The Virtual Victrola

"Futuristic Rhythm" Audio Program #7 - Artie Shaw (Part 1 of 3)

Episode #7 of Futuristic Rhythm explores the early career of clarinetist and Big Band leader Artie Shaw (1910 - 2004).  May 2010 is Shaw's centenary; he was born on May 23, 1910.  The show begins with several examples of Shaw as a sideman with various groups in the early to mid 1930's then focuses on his first two big bands -- Artie Shaw and his Orchestra, featuring a string quartet, and Art Shaw and his New Music, which was a traditional swing orchestra with 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, 4 saxophones, and a rhythm section.  The show concludes with Artie Shaw's first million-selling hit, Begin The Beguine, recorded in July 1938.   Forthcoming episodes will explore Shaw's 1939 - 1944 bands, his post-war band leading efforts, and his Grammercy Five small group.

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Futuristic Rhythm - Artie Shaw 1,  Part 1  

Download Part One (12.2 Mb MP3 audio  34:46)

Futuristic Rhythm - Artie Shaw 1,  Part 2 

Download Part Two (12.7 Mb MP3 audio  36:08)

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Playlist:

Artie Shaw and his Strings - Streamline (1936)

Roger Wolfe Kahn, v/ The Kahn-A-Sirs - Fit As A Fiddle (1932)

Bunny Berigan and his Men - I Can't Get Started (1936)
Chick Bullock and his Levee Loungers - With Plenty of Money and You (1936)
Bill Challis Orch., v/ Bea and the Bachelors - Mimi (1936)

Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Sugar Foot Stomp (1936)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Copenhagen (1936)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Cream Puff (1936)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - My Blue Heaven (1936)

Art Shaw and his New Music - The Chant (1937)
Art Shaw and his New Music - Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum (1937)
Art Shaw and his New Music - The Blues (parts A & B) (1937)
Art Shaw and his New Music - Free Wheeling (1937)

Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Non Stop Flight (1938)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Back Bay Shuffle (1938)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Comin' On (1938)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Nightmare (1938)
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra - Begin The Beguine (1938)

"The Blue Room" in the "Buff"

In 1926, songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart scored several big hits from the Broadway musical The Girlfriend.  One of those songs was "The Blue Room":

VERSE

All my future plans,
Dear, will suit your plans.
Read the little blueprints.
Here's your mother's room.
Here's your brother's room.
On the wall are two prints.
Here's the kiddies' room,
Here's the biddy's room,
Here's a pantry lined with shelves, dear.
Here I've planned for us
Something grand for us,
Where we two can be ourselves, dear.

REFRAIN

We'll have a blue room,
A new room,
For two room,
Where ev'ry day's a holiday
Because you're married to me.
Not like a ballroom,
A small room,
A hall room,
Where I can smoke my pipe away
With your wee head upon my knee.
We will thrive on,
Keep alive on,
Just nothing but kisses,
With Mister and Missus
On little blue chairs.
You sew your trousseau,
And Robinson Crusoe
Is not so far from worldly cares
As our blue room far away upstairs.

The tricky arpeggios in the song's refrain, along with its pleasant chord progression, made the tune popular with jazz musicians, and it soon entered into the standard jazz and big band repertory.

Here are two versions of the song released on the popular "buff" cream and blue Bluebird label of the mid-1930's.

In December 1932, the Bennie Moten Orchestra from Kansas City made their way to the Victor recording studios in Camden, NJ.  The band was in the midst of an unsuccessful string of one-nighters in the Northeast, driving from town to town in a broken-down bus with no heat.  The band members were broke and starving.  By some good fortune, the band's bus struck a rabbit on a backwoods road; the band was able to beg ingredients from locals and make a rabbit stew, which was the only food the band had on the day before their Victor recording session.

But the band's dire straits are nowhere to be heard on those records.  The band tears into "The Blue Room" with a ferocious intensity matched by few other bands.  Soloists include Oran "Hot Lips" Page on trumpet, Eddie Barefield on clarinet, and Ben Webster on tenor saxophone.  The head arrangement concludes with some of the most exciting riffing ever captured on record, a precursor of what was to become known as "Kansas City swing."

Download Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orch - The Blue Room.mp3

Opposite in virtually every respect from the Bennie Moten orchestra was the New York-based dance orchestra of Isham Jones.  He demanded top dollar for engagements, and filled his band with the best musicians and arrangers available.  Jones was well-known as a successful songwriter, and as a bandleader he was a relentless perfectionist; thus his men enjoyed a reputation as one of the best groups in New York City. 

This August 1934 recording of "The Blue Room" was probably arranged by Gordon Jenkins, who would later gain a tremendous amount of notoriety for the work he did as musical director at Decca Records in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  Prominent soloists are Saxie Mansfield on tenor sax and Chelsea Quealey on trumpet.  The horns swing hard on this record, but unfortunately the rhythm section does an inadequate job of backing them up.  Still, this is a great rendition of the tune.

Download Isham Jones  Orch - The Blue Room.mp3

April Fool! - Silly songs from the Big Band Era

Today being April Fools day, I've decided to serve up a few silly songs from the Big Band era.  No Spike Jones today, but lots of other good stuff.  Got your whoopee cushions ready?  Then off we go ...

The Internet doesn't contain a lot of information about British Music Hall star Cyril Smith.  He appeared on both sides of this 1937 recording by Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees.  "The Old Sow Song" is an amusing collection of rude noises rolled up into an effective comedy routine built around an old English song.  Vallee announces the record, and playfully gives the song's title as "I Heard Three Birds" in reference to the three blasts that punctuate the song.  This record became a runaway hit and old-timers say that it was one of the first records to really sell well as the Great Depression began to slightly ease.

Download The Old Sow Song.mp3

Barely a week after "The Old Sow Song" was recorded, Tommy Dorsey headed to the studio with a hand-picked group of musicians from his band and recorded the classic parody record "Are All My Favorite Bands Playing Or Am I Dreaming." The record was based on a current pop tune of the time, "Am I Dreaming," which Dorsey himself also recorded.  But on this version -- originally released anonymously -- his musicians ham it up to produce one of the most hilariously over-the-top parodies of "sweet" or "society" bands eve recorded.  If you're familiar with sweet bands like Guy Lombardo or Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm (whom they really go after) then you will appreciate the damage done here.  The vocalist is tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, whose phony pretentious British accent adds the final icing on the cake.

Download Are all My Favorite Bands Playing Or Am I Dreaming.mp3

The Teddy Powell Orchestra is largely forgotten today, but from 1939 until 1942 they were an extremely popular attraction in New York City and on the CBS Radio Network.  In 1941 they waxed this classic ode to the Bronx Cheer, "Serenade To A Maid," written by John Jacob Loeb.  In the process of saturating RCA Victor's microphones with spittle, they also manage to take a good shot at the Sammy Kaye and Blue Barron bands, whose leaders liked to introduce their singers in the middle of songs.

Download Serenade To A Maid.mp3

Our final bit of nonsense comes from the late 1940's, when Benny Goodman signed an exclusive contract with Capitol records.  "The Happy Blues" by "The Hollywood Hucksters" features a bit of good-natured ribbing between Goodman (still "The King Of Swing") and Capitol's top bandleader at the time, the progressive Stan Kenton.  And along the way you'll hear some great jazz solos by Benny Carter on alto, Benny Goodman on clarinet, and Charlie Shavers on trumpet.

Download Happy Blues.mp3