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.

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

Spotlight on Tommy Dorsey - Repeat 08/26/2025

Spotlight on Tommy Dorsey - Repeat Hello everyone. This week is a continuation of the two part series I started last week on the Dorsey brothers. This was a show I produces several years ago and am rebroadcasting. There are many of your favorite Dorsey hits and the Puzzler is back. I am in the process of producing some new shows and hope to start presenting them next week. Until then, thank you for your continued listening and support. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37968495

Spotlight on Jimmy Dorsey - Repeat 08/26/2025

Spotlight on Jimmy Dorsey - Repeat This week I have gone back into the collection and pulled out two shows that I did on Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. There is a lot a good music in these shows. We'll being this week with a look at Jimmy and follow next week with Tommy. I would like to dedicate these two shows to the memory of my mother, Evelyn Earlene Miller. I hope you enjoy the music. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37968480

Glenn Miller - A Birthday Salute Part 2 06/24/2025

Glenn Miller - A Birthday Salute Part 2 Welcome to the second part of our Glenn Miller birthday celebration. March 01, 1904 is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller and to celebrate I've picked out some recordings that ia a mixture of his songs. These are all live recordings and in addition we'll be listening to a radio remote recorded on May 17, 1939 at the Glen Island Casino. This is a great program of Glenn Miller music. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37138320

Glenn Miller - A Birthday Salute Part 1 06/24/2025

Glenn Miller - A Birthday Salute Part 1 March 01, 1904 is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. Join me on this program as we celebrate his birthday. I've picked out some recordings that are very pretty mixed with some of his hits. In addition we'll be listening to a radio remote recorded on March 26, 1939 at Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook Ballroom. This is a great program of Glenn Miller music. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37138235

Black History Month Part Four Jimmie Lunceford 06/24/2025

Black History Month Part Four Jimmie Lunceford We continue our celebration of Black History Month this week with a look at the big band of Jimmie Lunceford. Jimmie Lunceford's band differed from other great bands of the time because it was better known for its ensemble than for its solo work. Additionally, he was known for using a two-beat rhythm, called the Lunceford two-beat, as opposed to the standard four-beat rhythm. We'll be playing many of the Lunceford band's many hits. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/37138180

Black History Month Sampler Part Three 05/14/2025

Black History Month Sampler Part Three We wind up our celebration of Black History Month with some more assorted artists. The performers today are ones that I didn't get to on the previous shows. Some of the artists on the show today include Charlie Christian, John Kirby, Russell Procope, Buster Bailey, Charlie Shavers, Louis Armstrong, The Ink Spots, Benny Moten, and Chu Berry. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-American Bands from the swing era. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36569365

Black History Month Sampler Part Two 05/14/2025

Black History Month Sampler Part Two We continue our celebration of Black History Month this week with more assorted bands and vocalists. Some of the artists on the show today include Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Fatha Hines, Duke Ellington, Ivy Anderson, Roy Eldridge, Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Rushing, and Helen Humes. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-American Bands from the swing era. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36569220

Black History Month Sampler Part One 05/13/2025

Black History Month Sampler Part One We start our celebration of Black History Month this week. Rather than focus on any one band or bandleader I have put together a sampler of bands. We start with the band of Fletcher Henderson. Other bands heard today will be Andy Kirk, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb, Count Basie, and Erskine Hawkins. I hope you enjoy this sampler of the many great African-American Bands from the swing era. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36553885

Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert 04/19/2025

Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert January 16th 1938 is the date of the Benny Goodman concert at Carnegie Hall. This was the first concert given in the respectable concert venue by a swing band. We are very fortunate that the concert was recorded. Since the recording date was during the infancy of recording, the sound quality is not as good as today's recordings. The concert was originally issued in a two-LP gatefold album in 1950, the nearly forgotten documentation of this historic event quickly became Columbia's best-selling jazz release, a distinction it was to hold for decades to come. Although rumored among collectors for decades, the public had no way of knowing that two big band numbers had been excised from the commercial release and all subsequent reissues. The original concert was over two hours so I have picked some selected cuts from that night.temp /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36230445

Memories of the Swing Era Part 4 04/19/2025

Memories of the Swing Era Part 4 Hello everyone. I have to correct myself. There were four parts to this series. So, this week we are going to conclude the series from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. Back in the 1960's and 70's Reader's Digest used to put out vinyl album sets on different topics. My parents had a couple in their record collection and we have some at the radio staion where I work. I was lucky to come across this set as it has a wide variety of bands in it. I tried to put together a varied show full of your favorite bands. So join me as we bring back Memories of the Swing Era with this great multi-album set from Reader's Digest Records. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36230440

Les Brown Part 2 04/19/2025

Les Brown Part 2 Hello everyone. This is part two of a program I did on the great bandleader, Les Brown. Les passed away January 4, 2001. Since we just passed the anniversary of his death I would like to play a program that I produced two years ago and feature those great les Brown recordings. I have included in the show snippets of an interview that Les gave in 1990 to Chris Neilsen. Chris is no longer with us but when he was alive he hosted a program called One Night Stand. These are some of Les' early recordings and some of his most popular. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/36230425

Les Brown - Part 1 03/18/2025

Les Brown - Part 1 As we return from the holidays, I want to feature the big band of Les Brown. Les passed away January 4, 2001. Since we just passed the anniversary of his death I would like to play a program that I produced two years ago and feature those great les Brown recordings. I have included in the show snippets of an interview that Les gave in 1990 to Chris Neilsen. Chris is no longer with us but when he was alive he hosted a program called One Night Stand. These are some of Les' early recordings and some of his most popular. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35751255

Martha Tilton - A Birthday Salute 03/18/2025

Martha Tilton - A Birthday Salute This week we pay a birthday salute to Martha Tilton who was born on November 14th, 1915. After singing with the quartet Three Hits and a Miss, she joined the Myer Alexander Chorus on Benny Goodman's radio show, Camel Caravan. Goodman hired Tilton as a vocalist with his band in August 1937. She was with Goodman in January 1938, when the band performed at Carnegie Hall. She continued to appear as Goodman's star vocalist until the end of 1939. The program today has many of her recordings with the Goodman band and some released under her own name. I hope you enjoy this birthday salute to the late Martha Tilton. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35751230

Memories of the Swing Era Part 3 03/18/2025

Memories of the Swing Era Part 3 Hello everyone. This week we are going to conclude the series from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. Back in the 1960's and 70's Reader's Digest used to put out vinyl album sets on different topics. My parents had a couple in their record collection and we have some at the radio staion where I work. I was lucky to come across this set as it has a wide variety of bands in it. I tried to put together a varied show full of your favorite bands. So join me as we bring back Memories of the Swing Era with this great multi-album set from Reader's Digest Records. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35751165

Memories of the Swing Era Part 2 03/10/2025

Memories of the Swing Era Part 2 Hello. This week we are going to continue with more selections from the Reader's Digest Set, Memories of the Swing Era. I tried to put together a varied show full of your favorite bands. So join me as we bring back Memories of the Swing Era with this great multi-album set from Reader's Digest Records. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35613050

Memories of the Swing Era Part 1 03/10/2025

Memories of the Swing Era Part 1 I recently came across a set of records in a Box Set from Reader's Digest Records called Memories of the Swing Era. There were several compilation sets from Reader's Digest that were released and I am fortunate to have this one. So for the next few weeks, I have gone through and selected many of the recordings from this set to make three different shows. I tried to pick a wide enough variety of selections so that maybe you will hear your favorite bands. I hope you remember some of your favorite Memories of the Swing Era in this set from Reader's Digest Records. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35613000

Songs by Anita O'Day 03/10/2025

Songs by Anita O'Day This week I am returning to a program I produced a few years ago. It was a program to honor a listener's request. It had been awhile since I featured the singing of Anita O'Day so I put together this program of some of her early big band recordings. She achieved her first fame with the Gene Krupa orchestra and then went on to sing with Stan Kenton. Most of the recordings on the show today are those great sides she recorded with the Krupa band. I hope you enjoy this look at one of the greatest big band vocalists, the late Anita O'Day. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35612965

Bunny Berigan - A Birthday Salute 01/29/2025

Bunny Berigan - A Birthday Salute Born on November 2, 1908, this trumpeter, despite the brevity of his career and his all-too-short life, remains one of the most compelling trumpet players in the history of music. Do you know who it is? If I said his initials were BB and his first name was not Bix then you would say I was speaking of the great Bunny Berigan. Today we pay a birthday salute to one of the most exciting trumpet players in Big Band history. We'll start with a couple numbers by Benny Goodman and then a couple by Tommy Dorsey. All of these have great solos by Bunny. Then we'll play some of the sides he recorded with his own band. I hope you enjoy this look at the music and career of the late Bunny Berigan. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35072845

64 Assorted Songs Part 4 01/29/2025

64 Assorted Songs Part 4 Greetings everyone. This week we conclude this series with part four of a potpourri show as I go through my collection by first names. I have quite a collection of bands so I hope you enjoy this assortment of bands and songs on the final part of 64 Assorted Songs. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35072785

64 Assorted Songs Part 3 01/29/2025

64 Assorted Songs Part 3 Well hello everyone. This week we continue with part three of a potpourri show as I go through my collection by first names. I have quite a collection of bands so I hope you enjoy this assortment of bands and songs on part three of 64 Assorted Songs. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/35072755

64 Assorted Songs Part 2 12/26/2024

64 Assorted Songs Part 2 temp /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/34625215

64 Assorted Songs Part 1 12/26/2024

64 Assorted Songs Part 1 temp /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/34625200

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 3 12/26/2024

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 3 temp /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/34625180

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 2 11/11/2024

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 2 Hello everyone. This is part two of a series I call the Jerry Atkins Collection. Jerry had a show on Saturdays on the radio station I work at called The Enjoyment of Jazz. He played recordings from his massive record collection and entertained us with stories of his meetings and befriending many of the jazz masters. Sadly, Jerry passed away in 2010. His son, who is also a great jazz musician, donated many of the albums and cds in his father's collection to our station. Jerry collected albums by lots of jazz musicians but he liked the more modern big bands. This week I have pulled out several of the Woody Herman albums in the collection. I have digitized them and cleaned up the ticks and pops and background noise as best I could. So as I pay a small tribute to my friend I hope you enjoy this set of recordings from the Jerry Atkins Collection. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/33887427

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 1 11/11/2024

The Jerry Atkins Collection Part 1 Jerry Atkins was a well known musician, jazz historian, and record collector who lived in Texarkana, Texas until his passing in 2010. His record collection was huge and was donated to the the radio station where I work and produce Big Band Bash. Since most of these albums have not been purchased by the station, I have been digitizing some of them. It is amazing how well the software cleans up ticks and pops and eliminates surface noise from the records. I have decided to present four shows from the many albums that Jerry had. Part one features several albums by Les Brown, Part two will be Woody Herman, Parts three and four will be assorted bands. I hope you enjoy the music from the many record albums in the Jerry Atkins Collection. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/33887397

Songs of the 1920's Part 4 11/11/2024

Songs of the 1920's Part 4 Hello everyone. On this week's show I am going to wrap up Songs of the 1920's. We'll conclude the alphabet and then I'll present some odds and ends. This was a fun series to research and present. The 1920's was a time for great music from some of the best composers in America. /episode/index/show/bigbandbash/id/33887387

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