Show Notes for 1/16-20

TD and The Count are swinging this weekend

Every week, In the Mood brings you the best of the Big Band Era. This week, two of the biggest names in Swing are featured: Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie. 

Tommy's trombone technique was legendary among musicians and fans alike. No one, it seemed, could play as high, sweet and smooth as the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing. In fact, when Tommy died in 1956, Warren Covington took over the band, partly because he was one of the only trombonists alive who could play Tommy's solos. You'll hear what I'm talking about on the show this week when we play such Dorsey classics as Once in a While, Who? and Chicago. Tommy's ability to play very high notes in a sweet, mellow tone, and very long phrases without taking a breath is still astounding. Frank Sinatra, who spent three years singing with the Dorsey band, credited Tommy as his main influence when it came to phrasing and breath control.

We spend the first 20 minutes of Hour 2 this week enjoying some of the best of the Count Basie repertoire. We'll stick with the Basie band of the late 1930s and early 40s, as recorded on Decca and Columbia. Along with the Count's crisp piano work, we enjoy solos by some of his most famous sidemen, including tenor saxists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, and trombonist Dickie Wells. You'll especially enjoy the seldom-heard 1940 Columbia waxing of the band's theme, One O'Clock Jump.

Elsewhere in this week's show, I'll play one of my personal favorite 78 sides, the 1946 Capitol recording of Your Conscience Tells You So by Ella Mae Morse with pianist Freddie Slack. It's an infectious little tune, made even more delightful by Freddie's ability to invent a completely new fill phrase every time Ella Mae takes a breath.

I'm also pleased to present our shiny-new 78 copy of Alreet by the Gene Krupa Ork with a swell vocal by Anita O'Day.

Other highlights this week include Duke Ellington's 1938 Merry-Go-Round, Claude Thornhill's hypnotically serene Snowfall, and Jimmie Lunceford's sensational 1941 extended version of Blues in the Night with alto saxing and vocal by Willie Smith. 

All in all, this week should prove a superb mix of swinging sweetness, punctuated with pithy pronouncements from yours truly as needed. As always, please feel free to reach out with requests and comments on our Facebook page at facebook.com/inthemoodwithscottmichaels.