Big Bands (The Best Kind)

[Art]

Owl right, nobody gonna jack this thread.

Art

[JREESER1]

Harry James! Dead center in the middle of the note.

jr

[TinkerTailor]

Lets get things swinging:

Here are a few I have in my collection on 78 and a great live recording.

Records and music have been a huge piece of my life. I traveled as a festival dj for many years every summer. I was known for pulling out tracks like this at electronic dance parties.

My granny taught me what real music is. Kanye can get stuffed.

Freddie Slacks Boogie Woogie is a little known but great album, this is an awesome track, Southpaw Serenade:

Then there is Woody Herman Orchestra's Masterpiece, Woodchoppers Ball:

And for the clarinet lover, This is from 1963, Joe Darensbourg, Sweet Georgia Brown with Satchmo in Australia. This recording is amazing. Check the tounge bump technique....:

[TinkerTailor]

I also am always digging for the rare grooves, the unreleased, the oddities. Sometimes there is gold where no one else looked.

Here are a couple examples, which contain some great musicianship.

Recorded in 1941 before the band was broke up by the war and released in the 80's for the first time

Bob Wills Big Band:

And here is a Glenn Miller rarity since he is what started this all: Sleepy Lagoon, also recorded by Harry James:

[TinkerTailor]

Save the best for the last one for the night:

This is another gem from the crates. The smokey whispy clarinet at 2 minutes....wow.

Artie Shaw, Stardust:

[judgebc]

Tinker, Thanks for the great music.

[billybopp]

I had the very good fortune as a high school student to see, and sit in with, some of the great bands. We had an amazing jazz band for a high school. Two band members that I know of went on to become professional musicians, one doing studio work in Nashville, and the other in LA. Two others went on to be music teachers. It's funny, but 30 some years later, when I started getting back in touch with classmates on facebook, they still remembered our performances ... During one of those, the band director arranged to scare the living daylights out of me. I had a tenor sax solo during one of our numbers, so he arranged for the entire band other than the rhythm section to get up, walk out, and take a short rest during my solo. Somehow, I managed to keep going for what has to have been a full five minutes until they came back in and picked it up. Got a standing ovation for that one, but I was coated in nervous sweat afterward!

I got to see Maynard Ferguson, Herbie Mann, Buddy Rich, Doc Severinson, Count Basie, Woody Herman, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the Air Force jazz band .. and I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two. I got to meet many of these and the bands as well. The AF jazz band, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra invited a few local HS students to sit in with them in a jazz clinic, and my band director always sent me. So, I got to play "In The Mood" and "String of Pearls" with the GMO. Talk about an amazing experience!

There are some other great stories from those experiences, but we'll leave those for another day.

Bill

[Northmount]

Take a look at Jim Milan's Bucket List Jazz Band on YouTube. These guys are all over 75. Jim is my father's cousin and if I remember right, over 90.

Also on Facebook

Not exactly Big Bands, but great music you don't see very often today.

Tom

[TinkerTailor]

Tinker, Thanks for the great music.

Yup, no prob. I have been a DJ for a long time. Used to play these epic 6 hour all vinyl daytime sets at electronic music festivals. They usually followed a theme down a rabbit hole with little regard for genre.

Since we are on the topic of swing, here is another couple swing tunes for ya, down the rabbit hole we go:

You are at a festival, You have been dancing all night, and you are now on the beach, the sun is shining. You are laying around, boat drink in hand, waiting with everyone else for the party to start again. This is the soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JybLlsu_ZX0

Some of you may hate this one, I think that if Glenn Miller had synths and drum machines, this is what he would do too. If you had seen what this track does to a dance floor full of people, you would agree. I personally think this track is really tastefully arranged for todays ear: (could use a little mastering)

[TinkerTailor]

Owl right, nobody gonna jack this thread.

Art

[judgebc]

My, instructor at Pajaro Elementary School played Saxophone for Glenn Miller, so I listened to a lot of this music.

My favorite song is "In The Mood".

Thanks, Art