Greg Poppleton sings the 1925 hit, Dinah. Watch out for the Air Drum solo.
With Dave Clayton double bass and Air Drums, Grahame Conlon banjo, Damon Poppleton soprano sax.
Filmed live, Sat 18 January 2020.
Visit the band website for more Music & Bookings: https://www.gregpoppletonmusic.com
Greg Poppleton and band returned to the Transport Heritage Expo at Sydney’s Central Station today, Saturday 8 June. It’s their third year entertaining visitors with Tin Pan Alley songs from the 1920s and 1930s to fit the Heritage theme of vintage trains and buses.
Adding to the fun, fantastic and colourful swing dancers came along to dazzle with deft footwork as the band played. Thank you Sue Ann!
Greg Poppleton and band will be at the Transport Heritage Expo, Country Concourse at Central Station, Sunday 9 June and Monday 10 June, 10am – 2pm. Free! Dancers welcome. Band bookings: https://www.gregpoppletonmusic.com/contact
And go for a ride on the steam train, Sydney red rattler and the vintage double and single deck buses. The NSW Rail Museum will be operating steam train rides through the city from Central as part of the annual Transport Heritage Expo. It’s a fantastic nostalgic long weekend event for families and transport enthusiasts alike!
https://www.nswrailmuseum.com.au/
Here are some phots of the band, dancers and trains,
Band bookings: https://www.gregpoppletonmusic.com/contact
Two snaps of Greg Poppleton with his 1920s quartet.
We were playing at the birthday party of a famous artist, for whom we’ve had the great pleasure of playing before.
The party was in a house. It was a thrill to see so many guests on the dance floor.
Noise restrictions meant that the music volume had to be capped at 80 dB while playing to 160 guests in a reverberant space.
We pride ourselves at always playing at a volume where people can talk easily. Keeping to the restrictions while still being dynamic, musical and entertaining was easy and fun.
Enquiries – Have Greg Poppleton at your party – contact Tony Jex 61 2 9567 7171 | 04407 941 263
tony@ozmanagement.com
I took the film you see in the clip while walking between the towns of Kiama and Gerringong in New South Wales.
I saw this small herd sheltering from the hot sun under some small trees in the green, green grass.
I perched my pocket camera on the thickest branch of a bush and filmed them. It was a little bit breezy, so the branch swayed, hence the unsteady clip.
These cows look so contented!
Six months later, when I released this song in the album Back In Your Own Backyard, I chose the film to accompany this upbeat version of ‘Yes, I Have No Bananas’ because of the tension between the fast tempo of the song and the laid-back ‘tempo’ of the cows.
I also like that, to my not pitch-prefect ears, that where I placed the moos the cows make in the beginning of the mix, the note seems to be close to the same note as the banjo makes, just a bit flat and an octave down.
The song is in Bb. The cow is mooing in B very b
Greg Poppleton – 1920s vocals
Geoff Power – sousaphone, trumpet and trombone
Paul Furniss – alto sax and clarinet
Grahame Conlon – Spanish guitar
Lawrie Thompson – drums and washboard
Greg Poppleton‘s jazz deco swing quartet played the songs of the 1920s – 1930s today at Sydney’s Central Station.
We’re playing at Central all June Long Weekend (June 9, 10 and 11) for the Transport Heritage Expo.
I just realised as I write this that today is the 34th anniversary of my first radio broadcast. But that’s by-the-by.
Today, we were ‘Swing Dancer Bombed’ with dancers from Swing Patrol, Swingtime – Dance School, Shagaroo Collegiate Shag and Harbour City Hoppers!! At Central this Sun & Mon, too 10am-2pm.
Check out the video! Enjoy…
Your Greg Poppleton newsletter for the Merrie Month of May invites you to come and be merry with us…
SUNDAY 6 MAY
This is always a fun show.
Builders Club (The Basement), 61 Church St, Wollongong. 2-30-5-30pm. Free. 18+ only. (Restaurant, cafe, bar upstairs and free car park)
– with Grahame Conlon (guitar/banjo) & Dave Clayton (double bass)
SATURDAY & SUNDAY 12 / 13 MAY
Meantime, as an actor (not band related), I’m busy rehearsing for four massive ‘Wizards’ Brunch and Dinner shows being held in the gothic Great Hall and MacLaurin Hall at Sydney University. TICKETS AND MORE INFO
EVERY TUESDAY
There’s five live Phantom Dancer shows on 107.3 2SER radio for your listening pleasure this month. Every Tuesday, 12:04-2pm and any time online. See the 1 May play list below. LISTEN TO PAST SHOWS HERE
On Sunday, Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer, Greg Poppleton, returned with his Jazz Deco music to Sydney Rowing Club. And we’ll be back at there, Sunday 5 August.
Enjoy these photos from the Greg Poppleton Sydney Rowers show. And join the band Mailing List at the end of this article for the free monthly newsletter…
By the beautiful Parramatta River…
Australia’s only authentic 1920s – 1930s singer and band…
Cody and Lexie from All About Swing strutted their stuff on the dance carpet.
Other couples joined in when we went Latin with songs like Amapola, El Mansiero, Tea for Two and South of the Border.
Damon Poppleton…
Adam Barnard…
Dave Clayton, who also joined Greg in a vocal duet on ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas’.
Grahame Conlon…
Book Greg Poppleton for your club, special occasion and party.
Website: gregpoppleton.com
Email: tony@ozmanagement.com
Phone: 61 407 941 263
Greg Poppleton and his jazz deco 1920s-30s quartet had the great honour of being part of Marguerite and Andrew’s beautiful wedding reception at Seacliff in Gerringong.
It was especially touching to sing their especially meaningful requested song, ‘At Last’, as they made their entrance into the reception to family and friends.
Marguerite and Andrew chose the Greg Poppleton jazz deco quartet to play for their 1920s styled reception. And as the photographer said to me, “live music, well played, really lifts the vibe at a wedding. You can feel it.”
The Greg Poppleton band played 1920s instrumentals until dinner. Then Greg Poppleton, Australia’s only authentic 1920s – 1930s singer serenaded the party with songs from the Jazz Age.
Marguerite and Andrew asked Greg to sing, ‘At Last’, for when they entered the reception to huge whistles and applause.
“At last, my love has come along.
My lonely days are over, and life is like a song…”
‘At Last’ was introduced by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the 1941 movie, Sun Valley Serenade. Etta James later recorded the most famous version. Beyonce has also sung it in an Etta James tribute.
In Greg Poppleton’s jazz deco quartet were:
– Greg Poppleton, Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer
– Geoff Power, trumpet and sousaphone
– Dr Mark Pinner, clarinet, alto sax and baritone sax
– Grahame Conlon, guitar and banjo
The reception was held in the romantic Seacliff barn, overlooking Weeri Lagoon. Looking at Werri brought back happy memories for me of walking there from Kiama during a recent holiday with my family.
For those of you familiar with the NSW Southcoast, Seacliff is the stunning white farmhouse just at the Princes Highway turnoff into Gerringong.
Greg Poppleton booking enquiries:
Email: tony@ozmanagement.com | 0407 941 263
Web: gregpoppletonmusic.com
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!
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Yep, it was hot, hot, hot and windy at Jazz at the Pines in Dural today, music-wise and weather-wise.
It’s autumn here, but the temperature at today’s Greg Poppleton Jazz At The Pines show reached 40 celsius. That’s over 100 F.
The show was booked out. We learnt today from the organisers that Greg Poppleton is the most popular band that plays Jazz at the Pines. As always we play a mix of sings from the 1920s and 30s including some sung in German, Spanish and Italian.
We’ll be back at Jazz at the Pines, Sunday 19 March 2019. So Book Early.
But the weather was so hot and sunny, some people decided not to risk sunburn or heatstroke.
But under the shady pines, all was fine.
Thank you to everyone who made it and lasted the distance. We even had a couple of sound failures earlier on with the hot, gusty winds. Lucky my trusty 1920s megaphone and an opera trained voice provided all the vocal amplification until a wind-loosened cable to the speakers was fixed.
I took a picture of the band.
– Geoff Power trumpet and trombone
– Grahame Conlon guitar and banjo
– Ian Baker tuba
– Lawrie Thompson drums
I asked them to forgo the usual suit and ties. It was 40C after all.
Greg Poppleton is Australia’s only authentic 1920s – 30s singer. To book Greg for your event, contact Tony at OzManagement:
0407 941 263
info@ozmanagement.com
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 