An Awakening

I know that this post will not appeal to most , if any, of you now. I by chance tuned in to the public broadcast channel when they were broadcasting all the Big Band stuff with the best of the best of the bands and vocalists before and during the war. Some of the male performers were dressed in uniform, the " Pinks and Greens" of the officers and many in O.D. Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Helen O'Connel, etc. The bands actually played music and the vocalists could actually sing. Really took me way back to some great days and some not so great days. Wonderful stuff but way out of touch with everything now.

 

Before my time, but it is fun to see & hear performances from that era.

Back then, everything was done live or in one take if recorded for TV.
All the musicians had to be good enough to pull off those live performances.

For example, here is a Benny Goodman clip.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqvX-n25gs[/ame]

 

We didn't have TV in 1939-45 but things were still done as you said, first take usually. Wonderful musicians and great music. It was with you all the time no matter where you were.

 

I always liked when the later rock & roll groups added a horn section and tried to capture some of the big band sound.

For example, when The Beatles did "Got To Get You Into My Life".

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qkn7OnznU[/ame]

 

My dad was of the Big Band era and had a bunch of 78-rpm records that I eventually recorded onto cassette tape for him. Even though we're white, he preferred what he called "black man's jazz", including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and the Mills Brothers. But he also favored Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers and Ziggy Elman. He was not a fan of Glenn Miller, but I like a lot of his music.

I recently got and watched "The Benny Goodman Story" and "The Glenn Miller Story" on DVD. While as biopics they take some artistic license with the facts, the title performances by Steve Allen and James Stewart are fine, and you've gotta like the music! I still love to watch Gene Krupa doing his thing on "Sing, Sing, Sing", and as a Jew, Ziggy Elman doing his klezmer schtick on his trumpet in "And The Angels Sing".

 

Norman Leyden, who played clarinet with and arranged for Glenn Miller, was for many years the Associate Conductor for the Oregon Symphony. He still does a concert or so every year, even though he's 95 now.

I really enjoy music of that era.

 

I was born in 38, so I still have memories of the war years, 42, 43, 44, and of course 45. Lived in a small town in NE. All we had was radio, and the newsreels on Sat afternoons with Tom Mix, Lash Laru and Hoppy. My fondest memories are of Glenn Miller, and the Andrew sisters doing USO shows on stage with a B25 Mitchell in the background. Those newsreels were the only news we had, and they only showed up once a week. Even at the age of 6, I was very aware of what was going on. Most of my toys were little lead solgiers, and of course my friends and I played war and the object was to kill Japs, and Krouts, (those were the terms of the day). My dad was 4f, so he couldn't go. I don't remember them as happy times, but rather trying times, but that is a whole nuther thread.

Good to hear there are others that remember.

Rob

 

I love this stuff! Thanks, Bob, for reminding us.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJoEMw-4qAU[/ame]

 

I was born in "26 and before I went into the service i had grown up with swing and jazz, having an older brother and four sisters who listened to their records and the radio all the time. That and the movies was what we had then but there were live shows all over and the kids flocked to them. I still remember how important the big bands and singers were when i was " in" . We had a line shack that was open all night and i used to have a snack and an Orange crush after all the planes were in and fed. I listened to the Andrew Sisters, Harry James, Bing Crosby, and all the big names booming out of the Juke Box. Things are sure different now.

 

Well it certainly appeals to me. I'm a mere 47 but have always had a taste for good music and a bulk of that is from that era. I have a Pandora APP on my phone and when I drive too and from work or sit in my shop hand engraving a gun or working on a watch, I listen to things like The Andrews Sister, McGuire Sisters, Hoagy Carmicheal, Benny Goodman, Pearl Django (one of my favorite Gypsy jazz bands), Bing Crosby... There was a TON of great music being made back in the big band days.

I've been told since I was about 10 that I was born a hundred years too late. I think they were right.

 

I don't know why, but right now I have "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" playing inside my head.....

 

That's interesting because I had " Do Nothing "Till You Hear From Me," I always wondered about that song because maybe there was a test with a rabbit involved. Inside my head brings up one of my favorites, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of The Moon" lyrics re the lunatic....." Lock me in a room and throw away the key 'cause there's someone in my head AND IT'S NOT ME." One of my favorites.

 

I'm a youngin, born in '84, but I adore this style of music. Maybe it's because my whole family is musical, but I've always found the older music of the big band/swing era (and 70s/80s rock) to be much, much better than most anything put out today.