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Big Band Bash

Big Band Bash

Frank Miller 407 Episodes Jul 26, 2025

Big Band Bash is a show presenting the music, musicians, and era of the great Big Bands. Each show highlights a different aspect of the big bands, whether it be a show about a certain band or bandleader or a subject of the big bands anywhere from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I hope to get your feet tapping with this great music.

Episodes

Record Labels Part 1 - Decca Repeat Jul 26, 2025 00:59:57 When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all tho
Will Bradley and His Orchestra Repeat Jul 12, 2025 01:00:13 I'm back from vacation and have some new programs under way. Here is the first, spotlighting one of my favorite big bands. Will Bradley was a great trombonist who worked with several name orchestras when he was persuaded to start up his own orchestra in 1939. They had an exciting pianist in Freddie Slack and sperked an interest in boogie woogie with their hit Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar. I hope
Woody Herman - A 100th Birthday Salute Part 2 Repeat Jul 5, 2025 01:01:57 May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that
Woody Herman - A 100th Birthday Salute Part 2 Repeat Jul 5, 2025 01:01:57 May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that
Woody Herman - A 100th Birthday Salute Part 1 Repeat Jun 28, 2025 00:58:36 May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. To celebrate this milestone we will be playing some of his early recordings made between the years of 1939 and 1946 on the show today which is part one of two. I was fortunate enough to see the Herman band in person not once but twice. They were a very exciting band and I have been a fan ev
Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions Part 2 Repeat Jun 21, 2025 00:58:26 I am continuing this week with part two of Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions which has selected cuts from the Mosaic Record Company's eight disc set of the same name. The sound quality is great and most of these songs are from Artie's classic years. All of the songs on the show are instrumentals as that was how Mosaic elected to produce the set. I hope you enjoy part 2 of The Classic
Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions Part 1 Repeat Jun 14, 2025 00:58:29 In 2011 I bought two 8 disc sets from the Mosaic Record Company. The first was dedicated to the Columbia sides of Benny Goodman which I presented a show on a few weeks ago. The second is what our show today is about. This disc set featured the classic Bluebird recordings of Artie Shaw. For all the vocal fan listeners I have to apologize as this set only focus on the instrumentals. But what a colle
Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 2 Repeat Jun 7, 2025 00:58:07 This week I am going to continue with part two of the Mosaic box set, The Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Session 1939 -1957. These are many of the recordings that Benny made during those years and these are all instrumental recordings. Benny had some great vocalists during those years but Mosaic kept this set to just instrumentals. Some of the songs we'll be listening to include
Classic Columbia and Okeh BG Orchestra Sessions Part 1 Repeat May 31, 2025 00:59:10 This week we will be listening to selections from a Mosaic Record Company set that I have called the Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions. This is part one of a show I did back in 2012 and repeated almost three years ago in 2019. These are all the instrumental recordings that Benny did for Columbia and the Okeh record label. Unfortunately the producers of this set omitted all
Metronome Magazine Part Two May 24, 2025 00:59:23 This is part two of a program I did on Metronome Magazine. In the issue, there was a section devoted to record reviews. In part one, I started to play many of the records that they were reviewing. We continue with more record reviews from Metronome magazine from March of 1942. The cover featured a blue background and a great picture of Jimmy Dorsey. Many of these songs were not hits for the bands
Benny Goodman A Birthday Salute 2 Remotes May 17, 2025 00:57:42 May 30, 1909 is the birthday of bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Instead of playing some of his hits which I've done in past programs, I would like to play two radio remotes. These were recorded Oct 23 and 27, 1937 when the Goodman orchestra was appearing at the Manhattan room of The Hotel Pennsylvania. Benny was the first bandleader that I started listening to when I was a senior in high
Metronome Magazine Part One May 10, 2025 00:59:53 When I was in high school, my dad knew of my interest in the big bands. While out at his job, he found someone that was getting rid of several issues of Metronome Magazine. I still have them and I thought it would be interesting to try to find as many of the record reviews as I could. The cover featured a blue background and a great picture of Jimmy Dorsey. Many of these songs were not hits for th

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