By Frank Miller
The Sounds of the Great Big Bands from Yesterday and Today
Lionel Hampton was born on April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. I first discovered the great playing of Lionel when he was a member of the Benny Goodman Quartet. Join me as we celebrate the birthday of this true jazz...
Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 so to remember his birthday and to listen to some of his amazing music, I am repeating this show from 2013. There is lots of Ellington originals in this show as well...
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have produced their third series about World War Two called Masters of the Air. It is a nine part series about the pilots who flew the B-17 Bombers into Germany during WW2. There are several...
Copilot is the name of an artificial intelligence engine that is now included in Microsoft's Edge web browser. I posed this question to Copilot: could it pick out 16 songs from the 1930's and 1940's that were representative of the...
Well, hello everyone and welcome to part four of our Glenn Miller Birthday salute. On today's show, as on the other three parts, we will be looking at the Band of the Allied Training Command. I have two radio remotes...
Hello and welcome to this week's Big Band Bash. We are continuing our Glenn Miller Birthday Salute with a look at the Army Air Force Orchestra. Today's show features a live broadcast by that orchestra with Glenn doing the announcing....
Hello everyone. I am a little late with this week's program. This week I am going to continue with our birthday salute to the late Glenn Miller. This is part two of a four part series I produced back in...
Greetings everyone. March first is the birthday of the late Glenn Miller. To celebrate his birthday, I am running a repeat of a four part series looking at Glenn's Army Air Force Orchestra. This comes from a four record set...
This past week we observed a leap day, February 29th. Born on February 29, 1904 was Jimmy Dorsey. To observe his birthday and pay tribute, I went through my cds and came across two that were recorded in the years...
We wind up our celebration of Black History Month with a look at some of the many vocalists recording during the big band era. Some of the singers on the show today include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstein, Helen...
Duke Ellington's band and music holds an important place among my musical heroes. I have been collecting records and cds by Ellington for many years. So I have decided to include him in our list of bands as we continue...
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...
We start our celebration of Black History Month with a look at the big band of Earl Fatha Hines. Earl was a very influential pianist in whose big band he had players such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Count...
Well, this is week four and the last in the series The Complete RCA Victor Recordings of Artie Shaw. These recordings were made in the years of 1944 and 1945 when Artie was living in California after his discharge from...
Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well, I was just knocked...
Benny Goodman's orchestra was the first big band that I ever listened to. But I kept reading about his rival, Artie Shaw. So I bought a vinyl two record set called This is Artie Shaw. Well I was just knocked...
Happy New Year to everyone as we welcome in the New Year. On the show today is repeat of a program I produced in 2016 called New Year's Radio Dance Party 1945-1946. The Armed Forces Radio Service gave a real...
Merry Christmas everyone. I am sorry that I am a little late in getting this weeks show posted. This is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011. There are a couple of segments on Christmas Eve of 1941....
For the next few weeks, I am repeating a couple of shows that I produced almost ten years ago. This first one was called A 1940's Christmas. I tried to pick out as many songs from the Big Bands that...
Hello everyone. This episode of Big Band Bash is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011 where we paid tribute to the men and women who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,...
Hello everyone. This week concludes our salute to the late Tommy Dorsey. We will be looking at his career and music from about 1939 to 1956 when he passed away. We will be listening to a lot of the Sinatra...
Hello everyone. November 19, 1905 is the birthday of the late bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey. He also passed away on November 26, 1956. Since both these date occur in the month of November, I though I would like to...
Well, we're down to the last part of this series highlighting songs composed during the 1930's. We are highlighting the years of 1938 and 1939. There were some nice songs composed in these years and unfortunately I had to omit...
There were some fantastic songs composed in the years of 1936 and 1937. Composers Gershwin, Rogers, Kern and Duke wrote many hit songs that are still being played today. Benny Goodman's big hit Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded in 1937...
The 1930's was a time in popular music that saw many changes. Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. In the 1930s, swing jazz emerged...
The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. This is part 2 in the series as we examine those catchy...
The 1930's was a decade of great songs by great American composers. For the next five weeks we'll be listening to those great standards performed by different bands. While putting this show together I tried to use recordings by bands...
This week, I'm going to be playing the third and final record in this three record set that features many hits from the RCA Bluebird record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called...
This week, I'm going to be playing the second record in the 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....
Hello everyone. When I was growing up, my father had purchased a 3 record set call The Big Bands. What was unique about this set was that each of the records had hits from one of the record labels issuing...
It has been awhile since I presented a program on the late Stan Kenton so I wanted to go back and revisit some of his music again. As a musician it was his band from the 1950's that I enjoyed...
This week we will be celebrating the birthday of bandleader Bob Crosby. He was born on August 23, 1913 and led one of the most popular big bands during the dance band era. He had some very exciting sidemen in...
This week's show is a look at some of the Big Band Theme Songs. Just as today's television theme songs identify the show, a big band's theme song helped to identify the band that was on the radio. Some theme...
August 24, 1904 is the birthday of the late bandleader William Count Basie. To celebrate his birthday, I have pulled out a program I produced back in 2013. I decided to focus on the year of 1939 and play many...
Hello everyone. The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands was the Coca-Cola Company’s big band legacy and its contribution to the war effort. An outstanding collection of 25 of America’s most popular big bands broadcasting live from military bases and defense...
Hello everyone. I am working on some new shows that are not quite finished. So here is a show i produced back in 2013 and it features the vocal groups from the big band era. Some of the groups were...
Hello everyone. August 10, 1908 is the birthday of the late bandleader Claude Thornhill. It has been awhile since I have played some of the great recordings made by the Thornhill orchestra, so to remember Claude on his birthday here...
Back during World War Two, it took a lot of money to produce the materials, grow the food and make all the things that the soldiers needed to use in combat. So to help raise money, the United States Government...
Hello everyone. On July 21, 2023 the vocalist Tony Bennett passed away in his Manhattan apartment. He was 96 years old. Tony was a great singer and an interpreter of the Great American Songbook. He recorded in many genres and...
Hello everyone. Today's program features the great big band of Harry James. The selections were taken from various radio broadcasts between the years of 1943 and 1953. There are a lot of great performances in this set from the James...
Hello everyone. This week's show is a potpourri show featuring songs about the summer season. I do this type of show on the jazz program I host at the radio station that I work part-time at. I haven't done too...
Hello everyone. Today's show is a repeat of the Patriotic Show that I produced for last year. Since I didn't get to air it before the Fourth of July I decided to run it today. This was the first all...
Hello everyone. This week we wrap up the four part imaginary assignment to create a four cd set of the Best of The Big Bands. This is the final part. I have picked out the final 16 numbers from the...
Hello everyone. This week we are working on CD number three of our Best of the Big Bands four disk set. There are lots of good songs this week as I am trying to put together a set of songs...
Hello everyone. This week I am continuing with our imaginary assignment to produce a Best of The Big Bands Four CD set. Remember, since this is an imaginary task we don't have to pay attention to details like copyrights, record...
Hello everyone. I have come up with a premise for the next four shows that I hope you will enjoy. We have been tasked with creating a four CD set of the best of the big bands. Each CD will...
Hello Everyone. Today's show has a lot of variety in it. While going through my collection I noticed that there were lots of song titles that had the word blue in it. So I pulled out many different songs but...
Hello everyone and Happy Memorial Day weekend. This is a repeat of a show I did last year. I wanted to do something special as we observe Memorial Day so I hope you enjoy this encore presentation from last year....
Hello Everyone. After a four week break, I am back with some new shows. This first show is a potpourri of moon songs. I noticed that lots of big band recordings have the word moon in the title so I...
