21 Pardon My Pups: The Boswell Sisters
Tell me, why do we alternate chapters of a particular genre with an actual artist? The Boswell Sisters were, apparently a singing trio who appeared in a couple of films with Bing Crosby that "don't do them justice". Then something about Mildred Bailey who may have been an inspiration for Billie Holiday and others.
22 Make These People Sway: British Dance Bands
I'm more on familiar territory here. Starting in the 1920's "it was modern, streamlined and it felt like the future, a sophisticated future". The bands had adopted a string bass and Spanish guitar to replace the sousaphone and banjo. In the West End of London, Ambrose was playing at The Mayfair Hotel and Jack Jackson at The Dorchester. (To digress, Jack Jackson started out as trumpeter and bandleader. I knew him when he became a radio compere and then a disc jockey. I remember him on Radio Luxemburg at the end of the 1950's and early 60's presenting Jack Jackson's Juke Box. Never more than a minute for each record fast and furiously interspersed with humour, noises and anything he could think of.)
New halls were springing up everywhere to host live music and dancing such as the Hammersmith Palais. Bandleaders such as Henry Hall, Harry Roy, Ambrose and Geraldo made a lot of money. With others I had never heard of who get pages and pages.
23 Fascinating Rhythm: Fred Astaire and the Dance Hall Boom
Does the dancer Fred deserve a chapter of his own on pop music. Maybe the author needed this to create the fifty chapters. So much is familiar: his dancing partners, and the movies such as Top Hat in 1936. But we also hear about the sad story of Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson where the author cannot resist telling us a nasty piece about racism in Britain that supposedly led to his demise. He should keep these remarks for another book.
24 Eighty-Eight Key Smiles: Fats Waller and Friends
Another artist whose LP I played time and time again. We hear about the background of Fats Waller and how he became the greatest of all the stride-piano players. We are told a lovely story about how Fats was abducted to play at a birthday party of one Al Capone. By the end of the 1920's he was composing standards such as Ain't Misbehavin'. "His workload was prolific", so many recordings, so many appearances. We then hear about his major composition, the six part London Suite. All on YouTube.
Maybe the most interesting bit was about the pianist Art Tatum who Fats thought was God. Art's technique was simply superlative in all genres of music. Far more modern than Fats and, again, lots on YouTube. Finally a note about Earl Hines who played with Louis Armstrong (I may have that record) before taking his own band on the road.
25 Tight Like That: The Age of Swing
I was looking forward to this chapter. America's big bands were hugely popular with so many big names of whom I have seen a few live (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman). But not Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Gene Kupra, Les Brown (and his band of renown) and Stan Kenton who were just the ones I knew.
These bands saw the large growth in big ballrooms and spectacular venues where the dancing boom had been popularised by Fred Astaire. They were made for the big bands. Hollywood's Palladium had 12,500 square feet of dancefloor and 35,000 were there the week Harry James played there.
However, the author tells us that "swing was born at Roseland (1658 Broadway) in the late 1920's thanks to Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra" with it's biggest success in 1935/6. We hear about their history and the thirteen piece orchestra. See their Harlem Madness on YouTube. The only member of the band I knew was saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
There is then a part about Benny Goodman, his tours and residencies. There is so much detail in this book that it makes my head hurt. Their recording sessions, where they played. So much detail. The same goes for Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey etc etc.
26 Serenade in Blue: The Great American Songbook
These are "a collection of standards that began with Jerome Kern's They Didn't Believe Me. Apart from the obvious composers of whom we have already heard, many of the big songs were written by people we had never heard of. Such as Herman Hupfeld who wrote As Time Goes By. The list goes on and on. Then a much longer piece about Cole Porter, obviously. But then why do the Marx Brothers come into this chapter??? Thank goodness it ends with George Gershwin's songs for Fred Astaire's 1937 film Shall We Dance, that included many standards such as Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus) and They Can't Take That Away From Me.
27 The Winds Grow Colder: Judy Garland and Billie Holiday
Back to alternating genres with artists. But why a couple of opposites? And which one do you think supplies the picture at the start. Not the right one for me. If I wanted to read biographies of these two I would buy a separate book, but I do not. Here we get potted bios from other sources. For example Judy Garland's final film at Shepperton. ("You'll miss me when I'm gone"), and Billie Holiday at Manchester Free Trade Hall when her microphone failed and she sang unamplified to huge applause.
28 Be like the Kettle and Sing: Britain at War
An unusual beginning with Tony Crombie, a jazz drummer, recording "in 1941 at least 50 clubs in Soho". He said that the bombs lit up the city as he walked back. But when war was declared, the BBC decided to cut out all music, pop, light or serious. But when subjected to fierce criticism, that didn't last. We hear about Vera Lynn (of course), The Squadronaires and other female groups. These were fighting losing battles to members going off with GI's. The BBC's house bands were Geraldo and Jack Payne. Then Victor Silvestre and ballroom dancing that continued into the 50's. (Mum and Dad met at a dance). I skipped the piece on Gracie Fields.
29 Why Don't You Do Right: America at War
In 1940 "America danced as Europe fell to the German army". We hear all that was happening in New York, ballrooms, dance halls and the bands kept playing. Back to 1928 and a piece about juke boxes that started life as "a new machine called the Orchestrope". It could take 28 records. When America finally came into the war, it's all about female groups (again) such as the Andrews Sisters. And how in 1942 the American Government rationed record production to save on shellac whose main supplier was Burma then occupied by the Japanese.
30 Hot Licks with Vanilla: Glenn Miller
This does deserve a chapter on it's own, although so much is familiar. I have an EP that, of course, includes Chattanooga Choo Choo. We hear about the Army Airforce Band that Captain Glenn Miller put together during WW2 that had "umpteen number ones". He actually took his band "to Britain in the summer of 1944" just before I was born. He was just forty years old. We are told they performed 800 times! We are told about that huge string section, but there is nothing on the internet to support this theory! However, then came disaster. Leaving the UK his plane was lost and never recovered. See James Stewart in "The Glenn Miller Story".
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