BIG BAND NEWS

JUNE 2019

by Music Librarian CHRISTOPHER POPA

CONGRATULATIONS TO

“THOSE WERE THE DAYS”

MARKING 49 YEARS!

Back in 1970, Chuck Schaden [ above, l. ] began a

Saturday afternoon radio program, “Those Were the Days,” on

station WLTD in Evanston, Illinois, that relived the golden age

of radio, including big band music and remotes from the ‘30s

and ‘40s.

In 1975, “Those Were the Days” moved to station WNIB in

Chicago, then in 2001 to WDCB at the College of DuPage in

suburban Chicago.

Chuck Schaden talks with guest Karl Pearson, an expert about big bands

announcer Ken Alexander and host Chuck Schaden on the air in 2005

Schaden continued as host until 2009.

“Those Were the Days” still thrives today, broadcast in the

Chicago area over WDCB, 90.9 FM, and around the world on

the website wdcb.org, on Saturdays from 1 to 5 pm CST,

hosted by Steve Darnall [ above, r. ].

A sampling of recent programs included in March,

bandleader Phil Harris; in April, the band of the Army Air Forces

Training Command under the direction of Captain Glenn Miller

and “The Jack Pearl Show” with Tommy Dorsey and His

Orchestra; and in May, “Command Performance” show no.120

with Louis Armstrong and a 1952 “Martin and Lewis Show” with

Dick Stabile and the orchestra.

On May 25th, historian Karl Pearson was guest for a special

called “Big Bands in 1944,” in which radio airchecks of Les

Brown, Louis Armstrong, Vaughn Monroe, Tommy Dorsey,

Louis Prima, Glenn Miller, and Erskine Hawkins were heard.

Learn more about Chuck, Ken, Steve, and “Those Were the

Days” at the website nostalgiadigest.com.

And if you enjoying reliving the golden days of radio, you will

like their related publication, Nostalgia Digest, an entertaining

64-page quarterly magazine.

Chuck, meanwhile, has posted many of the interviews that

he conducted over the years, including a half-dozen

bandleaders (Beneke, Harris, Heidt, Martin, McCoy, Monroe,

and Vallee), on his website speakingofradio.com.

THANK YOU, MUSICPROF78!

If you have listened to music on the Internet, you may have

run across what was called the “MusicProf78” channel on

YouTube, which had postings of 12,000 vintage recordings. It

was created by a man named Bob Moke.

But as of April 23rd, it’s been removed due to copyright

restrictions. (Evidently, complaints were lodged because of

some 1959-1962 Cameo-Parkway rock’n’roll recordings he had

posted.)

“I’ve had a wonderful time preparing & sharing the

recordings and discussing a wide variety of musical topics with

thousands of visitors since MusicProf78 debuted in December

2010,” Moke wrote. “Whether at the Internet Archive

(archive.org) or on a different YouTube channel hosted by me

or someone else, I hope in the not-too-distant future to again

make available a significant portion of the MusicProf78

collection...certainly the ‘safer’ pre-rock 78rpm-era tracks. Stay

tuned!”

COMPACT DISC OF MONTH

Two 1947 Armed Forces Radio Service “Jubilee” broadcasts

from the McCormack General Hospital in Pasadena, California

make for a “Double ‘Jubilee’,” Sounds of YesterYear DSOY

2153. Songs include Chattanooga Choo Choo, Kalamazoo, St.

Louis Blues March, Sunrise Serenade, and Stormy Weather,

and The Ernie Felice Quartet perform two tunes as guests.

My only disappointment is that Sounds of YesterYear has

already used that same cover photo of Tex on at least two of

their other Beneke CDs.

MORE NEW CDS

Here’s a band that doesn’t get too much attention nowadays,

with music from three “One Night Stand” radio broadcasts in the

1940s. Besides a live version of their biggest hit, Elks Parade,

on “Making Whoopee,” Sounds of YesterYear DSOY 2150,

you’ll also hear Swinging At the Semloh, Lover Come Back to

Me, Caravan, Hodge Podge, and several vocals by Bobby

Sherwood himself.

Attention, members of the public group “Guy Lombardo and

His Royal Canadians” on Facebook, here’s a new 2-CD set with

48 Lombardo recordings from 1927 to 1934 by the Crystal

Stream Audio label in Australia, catalog numbers IDCD 409 and

410. Along with songs called The Sweetest Music This Side of

Heaven (recorded for Brunswick on April 5, 1934) and You’re

the Sweetest Girl This Side of Heaven (Columbia, April 10,

1930), there’s Under the Moon (Columbia, June 13, 1927), a

Stephen Foster medley (Columbia, October 1, 1930), April

Showers and Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody with

Al Jolson (Brunswick, December 20, 1932), and many more.

SNEAK PEEK

Next month, I will describe a new, must-have CD with many

giants of jazz, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey,

Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Charlie Barnet.

NECROLOGY

DORIS DAY, 97, d.May 13, 2019. Vocalist with Crosby ‘40;

Brown ‘40-’41 / ‘43-’46; James ‘50 (“Young Man with a Horn”);

Weston ‘51 / ‘53 / ‘56 / ‘57.

CHUCK CECIL, 96, host of the local and later syndicated radio

program “The Swingin’ Years” from 1956 to 2016, d.April 30,

2019. At various times, worked for Los Angeles radio stations

KFI (from 1952 to 1973), KGIL, and KPRZ.

JOHN ODDO, 66, pianist, arranger, and composer with

Woody Herman’s Big Band ‘81-’83 / ‘85, d.April 2, 2019.

NORMA MILLER, 99, Lindy Hop dancer nicknamed the

“Queen of Swing,” d.May 5, 2019. Danced with Ellington ’37

film, C Williams ’42 tour, ’56 Calloway nightclub show.

.