bigbandbash's podcast

Big Band Bash is a show presenting the music, musicians, and era of the great Big Bands. Each show highlights a different aspect of the big bands, whether it be a show about a certain band or a subject of the big bands anywhere from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I hope to get your feet tapping with this great music.

Gene Krupa Revisited 08/08/2026

Gene Krupa Revisited Well I apologize but I ran into some family problems and was not able to finish part two of the Reader's Digest set I promised for this week. So to substitute I have chose a show I previously produced on the Late Gene Krupa. Gene passed away on October 16, 1974. I wanted to note his passing and to rediscover some of the great music he produced. I will try to be back with part two of The Late 1940's from Reader's Digest next week. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42364555

Reader's Digest: The Late 1940's Part 1 08/06/2026

Reader's Digest: The Late 1940's Part 1 This is another set I managed to get a copy of. It was produced by Reader's Digest records and called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1940's. This was a seven vinyl album set and rereleased as a four cd set. Featuring music from the years of 1946 - 1949. This is part one and I hope you enjoy the selections I have chosen. Next Week is Part Two. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42348840

Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands 08/05/2026

Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands From the patriotic show, The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands, I am playing three radio remotes. The bands we will be listening to are Les Brown, Gene Krupa, and Charlie Spivak. The Les Brown show is from April 25, 1945. I hope you enjoy these shows broadcast during World War Two. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42331420

Reader's Digest: The Late 1930's Part 2 08/05/2026

Reader's Digest: The Late 1930's Part 2 We continue this week with Part Two of a Reader's Digest collection called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1930's. This featues music from the years of 1936 -1939. This set was originally released as a 7 vinyl lp set which was rereleased as a four CD set. I hope you enjoy the music from this Reader's Digest set. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42331345

Reader's Digest: The Late 1930's Part 1 08/05/2026

Reader's Digest: The Late 1930's Part 1 I managed to get a copy of this set from Reader's Digest Records. It is called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1930's. This was a seven vinyl album set and rereleased as a 4 cd set. Featuring music from the years of 1936 - 1939. This is part one and I hope you enjoy the selections I have chosen. Next Week is Part Two. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42331305

September Songs and Others 07/18/2026

September Songs and Others September 21 is right around the beginning of Autumn. I thought I would do something different this week and celebrate the Autun time of the year with songs about September and Autumn. There were several songs with September in the title so I hope you enjoy this show as we begin the Autumn time of the year. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42138405

Time Life The Swing Era 1944-1945 Part 2 07/18/2026

Time Life The Swing Era 1944-1945 Part 2 This week I am following up with Part 2 of the Time-Life series, The Swing Era, with the second half from the years of 1944-1945. I had so much fun tracking down the originals in this series. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings and following along with the playlist from this set. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Les Brown and more. There are a few more sets in this series and hopefully we will get to listen to them all. I hope you enjoy this volume in the series, The Swing Era. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42138395

Time Life The Swing Era 1944-1945 Part 1 07/18/2026

Time Life The Swing Era 1944-1945 Part 1 This week we return to the Time-Life series, The Swing Era, with the volume from the years of 1944-1945. These were still the war years but there were still some great recordings made. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Les Brown and more. There are a few more sets in this series and hopefully we will get to listen to them all. I hope you enjoy this volume in the series, The Swing Era. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/42138390

Vocal Groups 06/02/2026

Vocal Groups This week on Big Band Bash I'll be taking a look at many of the vocal groups that sang with the big bands and on their own. There were several popular groups back then and we'll be hearing from The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, The King Sisters, and The Pied Pipers. In addition to recordings, I'll be giving a short history of each group many of which are quite interesting. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/41513090

My Big Band Revival Part 2 06/02/2026

My Big Band Revival Part 2 We continue this week with Part two of my Big Band Revival. I got the ides from the many churches I see having revivals. I needed to get excited again about the great bands I fell in love with when I was a teenager discovering all these great bands. I am continuing with some of the many recordings I enjoyed and hope you like them too in part two of my Big Band Revival. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/41512830

My Big Band Revival Part 1 03/21/2026

My Big Band Revival Part 1 Every now and then I need to revive my love of the Big bands. This program and the next are ones where I have picked out some of the recordings that made me a life long fan of the Big Bands. I loved discovering the geat recordings of Benny and Tommy, The Duke and the Count, Artie and Jimmy to name just a few. I hope you enjoy some of the recordings I loved in a program I call My Big Band Revival. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40567710

Record labels Part 3 - RCA Bluebird 03/19/2026

Record labels Part 3 - RCA Bluebird This week I'm going to be playing the third and final record in this three record set that features many hits from the Bluebird record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all those great old songs again. We'll be hearing from Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the Bluebird family. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40547360

Record Labels Part 2 - Columbia 03/19/2026

Record Labels Part 2 - Columbia I'm going to be playing the second record in this three record set that features many hits from the Columbia record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all those great old songs again. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the Columbia family. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40547325

Record Labels Part 1 - Decca 03/10/2026

Record Labels Part 1 - Decca When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all those great old songs again. This week we will be hearing many of the great bands that recorded for the Decca label. We'll be hearing from Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Bob Crosby, Casa Loma, Lionel Hampton and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the Decca family. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40387485

Will Bradley and His Orchestra 03/03/2026

Will Bradley and His Orchestra I'm back from vacation and have some new programs under way. Here is the first, spotlighting one of my favorite big bands. Will Bradley was a great trombonist who worked with several name orchestras when he was persuaded to start up his own orchestra in 1939. They had an exciting pianist in Freddie Slack and sperked an interest in boogie woogie with their hit Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar. I hope you enjoy this salute to a great big band leader and musician. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40303405

Woody Herman 100th Birthday Salute Part 2 03/03/2026

Woody Herman 100th Birthday Salute Part 2 May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that Woody gave in 1978. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40303340

Woody Herman 100th Birthday Salute Part 1 Repeat 03/03/2026

Woody Herman 100th Birthday Salute Part 1 Repeat May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. To celebrate this milestone we will be playing some of his early recordings made between the years of 1939 and 1946 on the show today which is part one of two. I was fortunate enough to see the Herman band in person not once but twice. They were a very exciting band and I have been a fan every since I was in high school. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/40303310

Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions Part 2 Repeat 01/30/2026

Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions Part 2 Repeat I am continuing this week with part two of Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions which has selected cuts from the Mosaic Record Company's eight disc set of the same name. The sound quality is great and most of these songs are from Artie's classic years. All of the songs on the show are instrumentals as that was how Mosaic elected to produce the set. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/39937135

Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird & Victor Sessions Part 1 Repeat 01/30/2026

Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird & Victor Sessions Part 1 Repeat In 2011 I bought two 8 disc sets from the Mosaic Record Company. The first was dedicated to the Columbia sides of Benny Goodman which I presented a show on a few weeks ago. The second is what our show today is about. This disc set featured the classic Bluebird recordings of Artie Shaw. For all the vocal fan listeners I have to apologize as this set only focus on the instrumentals. But what a collection of instrumentals. We start from the year of 1938 and Artie's great recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" and continue from there. Many of the arrangements are by Artie himself or Jerry Gray. This is a great set that is, unfortunately, not for sale anymore. I hope you enjoy part 1 of The Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/39937030

Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 2 Repeat 01/30/2026

Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 2 Repeat This week I am going to continue with part two of the Mosaic box set, The Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Session 1939 -1957. These are many of the recordings that Benny made during those years and these are all instrumental recordings. Benny had some great vocalists during those years but Mosaic kept this set to just instrumentals. Some of the songs we'll be listening to include, Jersey Bounce, A String of Pearls, Birth of the Blues, I'll Get By, and many more. This set is no longer available and so I am happy to be able to present some of these great recordings. I hope you enjoy a look at some of the recordings by Benny and the orchestra. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/39936965

Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 1 Repeat 01/30/2026

Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 1 Repeat This week we will be listening to selections from a Mosaic Record Company set that I have called the Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions. This is part one of a show I did back in 2012 and repeated almost three years ago in 2019. These are all the instrumental recordings that Benny did for Columbia and the Okeh record label. Unfortunately the producers of this set omitted all the vocals. But there is some fantastic music by the Goodman band starting in 1939 when he switched to the Columbia label. If you are a Benny Goodman fan then I hope you enjoy these two programs. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/39936925

Metronome Magazine Part Two 10/08/2025

Metronome Magazine Part Two This is part two of a program I did on Metronome Magazine. In the issue, there was a section devoted to record reviews. In part one, I started to play many of the records that they were reviewing. We continue with more record reviews from Metronome magazine from March of 1942. The cover featured a blue background and a great picture of Jimmy Dorsey. Many of these songs were not hits for the bands that recorded them but they were great recordings. I hope you enjoy the record reviews from the March 1942 issue of Metronome. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/38518310

Benny Goodman A Birthday Salute 2 Remotes 10/08/2025

Benny Goodman A Birthday Salute 2 Remotes May 30, 1909 is the birthday of bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Instead of playing some of his hits which I've done in past programs, I would like to play two radio remotes. These were recorded Oct 23 and 27, 1937 when the Goodman orchestra was appearing at the Manhattan room of The Hotel Pennsylvania. Benny was the first bandleader that I started listening to when I was a senior in high school. It's because of his great playing and artistry that I became a life long fan of the big bands. Happy Birthday Benny. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/38518265

Metronome Magazine Part One 09/09/2025

Metronome Magazine Part One temp /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/38148385

Remotes From WW2 Part Two (Artie Shaw) Repeat 09/09/2025

Remotes From WW2 Part Two (Artie Shaw) Repeat This week I am continuing with part two of Big Band Remotes from World War 2 with two remotes from the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands series. At the same time, however, I am having a birthday salute to a favorite bandleader of mine, the late Artie Shaw. Artie was born on May 23, 1910 and he also appeared on the Spotlight band program for five consecutive weeks in 1945. So to honor Artie I would like to play the first two programs in that series. The sound quality is very good and there are some exciting solos from trumpeter Roy Eldridge. I hope you enjoy this look back at some on location performances from the great Artie Shaw as we remember his birthday. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/38148320

Remotes From WW2 Part One Repeat 09/09/2025

Remotes From WW2 Part One Repeat On this week's show I would like to honor a request. A listener asked for some big band remotes that took place during World War 2. Most of the remotes I have during that era are from the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands program. I found four 15 miniute shows so on the program today we will be listening to the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Bob Chester, Benny Goodman, and Les Brown. Three of the shows are from 1943 and one is from 1944. I hope you enjoy this look back at some on location performances from four of America's top bands. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/38148265

Bob Chester and Teddy Powell 08/27/2025

Bob Chester and Teddy Powell This week we will be listening to and learning about two bands that I've never recently covered before: Bob Chester and Teddy Powell. This is a rebroadcast of a show I produced back in 2012. Bob had a great band that was heavily influenced by Glenn Miller. Teddy's band had a great start in New York but had trouble sustaining that popularity outside of the Northeast. These are the original recordings by both bands. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37983235

The Casa Loma Orchestra 08/27/2025

The Casa Loma Orchestra This week we take a look back at the music and career of Glenn Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. As an orchestra they predated Benny Goodman and the start of the swing era. They had some excellent musicians and had a few big hits in the 30's and 40's. I'll be playing some of these numbers as we look back at the career of the Casa Loma Orchestra. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37983045

1938-1939 Time Life - The Swing Era Part 2 Repeat 08/27/2025

1938-1939 Time Life - The Swing Era Part 2 Repeat This is part two of the Time Life records set I started last week. These records were originally recorded in 1971 by Billy May and His Orchestra/Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra. Those were recreations featuring many of the musicians who were on the original recordings. Today's program features the music from the set of 1938-1939. I have this box set and thought that instead of hearing the recreations that it would be interesting to listen to the originals. So I'm borrowing the playlist and presenting the original recordings. Included with the albums was a nice book which told about the swing era. The book from the 1938-1939 set featured an essay on Where Swing Came From. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37983015

1938-1939 Time Life - The Swing Era Part 1 Repeat 08/26/2025

1938-1939 Time Life - The Swing Era Part 1 Repeat This is another volume in Time Life records ambitious project called "The Swing Era". It was a ten volume set with three records included in each volume. Today we turn to the years of 1938-1939. The songs were rerecorded by the bands of Billy May and Glen Gray. I have this set and thought that instead of hearing the recreations that it would be interesting to listen to the originals. So I'm borrowing the playlist and presenting the original recordings. There are about 30 songs so I'm going to break it up into two parts. I hope you enjoy the music in this set. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37968520

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