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

Claude Thornhill Piano Child Prodigy – Phantom Dancer 4 September Radio Show 2018

He was a piano playing child prodigy who entered the Con at age 16 after playing professionally in theatre for years. His name is Claude Thornhill and he is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

THE PHANTOM DANCER

Swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio in a non-stop mix by Greg Poppleton.

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

The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 22 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com. That’s where you can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too.

IN THIS WEEK’S PHANTOM DANCER MIX?

The Claude Thornhill feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1930s-50s radio. Read the full play list below.

The last hour of the mix is ALL VINYL.

CLAUDE THORNHILL

This week I’m quoting the wiki article on Claude Thornhill. Usually I write a bio based on different sources, but I’m short of time this week recording a new album for the Greg Poppleton band with the Billion Dollar Quartet.

“Claude Thornhill (August 10, 1908 – July 1, 1965) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards “Snowfall” and “I Wish I Had You”.

CON

As a youth, he was recognized as an extraordinary talent and formed a traveling duo with Danny Polo, a musical prodigy on the clarinet and trumpet from nearby Clinton, Indiana. As a student at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, he played with several theater bands. Thornhill entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the age of 16.

That same year he and clarinetist Artie Shaw started their careers at the Golden Pheasant in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Austin Wylie Orchestra. Thornhill and Shaw went to New York together in 1931. Thornhill went to the West Coast in the late 1930s with the Bob Hope Radio Show and arranged for Judy Garland in Babes in Arms. In 1935, he played on sessions with Glenn Miller, including “Solo Hop”, which was released on Columbia Records. He also played with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, and Billie Holiday. He arranged “Loch Lomond” and “Annie Laurie” for Maxine Sullivan.

ORK

In 1939 he founded the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Danny Polo was his lead clarinet player. Although the Thornhill band was a sophisticated dance band, it became known for its superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill’s and Gil Evans’s arrangements. The band played without vibrato so that the timbres of the instruments could be better appreciated. Thornhill encouraged the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones. The band was popular with both musicians and the public. Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool nonet was modeled in part on Thornhill’s sound and unconventional instrumentation. The band’s most successful records were “Snowfall”, “A Sunday Kind of Love”, and “Love for Love”.

Thornhill was playing at the Paramount Theater in New York for $10,000 a week in 1942 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. As chief musician, he performed shows across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist.

LIB

In 1946, he was discharged from the Navy and reunited his ensemble. Danny Polo, Gerry Mulligan, and Barry Galbraith returned with new members, Red Rodney, Lee Konitz, Joe Shulman, and Bill Barber. In the mid 1950s, Thornhill was briefly Tony Bennett’s musical director. He offered his big band library to Gerry Mulligan when Mulligan formed the Concert Jazz Band, but Gerry regretfully declined the gift, since his instrumentation was different. A large portion of his extensive library of music is currently held by Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.

Thornhill died of a heart attack in Caldwell, New Jersey, at the age of 56. In 1984, he was posthumously inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.”

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

A tour-de-corn from 1942 with Claude Thornhill, his piano, and his orchestra. Vocals by the Snowflakes including future bop singer with Dave Lambert, Buddy Stewart. (You can hear Dave Lambert and Buddy Stewart bop duets live in 1949 with Charie Parker on the 21 August Phantom Dancer).

4 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #330
107.3 2SER Tuesday 4 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	Pop Singers on
Open + Buttons and Bows	Jo Stafford	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 22 May 1949
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered	Margaret Whiting	‘Oxydol Show’ CBS 1950
The Birth of the Blues + Basin Street Blues + Close	Liz Tilton and Curt Massey	‘Alka-Seltzer Show’ CBS 17 Jun 1949
Set 2	1950s Radio Jazz Pop
Summertime (theme) + Them There Eyes	Bob Crosby Orchestra (voc) Bob Crosby	‘Marine Corp Show’ Radio Transcription 1950
At Last	The Honey Dreamers	‘Airtime’ Radio Transcription 1945
‘S Wonderful + Sleepy Time Down South (theme)	Louis Armstrong	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Basin Street WRCA NBC NY 8 May 1955
Set 3	Philco Orchestra
Let a Little Pleasure Interfere with Business	Philco Orchestra	‘Philco Show’ WABC CBS NY 1930
Cinderella Brown	Philco Orchestra	‘Philco Show’ WABC CBS NY 1930
Egyptian Ella	Philco Orchestra	‘Philco Show’ WABC CBS NY 1931
Set 4	Jan Garber 1944-45
Snowfall (theme) + Where or When	Claude Thornhill Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Glen Island Casino New Rochelle NY AFRS Re-Broadcast 23 Jun 1947
Classics in Jazz + Flight of the Bumble Bee	Claude Thornhill Orchestra	‘Saturday Night Swing Club’ WABC CBS NY 12 Jun 1937
Let’s Go Home + Close	Claude Thornhill Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Pennsylvania WJZ ABC NY 22 Sep 1947
Set 5	Swinging 1940s Big Band Radio
Stealing Apples	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Hotel Astor Roof WABC CBS New York Jul 1943
Cottontail	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘Date With The Duke’ WJZ ABC NY 10 Nov 1945
Swanee River	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 3 Dec 1945
Mr Chips + Blue and Boogie	Billy Eckstine Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Feb 1945
Set 6	Women Singers 1939 Radio
Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me	Kay Doyle (voc) Bunny Berrigan Orchestra	Mutual Network Boston 20 Sep 1939
The Very Thought of You (theme) + And the Angels Sing	Liz Tilton (voc) Ray Noble Orchestra	Beverly-Wiltshire Hotel Beverly Hills Ca KFI NBC LA 22 Oct 1939
Little Sir Echo	Doris Day (voc) Barney Rapp Orchestra	Sign of the Drum NBC Cincinnati 17 Jun 1939
Yankee Doodle	Linda Keene (voc) Jack Teagarden Orchestra	‘Young Man with a Band’ WABC CBS NY Nov 1939
Set 7	1938-40 Sweet Band Radio Transcriptions
So You’re The One	Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Innes	Radio Transcription 1940
Heart and Soul	Blue Barron Orchestra (voc) Russ Carlyle	Radio Transcription 1938
It Seems Like Old Times	Glen Gray Orchestra (voc) Cliff Grass	Radio Transcription 1939
Goodbye Now	Chuck Foster Orchestra (voc) 3Ds	Radio Transcription 1940
Set 8	Bop Radio
Groovin’ The Blues	Miss Rhapsody	Comm Rec 6 Jul 1944
Hi Beck	Lee Konitz	Storyville Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 5 Jan 1954
Bye Bye Blackbird + Straight No Chaser	Miles Davis	‘Bandstand USA’ Spotlight Mutual, Washington DC Feb 1959

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

16 January 2018 Phantom Dancer – Child Prodigies on 1930s-50s Radio.

The Phantom Dancer, presented by 1920s-1930s singer and band leader, Greg Poppleton, since 1985, is your non-stop two hour mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s – 1960s radio and TV.

Hear this week’s episode online from 16 January for the next four weeks  on the website of radio 2SER Sydney.

This week’s Phantom Dancer features two sets of CHILDREN OF PROMISE outstanding talent under 15 years of age already engaged in professional music careers.

In play list order. (You can see this week’s full play list below)…

TONI HARPER

Born 1937, Toni retired from performing at the age of 29. Learning dance under Maceo Anderson, Harper was cast by the choreographer Nick Castle in Christmas Follies, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in 1945. She later went on to perform on stage with Herb Jeffries, Cab Calloway, and in Japan with Cannonball Adderley. Harper recorded ‘Candy Store Blues’ in 1946, aged 9, and you’ll hear her sing her hit on a live 1948 radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer. It was a platinum record.

FRANKIE LYMON

Frankie Lymon was vocal lead for The Teenagers. His song, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” became The Teenagers’ first single in January 1956. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard pop singles chart and topped the Billboard R&B singles chart for five weeks. Six other top ten blues singles followed over the next year: including ‘I Promise to Remember’ which you’ll also hear in a live radio performance on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

FRANK SINATRA

Today, The Phantom Dancer plays 15 year old Frank’s first radio appearance on NBC’s ‘Major Bowes Amateur Hour’. Sinatra joked during a Las Vegas Show in the 1960s that the quartet he started in, The Hoboken Four, was so popular on Major Bowes they appeared for weeks after under different names. They then toured the US as part of the Major Bowes theatre troupe, with Sinatra quitting mid-tour. He’d had enough.

SUGAR CHILE ROBINSON

He won a talent show at age three, and by age seven in 1945 was playing guest spots with Lionel Hampton, who was prevented by child protection legislation from taking Robinson on tour with him. However, Robinson performed on radio with Hampton and Harry ‘The Hipster’ Gibson, and appeared as himself in the Hollywood film No Leave, No Love.
In 1946, he played for President Harry S. Truman at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, shouting out “How’m I Doin’, Mr. President?” – which became his catchphrase – during his performance of ‘Caldonia’. He stopped recording in 1952, “I wanted to go to school…I wanted some school background in me and I asked my Dad if I could stop, and I went to school because I honestly wanted my college diploma.”

JOEY PRESTON

You’ll hear 8 year old Joey play drums with Sugar Chile and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra on this week’s Phantom Dancer. On June 27, 1947, a small record company out of Hollywood called Modern Records issued a six-record 78rpm set of ‘America’s Youngest Drumming Sensation: Joey Preston’s Sextette.’ On one of the songs, Preston plays piano. The liner notes were written by Stan Kenton, who calls Preston ‘an amazing talent,’ and that he has seen Preston ‘demonstrate his artistry on numerous occasions.’ Preston also appeared in three Hollywood films 1946-48.

JUDY GARLAND

So much as been written about Judy Garland I have nothing more to add here, except the scratchy 1939 radio recording you hear of her on this week’s Phantom Dancer is a brilliant send-up of opera by her.

BABY ROSE MARIE

And as your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week, here’s another child of promise, who started a hugely successful singing career at age 3, later co-starring in the Dick van Dyke show, The Monkees and more. She was the last pre-WWII hit-maker alive.
Here is a link to a column she wrote, July 2017, about standing up to her sexual harasser on set in the 1950s (and losing work because of it) https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dick-van-dyke-star-rose-marie-what-happened-i-publicly-shamed-my-harasser-guest-column-1063597

Rose Marie died just two weeks ago, 28 December 2017, aged 94. Marvel at her extraordinary talent, aged just 5 in this Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone Short from 1929…

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #300 107.3 2SER Tuesday 16 January 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 Mod and Bop 1943 – 1956 Moppin’ and Boppin’ Fats Waller and his Rhythm Comm Rec Los Angeles 23 Jan 1943 Sweet Georgia Brown Clifford Brown Quartet Basin Street WCBS CBS NY 6 May 1956 Cherry Blossom + Manhattan (Close) Georgie Auld ‘Here’s To Veterans’ Radio Transcription Hollywood 1954 Set 2 Dance Bands on 1944-51 Radio Sound Off Vaughan Monroe Orchestra (voc) VM and the Moon Men Marine Ballroom Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ ABC 1951 How Do You Fall In Love? Griff Williams Orchestra (voc) Walt King Empire Room Palmer House WGN Chicago 5 Mar 1947 The Same Words Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Liz Tilton ’One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 25 May 1944 Set 3 Women Singers with 1940s Big Bands Embraceable You Bob Crosby Orchestra (voc) Jule Hopkins Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS Los Angeles 21 Feb 1946 I’ll Be Around Sonny Dunham Orchestra (voc) Pat Cameron ’One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 14 Apr 1944 Out of this World Woody Herman Orchestra (voc) Frances Wayne ’One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 6 Aug 1945 Set 4 Children of Promise Part 1 Candy Store Blues Toni Harper (9 years old) Count Basie Orchestra (piano) Eddie Beale ’Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 6 Jan 1948 Open + I Promise To Remember + Why Do Fools Fall In Love + Close Frankie Lymon (aged 13) and The Teenagers, Sam The Man Taylor Orchestra ’Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ WCBS CBS NY 28 Aug 1956 Set 5 Children of Promise Part 2 Shine Hoboken Four with Frank Sinatra (age 15) ‘Major Bowes Amateur Hour’ WEAF NBC Red NY 1935 Caldonia Boogie Sugar Chile Robinson (piano, age 6) Lionel Hampton Orchestra ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1946 Sugar’s Boogie Woogie Sugar Chile Robinson, add Joey Preston (age 8) drums ‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1946 Swing and Sweet + Thank for the Memory (opera send-up) Judy Garland (age 14) ’Gulf Oil Show’ KFI NBC LA Jan 1939 Set 6 1930s Radio Dance Orchestras One, Two Button Your Shoe Red Nichols Orchestra Radio Transcription New York City 30 Nov 1936 Hot Lips (theme) + Rose Room Henry Busse Orchestra Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1935 Isn’t This a Lovely Day? Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians (voc) Carmen Lombardo ‘Esso Boulevarde’ WABC CBS NY 26 Aug 1935 Ain’t Cha Glad + When Summer is Gone (theme) Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Skinnay Ennis ‘Lavena Program’ Radio Transcription New York City 1934 Set 7 Headline 1940s Bands Live Deed I Do Tony Pastor Orchestra (voc) TP Aircheck New York City Nov 1942 The Trouble With Me Is You Nat King Cole Trio (voc) NKC Trocadero KHJ MBS LA 26 Apr 1945 Wagon Wheels Tommy Dorsey Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ AFRS Re-broadcast 19 Aug 1945 In There + Close Charlie Barnet Orchestra ’Downbeat’ AFRS Hollywood Feb 1944 Set 8 Bop and Brubeck Hot House Miles Davis and Bud Powell Carnegie Hall VOA 25 Dec 1949 52nd Street Theme Charlie Parker and Miles Davis ’Symphony Sid Show’ WMCA NYC 4 Sep 1948 All The Things You Are Dave Brubeck Basin Street WCBS CBS NY Feb 1956

Phantom Dancer 12 Dec 2017. One Good Turn Deserves Another

The first all-vinyl set on this week’s Phantom Dancer features singer Mildred Bailey.

You’ll hear her sing four songs from her own CBS radio show, “Music Till Midnight”, which ran from 1 September 1944 to 9 February 1945.

And below, this side of the play list and Video of the week, you can read how one good turn deserved another and launched two outstanding careers in jazz for Mildred Bailey and Bing Crosby.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV. It’s presented by authentic 1920s-30s singer, Greg Poppleton

Hear the past four Phantom Dancers at radio 2ser.com

ONE GOOD TURN

Born Mildred Rinker, (Bailey was the surname of her first husband), Mildred was the older sister to two musical brothers, Al, a vocalist and composer, and Charles, a lyricist.

Al Rinker, was one of Paul Whitemam’s famous ‘Rhythm Boys’ vocal group, along with Harry Barris and Bing Crosby, in the late 1920s.

Mildred was already an established blues and jazz singer based in Los Angeles by 1925 when her brother Al, and his musical partner Bing Crosby, moved in with her to try their luck in music.

She help Al and Bing, who at that time was a drummer, get their first gigs.

She also introduced Crosby to jazz singers. She played him her collection of records by Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith to get him started.

DESERVES ANOTHER

Four years later, When Bing Crosby was already successful with ‘The King of Jazz’ Paul Whiteman, Crosby in turn went out of his way to help Bailey.

He introduced her to Paul Whiteman at a house party. The Whiteman band, with Crosby, was in Los Angeles on tour.

Mildred sang at the party for Whiteman and was immediately hired. She then sang with Paul Whiteman’s band from 1929 to 1933.

When Bailey debuted on Paul Whiteman’s network radio show in 1929, singing “Moanin’ Low”, the favourable public reaction was, that she was an immediate star.

RADIO SHOW

Mildred Bailey had five network radio series of her own.

The broadcasts you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer are from her final series, “Music Till Midnight”.

She had been sick with diabetes and had come out of retirement to broadcast. Nonetheless, her voice is still strong, emotive, swinging and understated.

It is also a testimony to her standing as a singer and personality in the entertainment industry at that time, that she was also the announcer on her show. Enjoy!

TUNE

Now enjoy this 1938 Mildred Bailey version of Bob Hope’s theme tune, “Thanks For The Memory”.
It’s your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week-

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #293 107.3 2SER Tuesday 12 December 2017 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 Modern Jazz on 1950s Radio Open + Sweets Stan Kenton Orchestra ’Concert in Miniature’ WSOC NBC Charlotte NC 1952 Waldorf Mambo + Saving Bonds Ad Xavier Cugat Orchestra ’All-Star Parade of Bands’ Ramona Room Hotel Last Frontier NBC Las Vegas 30 Nov 1953 S’Wonderful + In The Still of the Night + Close Larry Green Orchestra Starlite Roof Hotel Chase KMOX CBS St Louis 1959 Set 2 Singers on the Air White Christmas Frank Sinatra ’Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 20 Dec 1947 The Nearness of You Sarah Vaughan ’Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WNBC NBC NY 21 Apr 1952 Blue Velvet Arthur Prysock ’Music From Birdland’ Birdland 9 Sep 1952 Set 3 Philco Hour 1930-31 Let a Little Pleasure Interfere With Business Philco Orchestra ’Philco Hour’ WABC CBS NY 1930 Oh Boy! Oh Boy! I’ve Got It Bad Boswell Sisters ’Philco Hour’ WABC CBS NY 1931 Cinderella Brown Philco Orchestra ’Philco Hour’ WABC CBS NY 1930 Set 4 1940s Dance Bands Josephine Art Kassels and his Kassels-in-the-Air Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Chicago 1949 Valse Triste by Sibelius Russ Morgan Orchestra ’One Night Stand’ Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 28 Apr 1944 Flying Home Lionel Hampton Orchestra ’One Night Stand’ Aquarium Restaurant New York City AFRS Re-broadcast 1949 Set 5 Mildred Bailey Rocking Chair (theme) + Please Don’t Talk About Me While I’m Gone Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra ’Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944 I’m Beginning To See The Light Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra ’Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 19 Jan 1945 I Dream of You Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra ’Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944 Robin Hood Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra ’Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 12 Jan 1945 Set 6 Les Brown Dance of the Blue Devils (theme) + Spain Les Brown Orchestra Green Room Hotel Edison NY Aircheck 22 Nov 1938 Leap Frog (theme) + Floating Les Brown Orchestra ’One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 28 Dec 1945 Coastin’ Along Les Brown Orchestra Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS Los Angeles 16 Aug 1945 Bizet Has His Day + Leap Frog (theme) Les Brown Orchestra Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WABC CBS NY 7 Jul 1944 Set 7 Original Crooners The Song is You Les Allen (voc) Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra Comm Rec London 4 Apr 1933 I Cried For You Bing Crosby WABC CBS New York City 7 Nov 1931 I Never Had a Chance Al Bowlly(voc) Ray Noble Orchestra ’Coty Hour’ WEAF NBC Red NY 13 Mar 1935 I’m Not Lazy, I’m Dreaming Russ Colombo ’Hollywood on the Air’ KECA NBC Blue Los Angeles 15 Jul 1934 Set 8 1930s Swing Bands Song of India Tommy Dorsey Orchestra ’Ford Show’ NBC Dallas Aug 1936 Every Tub + Song of the Wanderer Count Basie Orchestra ’America Dances’ Famous Door CBS NY/BBC London Jul 1938 Hurry Home Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Martha Tilton ’Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 3 Jan 1939 I Can’t Get Started (theme) + Sugar Foot Stomp Bunny Berrigan Orchestra Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago Jul 1939