Ray recalls his early days in Boston playing trombone with the Society Bands, including Dan Murphy’s Musical Skippers, performing in New York with Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby and his eventual glory years at Columbia records...
Easy music radio pop vocals and classic instrumentals...It's easy.
Showing posts with label orchestras. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orchestras. Show all posts
Saturday, November 8, 2008
WTIC Radio remembers conductor Ray Conniff
Ray recalls his early days in Boston playing trombone with the Society Bands, including Dan Murphy’s Musical Skippers, performing in New York with Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby and his eventual glory years at Columbia records...
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Benny Goodman's Camel Caravan
Camel Caravan was a musical variety radio program, sponsored by Camel cigarettes, that aired on NBC and CBS from 1933 to 1954. Various vocalists, musicians and comedy acts were heard during the 21 years this show was on the air, including such talents as Benny Goodman, Georgia Gibbs, Anita O'Day and Vaughn Monroe. It debuted December 7, 1933, on CBS as a showcase for Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra later Benny Goodman's band until June 25, 1936. Five days later, the show was reformatted on June 30 as Benny Goodman's Swing School with vocalists Martha Tilton and Johnny Mercer with Jack Oakie's College added to the hour on December 29. While this aired on Tuesdays on CBS until June 20, 1939, another Benny Goodman Camel Caravan was heard Saturdays on NBC during 1939.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill born August 10, 1909 at Terre Haute, Indiana. Died July 1, 1965, New York City. American pianist, arranger and bandleader. Although the Thornhill band was originally a sophisticated dance band it became known for its many superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill's and Gil Evans' innovative arrangements. The band ceased operation in 1942 when Thornhill entered the military, where he performed with Artie Shaw's United States Navy band, then was revived from 1946 to 1948 in New York and until 1953 on the road. In the mid 1950s Thornhill became Tony Bennett's musical director briefly, then toured with small groups.
Wiki Bio - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Claude Thornhill
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Freddy Martin and Merv Griffin
Frederick Alfred (Freddy) Martin (December 9, 1906 – September 30, 1983) was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist. Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised largely in an orphanage and with various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C-melody saxophone and later tenor saxophone, the latter the one he would be identified with. Early on, he had intended to become a journalist. He had hoped that he would earn enough money from his musical work to enter Ohio State. But instead, he wound up becoming an accomplished musician. Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. After working on a ships band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin's "Hotel Pennsylvania Music" that he made his first recordings, for Columbia's Velvet Tone label in 1930...MORE Wiki Bio
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Watch 1950's TV Show with Merv Griffin
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Harry James
Harry James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work instantly identifiable. He was also one of the most popular bandleaders of the first half of the 1940s, and he continued to lead his band until just before his death, 40 years later...
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Harry James Band plays...
Saturday, August 2, 2008
birth anniversary Werner Muller
German conductor Werner Müller was born 2 August 1920 in Berlin, He died 28 December 1998, in Cologne, Germany. Müller was conductor of two of the most popular radio orchestras in Germany. From 1948 to 1967, he led the Tanzorchester for the powerful station RIAS in Berlin. During this period he was associated with the pop singer Caterina Valente, whose recording of "Malaguena" was popular all over the world. In 1967 Müller became the chief conductor of the Tanzorchester of radio station WDRP in Cologne.
LINK TO MORE BIO INFO and Salesroom of CDs
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter and big band leader.
Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage in a Vaudeville act as early as 1913. He switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. While little-known now, Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. On December 26, 1953, the brothers and their orchestra appeared on Jackie Gleason's CBS television program. The success of that television appearance led Gleason to produce a weekly variety program, Stage Show, hosted by the brothers on CBS from 1954 and 1956. Elvis Presley appeared on several of the telecasts. Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommy's death. Jimmy survived his brother by only a few months and died of lung cancer, aged 53, in New York City. Broadcasts of Jimmy Dorsey and The Fabulous Dorsey Orchestra on NBC Bandstand survive from December 25, and December 31, 1956. At least two other extant broadcasts from the month of December 1956 are available as well.
Wiki Bio - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Jimmy Dorsey
Robert Farnon
24 JULY 1917 Birth of Canadian-English composer Robert FARNON in Toronto, Ontario. d-Guernsey, 23 APR 2005.
Farnon was commissioned as a captain in the Canadian Army and became the conductor/arranger of the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force sent overseas during World War II, which was the Canadian equivalent of the American Band of the AEF led by Major Glenn Miller. At the end of the war, Farnon decided to make England his home, and he later moved to Guernsey in the Channel Islands with his wife and children. He was considered by his peers the finest arranger in the world, and his talents influenced many composer-arrangers including Quincy Jones, all of whom acknowledge his contributions to their work. Conductor Andre Previn called him "the greatest writer for strings in the world." Robert Farnon died at the age of eighty-seven at a hospice near his home of forty years in Guernsey. He was survived by five children.
Farnon Society Biography | WEB | IMAGES | SHOP Robert Farnon
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
German conductor James Last honored
The former bass player and world-renowned pop big band leader James (originally Hans) Last will become honorary senator of the Hochschule fr Knste (University of the Arts) in his hometown of Bremen, Germany, next year as a tribute honoring his 80th birthday. In the 1950s Last had been an important jazz bassist who was regularly nominated Germany's number one bass player in jazz polls and recorded with the German All Stars. In the 1960s he formed his big band which moved away from jazz and became one of the most successful pop big bands. He developed a very specific big band sound that was loved by dancers from all over the world. He sold more than 80 million records and received 206 Golden and 16 Platin records.
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