This Week's In the Mood is a Dancer's Delight
Listening to Big Band Swing is such pure pleasure that it's easy to overlook the fact that, in its day, it was essentially all Dance Music. Nearly every label of every record included some kind of indication of what type of dance went with the song. Usually, it was a Fox Trot (sometimes abbreviated F. T.) in 4/4 time, a Waltz in 3/4 time, a Two-Step or a One-Step in 2/4 time. Really hot numbers, or "killer dillers" as they were called, went well with the more athletic Jitterbug and Lindy Hop.
America in the 1930s, 40s and 50s was a dancing country. Dance halls dotted the map, and every town of every size had at least one or two. In the larger cities, they were often huge, sprawling, opulent palaces that could accommodate literally thousands of couples. And the Big Bands counted on the thriving dance culture as their lifeblood. Name bands of every size and type criss-crossed the country by bus and auto caravan, doing strings of one-nighters in town after town. It was a grueling existence for the players, who were often ill-fed, ill-slept, and ill-compensated. But, for those with a true heart for the music and the performing experience, it was a dram existence.
This week's In the Mood spotlights two of the great Dance Bands of the era. In Hour One, we profile Ralph Flanagan, whose latter-day band of 1949-1961 was created for the express purpose of sparking new interest in dance music at a time when the dance culture was beginning its steep decline. Ralph had established himself as a respected arranger in New York, and had developed a keen talent for imitating the styles of other well-known arrangers such as Billy May, Jerry Gray, Ray Conniff and Duke Ellington. Ralph and his manager, Herb Hendler, who was also one of RCA Victor's top A & R men, convinced the Victor brass to create a top-notch studio band under Ralph's name. Ralph would write the band's book in the style of Glenn Miller with a strict emphasis on dance tempos. The band was a huge success with the record-buying public, and Hendler soon found himself responding to the calls of booking agents for hotels, nightclubs and dance halls. We will spin some of our favorite sides by this outstanding band to kick off this week's show.
In Hour 2, we will spend our first 20 minutes or so enjoying the solidly swinging sounds of the Charlie Barnet band. Charlie was a trust-fund kid who led a band because it was his passion to make the music he loved. "Lord knows, I'm not in it for the money," he used to say. From the age of 17, he idolized and managed to hang around as many Big Band musicians as he could. His first appearance on records was playing the orchestra bells on Duke Ellington's famous 1930 recording of Ring Dem Bells. He learned how to work hard for the music, and how to party hard as well. He mastered the alto, then the tenor sax, and a little later, the soprano sax, all of which he played with a swinging, booting drive out in front of his band.
Charlie's lifelong admiration for Duke Ellington was obvious in many of his arrangements and recordings of Ellington tunes. We will play some of those this week, plus some sides that demonstrate Charlie's reed mastery.
Other highlights this week include appearances by the Benny Goodman Sextet, and major hits by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Jordan. We'll spin some original 1940s blues on 78 from Duke Ellington, and you won't want to miss the 2-sided 78 of St. James Infirmary by the Artie Shaw band of 1941. Lips Page takes the trumpet solo and the vocal.
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