Harry James Orchestra	‘Call For Music’ KNX CBS LA 1948
Till I Waltz With You Again	Harry James Orchestra (voc) April Ames	‘One Night Stand’ Hotel Astor Roof NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 25 May 1953
Set 6	1936 Jazz Radio
Lazy Bones	Claude Hopkins Orchestra (voc) Fred Norman	Radio Transcription New York City 1936
Inspiration Tango	Isham Jones Orchestra	WOR Mutual Network NYC 13 Mar 1936
Weary Blues	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘Ford V-8 Show’ Texas Centennial Exposition CBS Dallas TX Aug 1936
St Louis Blues	Jack Teagarden (tb) Paul Whiteman Orchestra	‘Paul Whiteman’s Musical Varieties’ WJZ NBC Blue New York City 16 Feb 1936
Set 7	Women Singers Part 2
Rocking Chair (theme) + Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone + I’ll Never Be The Same	Mildred Bailey	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944
As Long As I’m Dreaming	Peggy Lee	‘Peggy Lee Show’ KNX CBS LA 1948
Mad About The Boy	Lena Horne	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Chewin’ Gum + I Wanna Be A Rug Cutter	Ella Fitzgerald	Savoy Ballroom WEAF NBC Red NY 4 Mar 1940
Set 8	1940s-1950s Mod Radio
Bebop	Howard McGee Sextet	AFRS Hollywood 29 Apr 1947
Poor Little Rich Girl	Claude Thornhill Orchestra (arr. Gerry Mulligan)	‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Apr 1956
Jam Seesion Blues	Ivie Anderson (voc) Joe Turner (voc) Johnny Otis Orchestra , Miguelito Valdez and his Cuban Rhythm	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Oct 1945

Brecht and his Opera – Phantom Dancer 25 September 2018

I remember, maybe inaccurately, a verse by satirist Barry Humphries‘ character, Sir Les Patterson, that went like this, “Singing songs by Brecht needs the memory of an elephant / But what they lack in tune, they gain in relevance.” Brecht’s original 1930 radio-like recording of the Threepenny Opera is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.

SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1929 – 65 radio.

Mixed live-to-air by 1920s – 1930s singer and actor, Greg Poppleton, on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985, The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.

You can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too, at 2ser.com.

PLAYLIST

The Brecht feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-50s radio. Read the full play list below.

Remember – the ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.

DREIGROSCHENOPER

With song lyrics by Kurt Weill and book by Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Dreigroschenoper), ‘a play with music’, was based on an Elisabeth Hauptmann translation of John Gay’s 18th-century English ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera. Hauptmann was Brecht’s girlfriend. Brecht did not credit her work.

RIP-OFF

1. Brecht claimed he did the translation, not Hauptmann
2. Brecht added four songs by French poet François Villon, without crediting Villon.
3. For these songs he used the translations by K. L. Ammer, without crediting Ammer.

When questioned by critics about these lapses, Brecht said he had, “a fundamental laxity in questions of literary property.”

STANDARDS

On this week’s Phantom Dancer we hear Lotte Lenya (married to Weill), Kurt Gerron, Erich Ponto, Willy Trenk-Trebitsch and Erika Helmke sing songs from Brecht’s play. the recordings are from an album of 78rpm records with radio-like announcements, made in Berlin in 1930.

Two of these songs you’ll now recognise as standards. They are, ‘Die Moritat von Mackie Messer’ (Mack the Knife) a jazz standard, and ‘Seeräuberjenny’ (Pirate Jenny) a cabaret staple.

CAPITALIST

Opening on 31 August 1928 at Berlin’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, The Threepenny Opera, is a socialist critique on the capitalist world.

PETIT-BOURGEOIS

But despite its socialist credentials, Brecht’s ‘play with music’ was panned after its 1930 Soviet premier. Izvestia scowled: “It is high time that our theatres ceased playing homage to petit-bourgeois bad taste and instead turned to more relevant themes.” Oh, Sir Les!

IMPACT

Composer Weill’s artistic gave his intent for the music in a dense statement he issued in 1929, “Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch.”

He also opined, “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” This was much copied by subsequent Western doyens of agitprop-style worthiness.

BANKERS

The Threepenny Opera was slow to pick up audiences, but then it became a huge success in Berlin with 400 performances in its first run.

And ironically, the first run of Brecht’s socialist work was the place to be for Berlin’s monied classes. Socialites, bankers, industrialists and diplomats saw Brecht’s play as the place to be seen.

Productions elsewhere in the world in the 1930s were flops. Weill described a 1935 BBC broadcast of the play as totally misunderstanding what it was about. The 1930s Broadway production was described as dreary, though the music was praised, and closed after 12 performances.

SCORE

As you’ll hear, Weill’s music borrowed heavily from 1920s German jazz and dance band music, and this is its most interesting attribute.

Like Greg Poppleton’s 1920s-30s band, the original Lewis Ruth band in the 1930 album recording of The Threepenny Opera you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer were all multi-instrumentalists.

The seven-piece ensemble played 23 instruments.

VIDEO

Max Raabe introduces Bertolt Brecht…

25 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #333
107.3 2SER Tuesday 25 September 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	Raymond Scott on 1940-41 Radio
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + Wellesley High Jump	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 21 Oct 1940
Humpty-Dumpty Heart	Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Roberta Leigh	Burmuda Room Hotel Brunswick WBZ Boston 6 Dec 1941
Huckleberry Duck + Pretty Little Petticoat (theme)	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 1 Nov 1940
Set 2	John Coltrane live on 1960s Radio
Afro Blue	John Coltraine	The Half-Note WCBS-FM NY 26 Mar 1965
Set 3	Trad Jazz on 1940s Radio
Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (theme) + Original Dixieland One Step	Wild Bill Davison	‘This is Jazz’ WOR Mutual NY 17 May 1947
Song of the Wanderer	Muggsy Spanier	‘Eddie Condon’s Jazz Concert’ WJZ Blue NY 17 Feb 1945
I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling + Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (theme)	Wild Bill Davison	‘This is Jazz’ WOR Mutual NY 24 May 1947
Set 4	Dreigroschenoper 1930
Overture + Mack the Knife	Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Kurt Gerron	Dreigroschenoper Album Comm Rec Berlin 1930
Ballad of the Agreeable Life + Love Duet + Cannon Song	Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Willy Trenk-Trebitsch, Erika Helmke, Gerron	Dreigroschenoper Album Comm Rec Berlin 1930
Pirate Jenny + Finale Act 1	Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Lotte Lenya, Erika Helmke, Erich Ponto	Dreigroschenoper Album Comm Rec Berlin 1930
Set 5	Harmonists on 1930s Radio
Swingin’ on the Strings	The Inkspots	WEAF NBC Red NY 9 Aug 1935
Swing for Sale	Mills Brothers	‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Why Don’t You Practice What You Preach?	Boswell Sisters	‘Woodbury Show’ KNX CBS LA 18 Sep 1934
Down Among the Sleepy Pines	The Three Ambassadors + Jean Shark	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1932
Set 6	Cab Calloway
Shout, Shout, Shout	Cab Calloway	Comm Rec New York City 30 Aug 1938
Hey Now, Hey Now	Cab Calloway	‘One Night Stand’ Club Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
We, The Cats, Shall Hep You	Cab Calloway	‘One Night Stand’ Club Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 16 Jul 1945
Ducktrot	Cab Calloway	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 17 Sep 1950
Set 7	Royal Garden Blues
Royal Garden Blues	Muggsy Spanier	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 11 Apr 1953
Royal Garden Blues	Ray Miller Orchestra	‘Sunny Meadows Show’ Radio Transcription Chicago 26 Jan 1929
Royal Garden Blues	Louis Armstrong	‘Damon Runyon Memorial Jazz Concert’ Blue Note ABC Chicago 11 Dec 1948
Royal Garden Blues	Hot Lips Page	‘Doctor Jazz’ Stuyvesant Casino WMGM NYC 1950
Set 8	Women Singers Part 2
Rocking Chair (theme) + Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone + I’ll Never Be The Same	Mildred Bailey	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944
As Long As I’m Dreaming	Peggy Lee	‘Peggy Lee Show’ KNX CBS LA 1948
Mad About The Boy	Lena Horne	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Chewin’ Gum + I Wanna Be A Rug Cutter	Ella Fitzgerald	Savoy Ballroom WEAF NBC Red NY 4 Mar 1940

Lester Young – Phantom Dancer Radio Show 18 September 2018

Lester Young started playing jazz in the family band. He became one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz. He also coined a lot of hipster words. Lester Young is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is a non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio.

Mixed live-to-air by Greg Poppleton on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985.

The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.

And 2ser.com is where you can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too.

PLAYLIST

The Lester Young feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1930s-50s radio. Read the full play list below. ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.

LESTER YOUNG

Known as ‘Prez’, Lester Young was one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz.

Reams have been written about Lester Young’s cool, fluid style so I won’t wax lyrical about that here.

Better you hear it first hand from live 1950s broadcast recordings on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

HIPSTER

Less known about Lester Young, is that he coined or popularised a lot of the hipster jargon that came to be associated with jazz.

‘Bread’ for money is a Lester Young original. ‘Bread’ became a Lester Young feature song in the 1956 Count Basie Orchestra. He’d ask, “How does the bread smell?” to mean what does the gig pay? He popularised the word ‘cool’, meaning ‘in vogue’.

FAMILY

Lester came from a musical family. His father was a band leader and Lester commenced his music career touring with the family band. His brother, Lee, was a drummer. In earler Phantom Dancers you would have heard the Lee and Lester Young band broadcasting from Los Angeles over KHJ.

CLARINET

Lester occasionally doubled on clarinet in the 1930s Walter Page Blue Devils Band and in the Count Basie Orchestra. It was stolen in 1939 and he didn’t pick up a licorice stick again until jazz promoter Norman Granz bought one for him in 1957.

INFLUENCE

Young wasn’t influenced by an earlier tenor sax player, but by Frankie Trambauer from Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. FT played C-Melody Sax, the main sax played in the 1920s and pitched between alto and tenor.

BLUES

DB Blues is a Lester Young original you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer from a 1945 ‘Jubilee’ Armed Forces Radio broadcast.

Drafted into the army in 1944, Young was caught with marijuana and alcohol and dishonourably discharged. He was held in a DB ‘dentention barracks’ for one trauma filled year.

SOLO

Alcoholism, with symptoms of malnutriton and liver disease, affected his playing in the 1940s and 1950s, but there were also many moments of brilliance.

The most famous, which you can find online in an earlier Phantom Dancer, is his economic and emotive solo on ‘Fine and Mellow’, backing Billie Holliday in an all-star band on the CBS TV special, ‘The Sound of Jazz’.

VIDEO

Lester Young and that famous Lester Young solo on ‘The Sound of Jazz’, CBS TV, in 1957.

18 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #332
107.3 2SER Tuesday 18 September 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	Gus Arnheim 1931 Radio
Sweet and Lovely (theme) + You Don’t Need Glasses To See I’m In Love	Gus Arnheim Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
It’s The Girl	Gus Arnheim Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
I Got The Ritz From The One I Love + Sweet and Lovely (theme)	Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Loyce Whiteman	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Set 2	Modern Singers on 1950s Radio
Open + Blue Velvet	Arthur Prysock	‘Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY 9 Sep 1952
Open + Tenderly + The Nearness of You	Sarah Vaughan	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 21 May 1956
Happy Birthday + Send My Baby Back To Me + Close	Billy Eckstine	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY 8 Jul 1953
Set 3	Club Hangover 1954
Relaxin’ at the Trouro + Senstation Rag	Muggsy Spanier	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 27 Nov 1954
Flying Home	Earl Hines	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 30 Jan 1954
Dardenella + Checkin’ With Chuck (theme)	Ralph Sutton	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 24 Jul 1954
Set 4	Lester Young
DB Blues	Lester Young	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 22 Apr 1956
Call Me Darling	Count Basie Orchestra, Lester Young (ts) Thelma Capenter (voc)	V-Disc New York City 27 May 1944
Polkadots and Moonbeams	Lester Young	‘Bandstand USA’ Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual NY 22 Dec 1956
Set 5	Headline Women Singers on 1940s Radio
The Starlit Hour	Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra (voc) EF	Savoy Ballroom WEAF NBC Red NY 26 Feb 1940
Honeysuckle Rose	Lena Horne (voc) Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Aintcha Ever Comin’ Back?	Peggy Lee (voc) Paul Weston Orchestra	‘Peggy Lee Show’ KNX CBS LA 1947
It Had To Be You + Close	Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944
Set 6	Cotton Club
Oh, Babe! Maybe Someday	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 24 Mar 1938
I’m Slappin’ on Seventh Avenue + Lost In Meditation	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 22 May 1938
The Gal From Joe’s + Riding on a Blue Note	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 1 May 1938
East St Louis Toodle-oo + Jig Walk + In a Sentimental Mood	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 8 May 1938
Set 7	1937 Radio
I’d Do Anything For You	Seger Ellis and his Choirs of Brass	Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Pennies from Heaven	Mills Brothers	‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Johnny One Note	Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Skinnay Ennis	‘Chesterfield Show’ WABC CBS NY 1937
Blue Skies + Closing	George Hall Orchestra	Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Set 8	Bop Big Bands on Radio
Oo-Pop-A-Da	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Winter Palace Radio Sweden Stockholm 2 Feb 1948
Belvedere Bop	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	‘Symphony Sid Show’ WMCA NY 12 Mar 1949
Serenade in Sulphur-8	Slim Gaillard	‘Symphony Sid Show’ WJZ ABC NY 7 Jul 1951

Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm – Phantom Dancer Swing Radio Mix 14 Aug 2018

Keys to success in popular music include a compelling back story that informs the music preferably with a rags to riches theme, a catchy name and/or a gimmick.

Shep Fields found fame almost as soon as he found the latter. And changing his name from Saul Feldman to the catchier Shep Fields also would have helped.

Shep Field is the feature artist on today’s Phantom Dancer. He was so popular and internationally famous even the Australian swing band of Wally Portingale included him in a song for their ‘All In Fun Revue’.

WHAT’S THE PHANTOM DANCER?

Excellent question young Harry. It’s your non-stop mixtape of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio. And it’s been live-to-air on 107.3 2SER Sydney, Tuesdays 12:04 – 2pm, since 1985.

The Phantom Dancer is then re-broadcast on 22 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online.

In fact, you’ll be able to hear this week’s Phantom Dancer on 2ser.com online after the show. And there’s a stack of past Phantom Dancer swing jazz mix tapes for you to enjoy there as well.

THIS WEEK’S PHANTOM DANCER MIX

– has a set of ‘Women in Jazz’ introduced by jazz writer Leonard Feather for the Voice of America in 1951, we go free form with John Coltrane over WCBS-FM in 1965 and there’s the Shep Fields feature.

See the full play list below….

SHEP FIELDS

was a Swing Era U.S musician and band leader. He found fame by incorporating a simple idea into his music.

This week’s Phantom Dancer video, below, is a 1930s dramatisation of the eureka moment the idea struck. But here’s how the story goes for those of you not into film.

UP THE LADDER

Shep played clarinet and tenor saxophone in bands while at university. He played in a band at the prestigious Roseland Ballroom in 1931. In 1933 he was leading a band in that great proving ground for New York musicians and comedians in the 1930s and 1940s – the Borscht Belt. Next year he replaced the Jack Denny Orchestra in a residency at Hotel Pierre in New York City. He left that gig to back the dancers Veloz and Yolanda on a tour. 1936 found him in Chicago, with a contract to play at the Palmer House with radio broadcasts from that same spot included.

EUREKA!

Now he had come this far, the question was, how could he distinguish himself sufficiently from all the other dance band on the air and on stage to move to the next level of ‘name band’.

The inspiration came when he and his wife were sitting in a milk bar. Mrs Fields was blowing bubbles into her soft drink through a straw.

Eureka! Shep decided there and then that bubbling sound was what would introduce his band over the air. This moment was dramatised in a short film for cinema release in the late 1930s.

A BRAND IS BORN

Fields staged a contest amongst his fans in Chicago to suggest a new name for his band with the new sound.

The word ‘rippling’ came up in a number of entries. Fields himself came up with ‘Rippling Rhythm.’ And so a brand was born.

IDENTITY

That same year, 1936, with brand in place and signature sound, Shep Fields landed a record deal with the popular Bluebird label. His hits for this famous jazz record company included ‘Cathedral in the Pines’, ‘Did I Remember?’ and ‘Thanks for the Memory’.

In 1937 Fields had his own radio show, ‘The Rippling Rhythm Revue’ with comedian Bob Hope, whose theme song was ‘Thanks for the Memory’ as announcer.

In 1938, Fields and Hope were featured together in the comedian’s first feature movie, The Big Broadcast of 1938.

Today’s Phantom Dancer will feature 1930s radio transcriptions of Shep Field’s Rippling Rhythm Orchestra in the final vinyl hour. In a 1940 radio transcription you’ll hear singer Hal Derwin who later became a band leader in his own right.

ALL REEDS

Shep Fields dropped his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra in 1941 for a bold experiment, an all-reeds orchestra with rhythm section and no brass called Shep Fields and His New Music.

We’ll hear his New Music in a radio transcription from 1942.

Though the critics liked it, the public wanted Rippling Rhythm.

And with the popularity of the big bands declining after World War Two, Fields bowed to the public pressure of declining New Music ticket sales. In 1947 he re-launched his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra.

He had already brought his own venue to guarentee bookings and radio airtime, the prestigious Glen Island casino in New Rochelle, New York, which is where the opening track in this week’s Shep Field set originates.

The Rippling Rhythm Orchestra lasted until 1963. That year, Shep Fields quit band leading to be a radio disc jockey in Houston. When that ended, he worked at Creative Management Associates with his brother Freddie Fields in Los Angeles.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

It’s Shep Fields and his New Music with the ‘soundie’ The Whistler’s Mother-in-Law. Happy viewing!

31 JULY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #327
107.3 2SER Tuesday 14 August 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	1944 Swing Bands
It’s Mellow	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Tune Town Ballroom AFRS Re-broadcast St Louis 5 Apr 1944
Swinging on a Star	Bob Chester Orchestra (voc) Betty Bradley and David Allyn	‘One Night Stand’ Panther Room Hotel Sherman, Chicago AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Oct 1944
When I Get It + Blue Lou	Harry James Orchestra lead by Tommy Dorsey	Casino Garden Ocean Park Ca KECA ABC LA 12 Aug 1944
Set 2	Coltrane
My Favourite Things	John Coltrane	Half Note Club WCBS-FM CBS NY 26 Mar 1965
Set 3	Famous Singers
Eleg Volt Nekem Magabol (I’ve Had Enough of You)	Karady Katalin	Comm Rec Budapest 1943
Song of the Wanderer	Helen Humes (voc) Count Basie Orchestra	Aircheck 1939
Taking a Chance on Love	Ethel Waters	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 17 Jul 1945
Set 4	Women in Jazz 1951
Boogie Mysterioso	Mary Lou Williams with Mary Osbourne (elec g)	‘Jazz Club USA’ Voice of America New York City 1951
Mary’s Guitar Boogie	Mary Osbourne	‘Jazz Club USA’ Voice of America New York City 1951
Low Ceiling	Beryl Booker with Mary Osbourne (elec g)	‘Jazz Club USA’ Voice of America New York City 1951
Set 5	Shep Fields Feature
Rippling Rhythm (theme) + My Future Just Passed	Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm Orchestra (voc) Toni Arden	Glen Island Casino New Rochelle NY Aircheck 1947
Heavenly, Isn’t It?	Shep Fields and his New Music	Radio Transcription New York City 1943
One Never One, Does One?	Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm Orchestra (voc) Robert Goday	Radio Transcription New York City 1937
Let There Be Love	Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm Orchestra (voc) Hal Derwin	Radio Transcription New York City 1940
Set 6	Sweet Bands on 1960s Radio
Open	Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians	New York World’s Fair WCBS CBS NY 1964
Auld Lang Syne + Let’s Do It Again	Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians	Grill Room Hotel Taft WNBC NBC NY 1 Jan 1970
Blue, Blue My Heart Is Blue	Russ Morgan Orchestra	Top of the Strip Dunes Hotel KLAV Las Vegas NV 19 Jul 1969
Medley	Jan Garber Orchestra	Lady Luck Lounge Desert Inn KLAC Las Vegas NV 4 Jul 1965
Set 7	Ray Noble’s American Orchestra
The Very Thought of You (theme) + Flowers for Madame	Ray Noble’s American Orchestra	‘Coty Hour’ Radio City WEAF NBC Red NY 13 Mar 1935
Irving Berlin Songs	Ray Noble’s American Orchestra	‘The Magic Key of RCA’ Radio City WEAF NBC Red NY 9 Feb 1936
Set 8	New Jazz on 1949 – 51 Radio
Perdido + Tiny’s Blues	Terry Gibbs All-Stars	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 1951
Move	Stan Getz	‘Modern Jazz Concert’ Carnegie Hall NY Voice of America 25 Dec 1949

8 May 2018 Phantom Dancer – He Knew He Wanted To Be A Professional Musician By Age 16

Tenor sax man Charlie Barnet knew what he wanted from a very early age. In fact, he was playing professionally by the age of 16. Then at 18 he went to New York to talk the CBS Artist Bureau into booking him as an orchestra leader. We hear some of this determined teenager’s orchestras from 1930s-40s airchecks on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

The Phantom Dancer is produced and presented every Tuesday by authentic 1920s-30s-style singer and actor, Greg Poppleton .

It’s your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV. On air since 1985!

The Phantom Dancer is recorded live-to-air at 107.3 2SER Sydney, Tuesdays 12:04 – 2pm. It’s re-broadcast on 22 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online.

Online, this week’s Phantom Dancer will be available for your listening pleasure after the 2SER broadcast, Tuesday 8 May. Go to 2ser.com to listen.

You’ll also find plenty of past Phantom Dancers to enjoy online, too.

THIS WEEK’S PHANTOM DANCER MIX

– includes two Australian dance bands – Jim Davidson and his New Palais Royal Orchestra and Frank Coughlan’s Trocadero Orchestra .There are also sets by Lee Konitz in 1954 from WHDH Boston, live jazz from 1962 radio on WNEW NY and WBBM Chicago, a set of trad from WMGM New York’s 1950-51 ‘Doctor Jazz’ series (after being asked for a version of Doctor Jazz during last week’s show) and, of course, the Charle Barnet set. See the full play list below.

CHARLIE BARNET

Born Charles Daly Barnet, Charlie Barnet was a U.S orchestra leader, sax player and composer. Important to his overall ‘fun’ band leading attitude was that he was a person of means. He was heir to his grandfather’s fortune, the New York Central Railway vice-president and banker, Charles Frederick Daly. His family wanted him to be a lawyer. He chose music.

Barnet had worked for one of the many franchise bands of the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, on of the most famous U.S bands of the late 1920s by the age of 16. He then left for New York to play tenor sax in Frank Winegar’s Pennsylvania Boys before trying his luck as an extra in Hollywood films.

Late in 1932 at the age of 18 he returned to New York City and talked a contact at the CBS artist’s bureau to book him as an orchestra leader.

INFATUATION

His 1930s orchestras were numerous and short-lived. But they were also musically interesting as you can hear in the 1934 recording below, ‘Infatuation’, which is your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week.

Barnet got his first recording contract in 1933 during an engagement at New York’s Park Central Hotel.

He was always into ‘hot music’ and he was an early adapter of Swing.

RAN OUT OF TOWN

While playing swing at New Orlean’s Roosevelt Hotel in 1935, he earned the ire of conservative governor Huey Long who hated the new sound. Long set up a sting, luring the band to a brothel then having it raided so the band could be ‘run out of town’.

Barnet got a number of his now unemployed band members into Joe Haymes Orchestra (soon to be taken over by Tommy Dorsey) and then headed off for a jaunt in Havana escorting a well off, older woman.

His 1936 orchestra included the new vocal harmony quartet, ‘The Modernaires’ though that band soon shut up shop, too. ‘The Modernaires’ were later and famously associated with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. At this time, Charlie Barnet was one of the first to integrate his band.

He was a big fan of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He championed Duke Ellington tunes in his orchestra and Ellington recorded Barnet’s ‘In A Mizz’.

GO TO BLAZES

When Charlie Barnet lost all his band charts in the 1938 Los Angeles Palomar Ballroom fire, Count Basie lent him charts.

His 1939 band was catapaulted into the big time with the release of his recording of the Ray Noble song (from his Indian Suite), Cherokee.

He had a second big hit on 1944 with ‘Skyliner’. ‘Skyliner’ was used as the theme music for the late 1940s US Armed Forces Network program ‘Midnight In Munich’ broadcast from AFN Munich.

Other major recordings include ‘Scotch and Soda’, ‘In a Mizz’, ‘The Right Idea’, ‘The Wrong Idea’ and Southland Shuffle’.

STARS

Barnet switched from Swing to Bop in 1947. Barnet’s swing band included such names as Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Billy May, Neal Hefti, Lena Horne, Barney Kessel, Dodo Marmorosa and Oscar Pettiford.

His later bands had Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen and Clark Terry.

He ‘retired’ in 1949, claiming to have lost interest in music, though he continued to lead an orchestra and was broadcast on radio into the 1960s.

Charlie Barnet was married 11 times. His last marriage lasted 33 years.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

As your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week, an early Charlie Barney record from his short-lived 1934 band, the weird ‘Infatuation’

8 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #316 107.3 2SER Tuesday 8 May 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 22 other stations. Set 1 Swing Bands on ‘One Night Stand’ Theme + Murder at Peyton Hall Charlie Barnet Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jan 1947 Tea For Two (voc) Carolyn Gray Gene Krupa Orchestra (voc) Carolyn Gray ‘One Night Stand’ Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 31 Mar 1946 9:20 Special + Minnie the Moocher (theme) Cab Calloway Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ New Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast Jul 1945 Set 2 Jazz on Live 1962 Radio Algiers Bounce + Lady Be Good Henry ‘Red’ Allen London House WBBM CBS Chicago 30 Mar 1962 Cuckoo + Two O’Clock Jump Harry James Orchestra Moon Bowl Freedomland WNEW NY Mar 1962 The Price Is Right Henry ‘Red’ Allen London House WBBM CBS Chicago 30 Mar 1962 Set 3 1937 Theme + Hey, Hey Your Cares Away Kay Kyser Orchestra (voc) Sully Mason Trianon Ballroom MBS Chicago 25 Mar 1937 Jamboree Frank Coughlan Trocadero Orchestra (voc) Frank Coughlan Featuradio Transcription Sydney June 1937 Time Out For Love Joe Sanders Orchestra (voc) Joe Sanders Blackhawk Restaurant MBS Chicago 25 Mar 1937 Set 4 Doctor Jazz Struttin’ With Some Barbeque Hot Lips Page ‘Doctor Jazz’ Stuyvesant Casino WMGM NY 1951 Sheik of Araby Eddie Condon Group ‘Doctor Jazz’ Eddie Condon’s WMGM NY 1951 Ride, Red, Ride Red Allen ‘Dixielanders’ ‘Doctor Jazz’ Stuyvesant Casino WMGM NY 1951 Set 5 1940 Mickey Mouse Band Radio Transcriptions Let There Be Love Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra (voc) Hal Derwin Radio Transcription New York City 1940 These Things You Left Me Chuck Foster Orchestra (voc) Dorothy Brandon Radio Transcription Hollywood 1940 At Long Last Love Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Charlie Fisher Radio Transcription New York City 1940 Pinch Me Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Ennis Radio Transcription Hollywood 1940 Set 6 Charlie Barnet Orchestra Ya Got Me Charlie Barnet Orchestra Comm Rec New York City oct 1938 Theme + Back In Your Own Backyard Charlie Barnet Orchestra ‘Spotlight Bands’ Fort Devon Mass Mutual Network 15 Oct 1945 The Victory Walk Charlie Barnet Orchestra Aircheck New York City 1942 In There Charlie Barnet Orchestra ‘Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood Feb 1944 Set 7 Early 1930s dance Bands Forty-Second Street Jim Davidson New Palais Orchestra Comm Rec Sydney 6 Jun 1933 Theme + is That Religion? Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby Riviera Fort Lee NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Sep 1934 Dancing With Tears In My Eyes Ruth Etting (voc) Ben Selvin Orchestra ‘Columbia Tele-Focal Show’ Radio Transcription New York City 1930 Somebody Loves You + Close Ben Selvin Orchestra ‘Davis Musical Moments Show’ Radio Transcription New York City 1932 Set 8 Lee Konitz 1954 Radio Open + Hi Beck Lee Konitz Storyville Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 5 Jan 1954 Subconscious Lee Lee Konitz Storyville Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 5 Jan 1954

10 April New Listen Welcome Phantom Dancer – Symphony Sid, Bop DJ

“Dean took the wheel and drove clear the rest of the way to New York, and we began to hear the Symphony Sid show on the radio with all the latest bop, and now we were entering the great and final city of America.” (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, pt. 3, ch. 11)

Ah yes, we’ll be hearing some of those broadcasts from the ‘all-night, all-frantic one’, Symphony Sid, on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

NEW LISTENER WELCOME DRIVE

2SER is listener supported community radio. It relies on volunteers and your listener subscriptions to stay on air. Hence the Welcome Drive.

Support 2SER NOW. Phone 02 9514 9500 or go online to subscribe or donate

This week you’ll also hear some early rock’n’roll airchecks from the 1950s, Jack Teagarden and his Trad band from Club Hangover over KCBS San Francisco (in particular Saint James Infirmary which has been requested), a set of Martha Tilton singing in front of Benny Goodman’s Orchestra over CBS in January and February 1939 and a whole lot more.

See the full play list below.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV. It’s made in the studios of 2SER in Sydney. The Phantom Dancer is heard across Australia on stations of the Community Radio Network.

The Phantom Dancer is produced and presented by Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s-style singer and band leader, Greg Poppleton.

Hear this week’s Phantom Dancer (and past Phantom Dancers online) at radio 2ser.com

Greg Poppleton music website.

SYMPHONY SID

Born Sidney Tarnopol, which he shortened to Sid Torin, Symphony Sid was a DJ and bop promoter, credited with introducing bebop to the mass audience. He did this by co-producing ‘modern progressive jazz concerts’, as he called them, from 1945, but mainly through his radio show, the all-night, all-frantic Symphony Sid show.

Symphony Sid introducing Charlie Parker

Listening to many Symphony Sid airchecks, it seemed the show ran on WMCA New York from 1948-49, and then on the flagship New York ABC station, WJZ, until 1953, from midnight to 5pm Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Symphony Sid championed what he called ‘the finest in modern progressive jazz’. And as we’ll hear today, he also championed latin music by Machito and others, and he also hosted gospel radio shows not much later in his career when he moved from New York to Boston. At the end of his radio career in Miami, he was an influential Latin DJ and hosted live latin music on WBUS.

His show was a DJ show, where he’d spin records and listeners could call in Circle 6-2500 (WMCA) or Circle 6-4343 (WJZ), “guess the ‘gone’ side,” and make requests.

Then from 3:03am to 4, the show broadcast live bop (mostly) from The Royal Roost nightclub, and then from Birdland.

Sid would make the live introductions in a ‘flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants’ style: a little bit dope-addled perhaps, sometimes forgetting names, sometimes covering for time with an impromptu interview, but always conversational and hipster.

Bandleaders who played these early morning shows included Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, Dinah Washington, Terry Gibbs, Lester Young, Machito, Charlie Ventura, Dave Brubeck, Chubby Jackson and Slim Gaillard.

Being on the Symphony Sid Show gave huge exposure to musicians. Some wrote tribute songs to him. ‘Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid’, which became his radio theme, was written by Lester Young with lyrics added later by King Pleasure. It was a hit in 1950 for the George Shearing Quintet. Illinois Jacquet wrote ‘Symphony in Sid’. Louis Jordan’s song, ‘After School Swing Session’ had the added title, ‘Swinging With Symphony Sid’.

“[Symphony Sid] is probably the greatest middleman jazz has ever known. A broadcaster for 35 years, once billed as ‘the all-night, all-frantic one’, he was the man to listen to in the forties, fifties and sixties if you wanted to know what was happening in jazz.”— Leslie Gourse, New York Times.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week is a short aircheck of Symphony Sid introducing the live portion of on eof his 1948 WMCA shows from The Royal Roost. He introduces the Tadd Dameron small group. Enjoy…

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #310 107.3 2SER Tuesday 10 April 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 22 other stations. Set 1 1940s Pop Radio Theme + I Haven’t Got a Worry in the World Griff Williams Orchestra Empire Room Palmer House WGN Chicago 5 Mar 1947 Am I Blue? + Taking a Chance on Love Ethel Waters ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 17 Jul 1945 Twilight Time + Close Dean Hudson Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Blue Room Hotel Lincoln New York City AFRS Re-broadcast 11 Nov 1944 Set 2 Modern Progressive Jazz on Radio Ol’ Man BeBop Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra AFRS Radio Transcription Hollywood 1946 No, No, Chi-Chi, No! Machito (voc) Gracie Graziella and Band ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 1951 Francesca + Artistry in Rhythm (theme) Stan Kenton Orchestra ‘Concert in Miniature’ Hampton Casino Hampton Beach NH WBZ NBC Boston 21 Jul 1953 Set 3 Rock’n’Roll Open + Straight Life King Porter ‘Burgie Big Beat’ KNX CBS LA 1956 Ad + But I Don’t Care Sid King and the Five Strings KTAE Taylor TX 1955 Flagwaver + Close Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor Big Band ‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NY 24 Jul 1956 Set 4 Jack Teagarden at Club Hangover Stardust on the Moon + Dear Old Southland Jack Teagarden Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 7 May 1954 Stomp, Mr Henry Lee Jack Teagarden Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 17 Apr 1954 Lazy River + I Got a Right to Sing the Blues (theme) Jack Teagarden Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 30 Apr 1954 Set 5 Martha Tilton Sings with Benny Goodman 1939 Hurry Home Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra ‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 3 Jan 1939 Gotta Get Some Shuteye Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra ‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 7 Feb 1939 I Have Eyes Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra ‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 10 Jan 1939 Sweet Little Headache Martha Tilton (voc) Benny Goodman Orchestra ‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 14 Feb 1939 Set 6 1950s Radio Swing Bands Blue Flame (theme) + Hollywood Blues Woody Herman Orchestra Blue Room Hotel Roosevelt WWL CBS New Orleans 1951 Hob Nail Boogie Count Basie Orchestra Birdland WNBC NBC NY 31 Aug 1952 Flager’s Drive Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WCBS CBS NY 1 Jan 1956 Summertime Claude Thornhill Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Aug 1956 Set 7 Sing-a-long Tunes with Blue Barron Heart and Soul Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Russ Carlyle Radio Transcription New York City 1938 You’re The Only Star In My Blue Heaven Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Russ Carlyle and the Glee Club Radio Transcription New York City 1938 Scatterbrain Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Charlie Fisher Radio Transcription New York City 1939 You Are My Sunshine Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Russ Carlyle Radio Transcription New York City 1940 Set 8 Symphony Sid Show Intro + Blue ‘n’ Boogie Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 31 Mar 1951 Symphony Sid live ad Symphony Sid ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 4 Sep 1948 I’m Glad There’s You Charlie Ventura Group (voc) Jackie Cain Birdland WABC ABC NY 7 Nov 1958 Symphony Sid live ad Symphony Sid ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 18 Sep 1948 How High The Moon Lester Young (voc) Ella Fitzgerald Royal Roost WMCA NY 27 Nov 1948

27 March Phantom Dancer – Bunny Berigan and How Disease Effects Legacy

It never ceases to amaze me how disease can over-shadow the brilliant legacy of a person’s life. How much ‘expert’ blather was there about Stephen Hawking’s motor neurone disease as an excuse to avoid explaining and understanding his discoveries in physics? It’s belittling and disrespectful.

Louis Armstrong’s favourite trumpet player was Bunny Berigan. We’ll be hearing radio broadcasts by Bunny Berigan on this week’s The Phantom Dancer.

Even today, seventy years after his death, he is still considered to have been one of the top trumpet players in jazz.

But what I find additionally interesting is how his legacy has been marred by the alcoholism that affected the inventiveness of his playing in the latter part of his short thirty-three years and which ultimately killed him through cirrhosis of the liver.

On this week’s Phantom Dancer you’ll also hear a set of live vintage radio by Dave Brubeck, Jack Teagarden and women singers with their own radio shows – Lee Wiley, Peggy Lee, Dinah Show and Mildred Bailey.

 

THE PHANTOM DANCER is two hours of non-stop swing and jazz mixed from live 1920s – 1960s radio and TV by Greg Poppleton, Australia’s only authentic 1920s-1930s singer www.gregpoppletonmusic.com

Broadcast 12:04pm Tuesdays 107.3 2SER Sydney then over 22 radio stations and online.

HEAR The Phantom Dancer live-streamed and afterwards online on the Radio 2SER website. http://www.2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

HOW DISEASE EFFECTS LEGACY

When jazz musicians talk about Bunny Berigan, his alcoholism always comes up.

‘What might have been had he not drank?’, is usually the most positive musing. But to me, from a music perspective, his illness should have no bearing on his legacy. Surely it’s his trumpet playing and technique that’s important, the music played, the songs composed, the landmark recordings made. Louis Armstrong praised Bunny Berigan’s trumpet sound and jazz ideas both before and after Berigan’s death.

I have known jazz musicians, world-touring, who’ve died after long illnesses. They kept their illnesses private, performing to the very end. Even though everyone knew they were terminally ill, the particulars of their illnesses were never discussed. These musicians had the luxury and the determination to never be defined by their disease. Nowadays, when people talk about them, they talk about their music, the good times and their positive legacy. How they died, their disease, and their substance abuse (in one case) are irrelevancies.

However, other jazz musicians I have known, have had deaths after long, debilitating illnesses during which time it was impossible to perform. Others have died suddenly – a heart attack, an overdose, a bleed. Always, these musicians are discussed in terms of their deaths, their creative life work overshadowed by the fabula of their failing health or their fatal surprise.

I guess it’s easier to talk about sickness and death than music. The musical process is a specialist field. Feeling poorly and falling off the perch is something on which everyone has an expert opinion.

BUNNY BERIGAN…
…was the stage name of Roland Bernard Berigan.

He composed, sang, and most famously was a brilliant trumpet player. Of his compositions, we’ll hear a live recording of one, ‘Chicken and Waffles’, from a live 1936 radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

He was best known for his virtuoso jazz trumpeting. His 1937 classic recording of a song from a flop music, ‘I Can’t Get Started’ (which we’ll also hear in two live 1930s versions on this week’s Phantom Dancer) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975. ‘I Can’t Get Started’ was Berigan’s radio theme when he launched his own band in 1937.

Bunny Berigan had learnt violin and trumpet and was playing in local bands by his mid-teens. In 1930 he joined the Hal Kemp Orchestra and soon came to notice. He became a sought-after studio musician in New York as well as playing in the orchestras of Freddy Rich, Freddy Martin, Ben Selvin, Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman. In fact, Goodman’s manager only got ‘that ace drummer man’ Gene Krupa to join the band by telling him Berigan was already on board.

After leaving Goodman, Berigan began to record regularly under his own name and to back singers such as Bing Crosby, Mildred Bailey, and Billie Holiday. We’ll hear him this week with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in early 1937. His solo on ‘Marie’ became one of his signature performances. We’ll hear a 1940 radio version. And, of course, a critic describing Berigan’s trumpet on the 1940 show had to bring up his alcoholism.

After leaving Goodman, Berigan began to record regularly under his own name and to back singers such as Bing Crosby, Mildred Bailey, and Billie Holiday. We’ll hear him this week with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in early 1937. His solo on ‘Marie’ became one of his signature performances. We’ll hear a 1940 radio version. And, of course, a critic describing Berigan’s trumpet on the 1940 show had to bring up his alcoholism.

MUSICAL ADVICE FROM BERIGAN
And instrumentalists PLEASE TAKE NOTE. There’s nothing more irritating to a singer than an instrumentalist taking too much air during the singer’s solo, or cramping the singer’s freedom of expression by trying to steer the improvisation…

Your Phantom Dancer Bunny Berrigan singing and playing trumpet on ‘Until Today’ with Freddy Rich’s Orchestra in 1936 . Enjoy!

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #308 107.3 2SER Tuesday 20 March 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 22 other stations. Set 1 Swing on 1940s Radio Theme + Girl of My Dreams Randy Brooks Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 17 Nov 1945 K.C. Caboose + Are You Happy? John Kirby Sextet ‘One Night Stand’ Aquarium Restaurant NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 18 Jul 1944 They Didn’t Believe Me + Blue Moon (Close) Eliot Lawrence Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Roseland Ballroom NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Jul 1945 Set 2 Big Bands on 1950s Radio Theme + I’m Walking Johnny Richards Orchestra ‘ABC Dancing Party’ Birdland WABC ABC NYC 1957 If I Had You Ted Heath Orchestra ‘International Bandstand’ London NBC/BBC 2 Mar 1959 It’s All In The Game Ray Anthony Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania AFRS Re-broadcast 1952 Set 3 Bing Crosby Radio Open + Pistol Packin’ Mama Bing Crosby ‘Kraft Music Hall’ KFI NBC LA 16 Dec 1943 Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra Bing Crosby ’Philco Radio Time’ KECA ABC LA 19 Nov 1947 Ukulele Lady + Green Grow The Lilacs + Close Bing Crosby + Rosemary Clooney (2nd song) ’Bing Crosby-Rosemary Clooney Show’ KNX CBS LA 19 Oct 1961 Set 4 Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street Open + Dixieland One-Step Henry Levine Octet ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 1 Sep 1941 O Sussanah Diane Courtney ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 1 Sep 1941 Cheery-Beery-Bee The Tune Toppers ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 1 Sep 1941 Dangerous Mood Paul Lavalle Woodwinds ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 1 Sep 1941 Set 5 Trombonist Jack Teagarden Announcer’s Blues Paul Whiteman Orchestra ‘Paul Whiteman’s Music Varieties’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 19 jan 1936 Mr Jessie Jack Teagarden Orchestra Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 22 Nov 1941 You Took Advantage of Me + Tea For Two + Close The Three T’s (Jack and Charlie Teagarden and Frank Trambauer) Hickory House WEAF NBC Red NY 9 Dec 1936 (1936 Home Recording) Wolverine Blues + Close Jack Teagarden Orchestra Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Chicago 27 Dec 1941 Set 6 Women Singers With Their Own Radio shows Somebody Loves Me Peggy Lee ‘Peggy Lee Show’ KNX CBS LA 1947 Beg Your Pardon Dinah Shore ‘Dinah Shore Show’ KNX CBS LA 4 May 1948 Too Good To Be True Lee Wiley ‘Lee Wiley Sings’ WABC CBS NY 1 Jul 1936 Summertime Mildred Bailey ‘Mildred Bailey Show’ WABC CBS NY 12 Jan 1945 Set 7 Bunny Berigan I Can’t Get Started (theme) + Organ Grinder’s Swing Bunny Berigan Orchestra ‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription New York City 1937 I Can’t Get Started (theme) + Ay, Ay, Ay Bunny Berigan Orchestra Manhattan Centre WNEW NY 26 Sep 1939 Marie Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (Bunny Berigan tp feature) Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WABC CBS NY 9 Mar 1940 Runnin’ Wild + Chicken and Waffles Bunny Berigan Orchestra ‘Saturday Night Swing Club’ WABC CBS NY 31 Oct 1936 Set 8 Dave Brubeck This Can’t Be Love Dave Brubeck Aircheck Jan 1954 The Song Is For You Dave Brubeck Basin Street WCBS CBS NY Mar 1957 Stardust Dave Brubeck ‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY Dec 1953 All The Things You Are Dave Brubeck Basin Street WCBS CBS NY Feb 1956