Right now the band and I would have been playing the songs of the 1920s-30s at Penrith RSL. We look foward to the return of Saturday Swing afternoons when this emergency is over. Meanwhile, right now, at a Penrith RSL in a parallel, Covid19-free universe…
Penrith Jazz Show Photos 30 March 2019
A fun afternoon at Penrith RSL.
Songs from the 1920s and 30s by Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer.
Backed by a swinging trio of Grahame Conlon (guitar and banjo), Dave Clayton (double bass), and Bob Gillespie (drums)
We’ll be back at Penrith RSL, Saturday 27 July, 2-5pm. Free.
Here’s a trio of photos from today’s 30 March gig.
Book Greg Poppleton for you event. Contact
Victory Belles All-Women 1940s Radio Show – Phantom Dancer 19 March 2019
VICTORY BELLES
This week I’m thrilled to find for you on The Phantom Dancer with Greg Poppleton, a 1942 all-woman jazz show I played on the Phantom Dancer over ten years ago. The tape has re-surfaced. This week, enjoy the Victory Belles as your Phantom Dancer featured artists with the Bea Turpin Orchestra and singer Martha Mears (who sang White Christmas with Bing Crosby in the movie, Holiday Inn). See the full play list below.
PHANTOM DANCER
This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online immediately after the 12 March 2SER live mix at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney
BACKGROUND
Billboard, 13 Feb 1943 page 7 wrote,
“KNX-CBS is the only net here having an all-girl show. ‘Victory Belles’ uses an all girl ork and comedienne, with Mabel Todd filling the latter spot. Show is produced by Ona Munson. Billy Gould, sound effects, the only man on the program is forced to don Mother Hubbard wig – and cigar – to hold his job on this show.”
STORY
Jeannie Gayle Pool in her book, ‘Peggy Gilbert and Her All-Girl Band’ quotes Peggy Gilbert talking about the Victory Belle broadcasts,
“Ona Munson, who was a movie star, she was in Gone With The Wind, you remember? And she had quite a little reputation at that time as a star and she had her own show on CBS. She wanted an all-girl jazz orchestra on it and so we got together…There was actually no leader. A bunch of us just got together and said, “Here we are and this is it.” I was one of them and we were on that for a year. We had a weekly program. 1942, I think, right after the war started. We were at CBS in Hollywood. And what terrific audiences…they would bring fellows in from all over the place around here, in uniform, And it was just a terrific show. I loved it. The girls were such fine musicians. they would cut the stuff. They’d put the arrangements in front of us just before we went on. We’d be lucky if we had time to go through it before the show started. we’d talk through it, usually, and maybe go through a couple of parts of it. And then, away we’d go. Accompanying acts and doing our own thing.”
Side note: Munson introduced the song ‘You’re the Cream in My Coffee’ in the 1927 Broadway musical ‘Hold Everything’.
EIGHT JILLS OF JIVE
“We had some fine musicians. we had Jane Sager on trumpet; and we had Pee Wee [Naomi Preble] on trombone;…Katherine Cruise on first alto: I was on first tenor, clarinet and vibes; Dody Jeshke on drums and Bea Turpin on piano.”
There would have been a double bass player and singer.
VIDEO
This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is not the Victory Belles, but a breathtaking climb up the radio 2UW tower in Sydney, 1944. Happy clambering!
19 MARCH PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #377 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 19 March 2019 |
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Set 1
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Mod 1950s Radio | |
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Lover Come Back To Me
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Bud Powell
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Birdland
WJZ ABC NY 7 Feb 1953 |
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Cool Blues
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Charlie Parker
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‘Symphony Sid Show’
Hi Hat Club WCOP Boston |
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Indiana
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Lester Young
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‘Bandstand USA’
Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual NY 22 Dec 1956 |
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Set 2
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Duke Ellington 1942-47 Radio | |
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Feeling A Little Tomorrow Like I Feel Today
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Ciro’s Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Jul 1947 |
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I Wonder Why?
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Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Bette Roche
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Buffalo NY Blue Network 27 Nov 1943 |
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Poco + Take The A Train (theme)
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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El Patio Ballroom
Lakeside KLZ CBS Denver CO 15 Jul 1942 |
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Set 3
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Singin’ Sam | |
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Open + Ol’ King Cole
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Singing Sam
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Radio Transcription
New York City 1940 |
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What’s It Gonna Get Ya? + Hortence
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Singing Sam
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Radio Transcription
New York City 1940 |
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A Brownbird Singing + Close (Coca Cola Waltz)
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Singing Sam
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Radio Transcription
New York City 1940 |
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Set 4
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Women’s Radio ‘Victory Belles’ | |
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Open + Ten Little Soldiers
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Bea Turpin Eight Jills of Jive (voc) The Music Maids
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‘Victory Belles’
KNX CBS LA 12 Dec 1942 |
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When You And I Were Young, Maggie
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Bea Turpin Orchestra
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‘Victory Belles’
KNX CBS LA 12 Dec 1942 |
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When You And I Were Young, Maggie (voc) Mabel Todd
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Bea Turpin Orchestra
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‘Victory Belles’
KNX CBS LA 12 Dec 1942 |
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I Came Here To Talk For Joe
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Bea Turpin Orchestra (voc) Martha Mears
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‘Victory Belles’
KNX CBS LA 12 Dec 1942 |
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Set 5
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Bunny Berrigan 1934-36 Radio | |
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I Can’t Get Started (theme) + My Melancholy Baby
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Bunny Berrigan Orchestra
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Broadcast
mid-1939 |
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Moonshine over Kentucky and Heigh Ho
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Bunny Berrigan Orchestra
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Paradise Restaurant
WOR Mutual NY 3 May 1938 |
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Familiar Moe
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Bunny Berrigan Orchestra
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Trianon Ballroom
WCLE Cleveland OH 9 Apr 1939 |
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Deed I Do
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Bunny Berrigan Orchestra (voc) Bunny Berrigan
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Mutual Network
Boston 20 Sep 1939 |
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Set 6
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Billie HolidayRadio | |
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You Better Go Now
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Billie Holiday (voc) Percy Faith Orchestra
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‘Woolworth Hour’
KNX CBS LA 1954 |
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I Cover The Waterfront
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Billie Holiday
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Storyville
Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 29 Oct 1951 |
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I’ll Get By
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Billie Holiday
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NY 18 Jan 1944 |
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You’re Driving Me Crazy
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Billie Holiday
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Storyville
Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston Oct 1953 |
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Set 7
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1930s Radio Transcriptions | |
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I’ve Got You Under My Skin
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Red Nichols Orchestra (voc) The Songcopators
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Radio Transcription
NYC 30 Nov 1936 |
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Panama
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Hal Kemp Orchestra
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Radio Transcription
NYC 14 Dec 1934 |
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Never Should Have Told You
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Red Nichols Orchestra (voc) The Songcopators
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Radio Transcription
NYC 30 Nov 1936 |
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Blue Moon
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Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Bob Allen
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Radio Transcription
NYC 14 Dec 1934 |
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Set 8
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Dorsey Brothers 1956 Radio | |
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You Are My First Love
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Tommy Mercer
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Cafe Rouge
Hotel Statler WCBS CBS NY 1956 |
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I Could Have Danced All Night
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Dolly Houston
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Cafe Rouge
Hotel Statler WCBS CBS NY 1956 |
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Too Close For Comfort
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Tommy Mercer
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Cafe Rouge
Hotel Statler WCBS CBS NY 1956 |
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Too Young To Go Steady
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Dolly Houston
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Cafe Rouge
Hotel Stadtler WCBS CBS NY 1956 |
World’s First Electric Guitarist (1923) – Phantom Dancer Show 29 Jan 2018
FIRST ELECTRIC GUITARIST
On this week’s Phantom Dancer with Greg Poppleton we hear from the world’s first electric guitarist, Alvino Rey, at the peak of his popularity in 1942. He invented the world’s first amplified guitar at age 15 in 1923.
There’s also a set of Claude Hopkins 1935 radio transcriptions, a Duke Ellington extended work from live 1945 radio and much more live 1920s-60s radio swing and jazz.
PHANTOM DANCER
The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop swing and jazz mix of live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. I’ve been bringing you The Phantom Dancer on Radio 2SER, and now online, since 1985.
Hear this week’s Phantom Dancer (after 18 Dec) and past Phantom Dancers at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney
ALVINO REY
Was the stage name of big band leader, electronica and electric guitar pioneer, Alvin McBurney.
Alvin adopted the stage name in 1929 at the start of the Latin music craze in the U.S.
He wanted to be an electronics engineer and was an electronic genius as a kid.
He built his first radio at age 8, in 1916.
In the 1910s he had one of the first, and was the youngest, ham radio broadcaster.
STRINGY
Alvino was given a banjo as a child and then learnt guitar from age 12 in 1920, listening to records by Roy Smeck. At age 15, in 1923, Rey invented an electrical amplifier for the guitar but didn’t have it patented. He patented several later improvements.
Big Band historian, Christopher Popa, wrote about Rey’s early career in an interview he conducted with the World’s first electric guitarist,
“In 1927, Rey landed a job playing banjo with Cleveland bandleader Ev Jones.
“Yes, I joined the Union when I was 16,” he told me. “I went to Lakewood High School and from there I went to New York and never did come back.”
To capitalize on the popularity of Latin music in New York City during 1929, he added an “o” to his first name and changed his last name to “Rey,” which meant “the King” in Spanish.
He replaced banjoist Eddie Peabody with violinist Phil Spitalny, whose band was appearing at the Pennsylvania Hotel and was heard coast-to-coast over the radio.
“I spent two years in New York with Phil Spitalny and then went to California,” he recalled. “I joined Horace Heidt in San Francisco . . . he had a stage band, sort of like Fred Waring.”
Between 1934 and 1939, Rey was often featured on steel guitar with Heidt and became one of the best-known (and best-paid) sidemen in the country, thanks to Heidt’s weekly radio program.
“And there I met the King Sisters, and I married Luise, one of the sisters,” he reminisced.
Alvino Rey was the first to amplify the guitar.
“Well, that came about around 1930, when I was at NBC in San Francisco,” he explained to me. “And I’ve always been an electronic nut and I’ve been a ham operator and studied electronics. In fact, that was going to be my ambition, to be an electronics engineer, and I just applied the amplification of that to the guitar and string instruments.”
It brought a whole new sound to music.
“That was . . . before it was ever done, I believe. As far as I know, it was the first application to a string instrument,” he noted.
Ironically, some link it to rock and roll.
“Well, it got out of hand with a lot of the big rock groups who make so much racket with it. I didn’t intend it to be used with such volume. I used the idea just to be heard in a band, where the guitar — up until that time — was a soft, romantic background accompanying a singer. And after that, it became sort of an integral part of an orchestra.”
BIG BAND
In August 1939, Rey formed his first swing band with his amplified pedal steel guitar as the featured instrument.
An off-stage vocal microphone plugged into it with a Sonovox made it seem as though the guitar could talk.
That’s ‘Stringy the Guitar’, which you can see below in this week’s Phantom Dancer Video of the Week.
In 1942, Alvino was voted by music critics to be part of the Metronome All-Star Band as the top guitarist in the U.S.
He played in small groups from 1949, backing Elvis Presley in 1961 on Blue Hawaii.
He continued to perform on radio and TV and release albums into the 1980s.
VIDEO
This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is a 1940s soundy of ‘String the Guitar’ with Alvino Rey’s Orchestra.
29 JANUARY PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #372 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 29 January 2019 |
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Set 1
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1944-45 Radio Swing Bands | |
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Aukd Lang Syne (theme) + All My Love
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Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians (voc) Bill Flanagan
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‘One Night Stand’
Grill Room Hotel Roosevelt NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Oct 1950 |
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Full Moon and Empty Arms
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Buddy Morrow Orchestra (voc) Carl Denny
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‘One Night Stand’
Blue Room Hotel Lincoln NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 27 May 1946 |
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The Blizzard
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Louis Prima Orchestra
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‘One Night Stand’
Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jul 1946 |
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Set 2
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Sammy Kaye | |
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The Belmont Boogie
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Sammy Kaye Orchestra
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‘The Sammy Kaye Showroom’
Radio Transcription New York City 1950s |
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Remember Pearl Harbour
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Sammy Kaye Orchestra (voc) Trio
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Blue Network Washington DC 31 Jan 1942 |
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Sparking + Close
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Sammy Kaye Orchestra (voc) The Four Kaydettes
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‘The Sammy Kaye Showroom’
Radio Transcription New York City 1950s |
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Set 3
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Alvino Rey | |
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Open + Hindustan
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Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) Sparky the Guitar
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue New York City 28 Feb 1942 |
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Cash For Your Trash
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Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) Bonnie Rae
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue New York City 28 Feb 1942 |
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Deep in the Heart of Texas + Close
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Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) Band
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue New York City 28 Feb 1942 |
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Set 4
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Count Basie | |
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Station ID and Ads
|
Station Announcers
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KFWB
Warner Brothers Los Angeles 1946 |
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Ingin’ The Ooh
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Count Basie Nonet
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Comm Rec
Boston 7 Sep 1954 |
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Low Life
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Count Basie Orchestra
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‘All-Star Parade of Bands’
Birdland WRCA NBC NY 2 Jul 1956 |
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One O’Clock Jump + Kansas City Stride
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Count Basie Orchestra
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 27 May 1944 |
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Set 5
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Duke Ellington | |
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Excerpts from Black, Brown and Beige: The Work Song + Come Sunday
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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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‘A Date With The Duke’
400 Restaurant WJZ ABC NY 28 Apr 1945 |
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Candy
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Duke Ellington Orchestra (vic) Ray Nance
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‘A Date With The Duke’
400 Restaurant WJZ ABC NY 28 Apr 1945 |
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Set 6
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Claude Hopkins | |
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Chasing My Blues Away
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Claude Hopkins Orchestra
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Radio Transcription
New York City 1935 |
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The Traffic Was Terrific
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Claude Hopkins Orchestra (voc) Fred Norman
|
Radio Transcription
New York City 1935 |
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You Stayed Away Too Long
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Claude Hopkins Orchestra
|
Radio Transcription
New York City 1935 |
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Everybody Shuffle
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Claude Hopkins Orchestra (voc) Ovie Alston
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Radio Transcription
New York City 1935 |
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Set 7
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Jubilee Small Acts | |
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Trouble Trouble
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Betty Roche (voc) Benny Carter Orchestra
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Mad Monk
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Eddie South Trio
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Daddy-O
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Timmie Rogers
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Straighten Up and Fly Right
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Golden Gate Quartet
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Set 8
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Benny Goodman Small Groups | |
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Honeysuckle Rose
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Benny Goodman Quartet
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‘Camel Caravan’
WABC CBS NY 18 Jan 1938 |
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Three Little Words
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Benny Goodman Quintet
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Cornell University Blue Network 25 Sep 1943 |
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Stomping at the Savoy
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Benny Goodman Sextet
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‘Kings of Jazz’
BBC NYC 8 Dec 1945 |
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.
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
9 OCTOBER PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #336 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 October 2018 |
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Set 1
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Spotlight Bands 1945-46 Radio | |
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Open + Cool Breeze
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Buddy Rich Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Phoenixville PA AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Dec 1945 |
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I’ll Never Be The Same
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Charlie Venyura (ts) Gene Krupa Orchestra
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 1946 |
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Dark Eyes + Close
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George Olsen Music (voc) Judith Blair, Sherman Hayes and Chorus
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‘Spotlight Bands’
Waukegan, Ill. Blue Network 17 Mar 1945 |
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Set 2
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Your Hit Parade | |
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Open + So Long As You’re Not In Love With Anyone Else + Brazil
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Mark Warnow Orchestra (voc) Barry Woods and The Hit Paraders
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‘Your Hit Parade’
AFRS Re-broadcast 23 Jan 1943 |
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I’m Gonna Love That Guy
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Mark Warnow Orchestra (voc) The Hit Paraders
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‘Your Hit Parade’
AFRS Re-broadcast 29 Sep 1945 |
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I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams + Close
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Al Goodman Orchestra
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‘Your Hit Parade’
WABC CBS NY 22 Oct 1938 |
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Set 3
|
Stan Kenton 1952 Radio | |
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Artistry in Rhythm + Francesca
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Stan Kenton Orchestra
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‘Concert in Miniature’
CBC Canada / NBC Palace Pier Toronto ON 3 Jun 1952 |
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Opus in Pastels
|
Stan Kenton Orchestra
|
‘Concert in Miniature’
Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom WTMJ NBC Milwaukee WI 10 Jun 1952 |
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Jump For Joe + Close
|
Stan Kenton Orchestra
|
‘Concert in Miniature’
Club Harlem KYW NBC Philadelphia 30 May 1952 |
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Set 4
|
Miles Davis 1950s Radio | |
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Move
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Miles Davis
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Birdland
WJZ ABC NY 16 May 1953 |
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Deep Sea Blues
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Herbie Fields & Miles Davis
|
Comm Rec
New York City 24 Apr 1945 |
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Nature Boys + Anthropology
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Miles Davis
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‘ABC Dancing Party’
Birdland WABC ABC NY 30 Oct 1957 |
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Set 5
|
Australian Jazz Through the Decades | |
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I’m Sailing on a Sunbeam
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Des Tooley (voc) Frank Coughlan (tb) Beryl Newell (piano)
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Comm Rec
Sydney Mar 1930 |
|
Cuckoo in the Clock
|
Trocadero Dance Orchestra (voc) Olive Lester
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Comm Rec
Sydney 10 Jan 1940 |
|
Katzenjammers Ball
|
Jack Allen’s Original Katzenjammerd
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Comm Rec
Sydney 23 Feb 1950 |
|
Dream Lover
|
Graeme Bell (voc) Kerrie Neilson
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Comm Rec
Sylvania Hotel Sydneu Jan 1960 |
|
Set 6
|
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love | |
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I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
|
Joe Turner (voc) Joe Sullivan and his Cafe Society Orchestra
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Comm Rec
New York City 9 Feb 1940 |
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I Can’t Give You Anything But Love + Close
|
Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) LA
|
‘Jubilee’
AFRS NYC 1943 |
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I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
|
POrt Jackson Jazz Band (voc) Marie Harriot
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Comm Rec
Sydney 25 Jun 1947 |
|
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
|
Claude Thornhill Orchestra (voc) Gene Williams
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‘One Night Stand’
Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Aug 1956 |
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Set 7
|
1940s Radio ‘Jubilee’ Swing Bands | |
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Jeep Rhythm
|
Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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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 |
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Set 8
|
1940s-1950s Mod Radio | |
|
C-Jam Blues/div>
|
Stan Hasselgard
|
AFRS Hollywood
1948 |
|
Koko + Hot House
|
Barry Ulanov’s All-Stars
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‘Bands for Bonds’
WOR Mutual NY 9 Mar 1947 |
|
Bebop Boogie
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Lester Young
|
‘Symphony Sid Show’
Royal roost WMCA NY 4 Dec 1948 |
We Were Swing Dance Bombed!
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…
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!
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How Did The Infamous 1930s Cotton Club Really Sound? Find Out-14 Nov Phantom Dancer Radio Show
Every week, Greg Poppleton brings you The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop two hour mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-1960s radio and TV.
Divided into 8 sets, Greg has been bringing you the Phantom Dancer on 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985. It’s now heard on 23 radio stations across Australia. You can hear it any time only at 2ser.com
HOW DID THE INFAMOUS 1930s COTTON CLUB REALLY SOUND?
You’ll hear it on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
Set 7, in fact, is an all vinyl mix of Duke Ellington broadcasts from the infamous New York City nightclub where gangsters rubbed shoulders with socialites in a black fantasia.
The air checks are from 1937 and 1938.
This is the nightclub that inspired James Haskin’s novel, The Cotton Club, which in turn formed the basis of the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola 1984 hit crime drama of the same name.
An while Duke Ellington became synonymous with the Harlem nightspot in the late 1930s, it also featured such stars as Cab Calloway, Adelaide Hall, a very young Lena Horne, Fletcher Henderson and pianist/bandleader Dorothy Dandridge.
Started by heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson in 1920 as the Cafe Deluxe, Owney Madden took over the Harlem Club in 1923 on his release from Sing Sing prison.
Seeking rehabilitation through employment, no doubt, the gangster/bootlegger used the club to sell his boutique #1 beer. Though lovingly crafted from premium hops, no doubt, his brewed beverage was nonetheless illegal at the time due to prohibition.
And though the club was located in the black cultural heartland of Harlem, and the talent was all black, presenting ‘authentic black entertainment’, the club was notorious for its brazenly selective door policy, strictly well-off white patrons only.
However, the steep cover charge translated into high fees for the performers.
Ellington, himself, was expected to write ‘jungle music’ for the ‘black exotica’ presented in the form of revues with dancers, comedians and the band.
Meanwhile the club killed many of the smaller black cabarets in Harlem, unable to compete with the lavish Cotton Club shows, their customers discouraged by the flood of white tourists who wanted to try any black club if it couldn’t be the Cotton Club.
At the time of the 1937-38 Duke Ellington broadcasts you’ll hear on today’s Phantom Dancer, the club had moved out of Harlem to Broadway. It was a safer locale for the club’s patrons after the Harlem race riots of 1936.
The Cotton Club’s Broadway opening featured a lavish 130 performer show starring Cab Calloway and dancer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson who was paid the highest ever fee for a performer on Broadway.
In 1940, changing tastes, high rents and a tax evasion investigation closed the Cotton Club’s doors permanently.
Here’s footage 1930s Harlem and the original, famous Cotton Club with Duke Ellington:
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Greg Poppleton 1920s-30s Show, Corrimal Hotel 7 October – Illawarra Jazz Club
Every Saturday, the Illawarra Jazz Club in Wollongong, hosts a jazz band at the Corrimal Hotel on the Princes Highway in Corrimal.
Greg Poppleton and band were invited to play on Saturday 7 October.
The brief was to use as many outstanding young players as possible in a 1920s – 30s quartet who could play in the style.
So the band featured Damon Poppleton (14) on alto sax, Michael Brady (22) on guitarlele and banjo, Jim Elliott bass sax, Adam Barnard on snare, bells, splash cymbal and washboard, and myself singing the songs of the Jazz Age and Swing Era.
What a fun afternoon. It was full house from 3:30 till the show’s end at 6:30pm. And the Jazz Club told me it was the largest turnout in some months.
Have us at your place! Visit the band website www.gregpoppletonmusic.com.
Have us at your place! For bookings, visit the band website, www.gregpoppletonmusic.com.
Harry James and Arban’s – 3 October Phantom Dancer + ‘Leave It To Harry’ (1954)
If the 26 September show is anything to go by, the 3 October Phantom Dancer, one week before the annual 2SER Subscriber Drive, is going to be the best show ever.
This week you’ll Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye and tune in for Part 5 of the Harry James aircheck series 1953-54. Indeed, the entire Vinyl Hour of The Phantom Dancer is devoted to trumpet band leaders on live radio: Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Erskine Hawkins and Dizzy Gillespie.
Your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV is presented by myself, Greg Poppleton, over radio station 107.3 2SER Sydney. I’ve been bringing you The Phantom Dancer since 1985.
You can now hear it live-streamed and online on Radio 2SER’s website: http://www.2ser.com/phantomdancer.
HARRY JAMES
Since we are up to Part 5 in our chronological review of radio airchecks by trumpeter Harry James, it is worth noting here that just like Fats Waller, discussed in last week’s Phantom Dancer play list notes, Harry James also had a classical background when learning his instrument.
Harry James was none for his great facility on the trumpet and his wonderful tone. Harry’s father was a circus band leader. He started teaching Harry trumpet when Harry was aged 10. The lesson regime was that each day, he had to learn a page from the Arban’s book.
What’s the Arban’s book? It’s the instruction book for cornet, flugelhorn and trumpet written by the famous Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban before 1859.
Arban was a cornetist, conductor, composer, teacher and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini’s virtuosic technique on the violin and successfully proved that the cornet was a true solo instrument by developing virtuoso technique it.
Arban’s book consists of: Introduction / First Studies / Playing Methods: Slurring or Legato Playing / Scales / Ornaments / Advanced Studies / Tonguing / Phrasing: 150 Classic and Popular Melodies / 68 Duets for Two Cornets / 14 Characteristic Studies / Celebrated Fantasies and Airs Varies
See the full Phantom Dancer play list below.
Make sure you come back to this blog, Greg Poppleton’s Radio Lounge, every Tuesday, for the newest Phantom Dancer play list!
Thank you.
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Actor - Singer - Voiceover 