Anyone who questions the drawing power of a big band today should have been at Memorial Hall in Melrose, Mass. on Saturday evening, November 12. The American Big Band Preservation Society (ABBPS) sponsored its first major fundraiser concert and dance called “The Big Bands Are Back” to help fund in-school band music programs in Melrose. Continue Reading
Articles Written By: admin
“Here’s to Anita” by Arnie Koch
Anita O’Day was one of our premier jazz and big band artist who lived her life without ever looking back – as described in the award-winning film documentary Anita O’Day – The Life of A Jazz Singer and her autobiography High Times Hard Times . Both are no- holds-barred accounts of her career’s ups and downs, including a 20-year addiction to heroin and alcohol.
Jazz SInger is filled with vivid, candid images of many of her compatriots in the world of jazz and big bands. Some of her more fascinating observations: Continue Reading
“The Leader” Author Unknown
THE LEADER
And so it came to pass, during one evening’s performance
that the Sidemen were assailed by Doubts – and Darkness
descended on the Bandstand. And the Leader turned to his
quaking flock, and saith, “Mv children, why do you doubt me?
Have I not led you through the Valley of the Loading Dock to
the Great Land of Long Breaks, Hot Meals, and Undertime ?
Have I not banished the dreaded Macarena from the Set List
and allowed thee to Blow on selected numbers? Continue Reading
“Looking Back: Goodbye Benny, et al” by Arnie Koch
When the Benny Goodman Orchestra appeared at the Metropolitan Theater in Boston in May 1937, the Boston Morning Globe reported: “The Metropolitan Theater yesterday appeared to hold every boy and girl in Greater Boston who could beg a school ‘absent’ excuse from a tolerant parent. Benny Goodman, King of Swing, is in town, which means that the youngsters of the city are in their seventh heaven of rapture. What shrieks of joy as he played ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ in his own swingy rhythms! What yells and whistles and stampings followed Gene Krupa’s drumming exhibitions!” Read more at the Melrose Free Press: http://www.wickedlocal.com/melrose/archive/x1259742252/Looking-Back-Goodbye-Benny-et-al#ixzz1TG0j8R8c
Here’s to The Vocalists! by Arnie Koch
Seldom acknowledged is how many big bands provided the “launching pads” for their vocalists who went on to fame and. sometimes, fortunes. Many became as important and familiar to the public as their former employers, .As the big band era began to fade, their careers blossomed. It is an impressive list: Continue Reading
THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE…
May 28th, 2011
Thank you to everyone who has visited our site and signed up to be a part of our mission. We are currently re-organizing to localize within the Boston area and recruit volunteers to assist in our upcoming fundraising events and cataloguing our small but growing library of arrangements. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting the titles of our unpublished arrangement library and listing our new sponsors. If you would like to join us in our efforts and live in the Boston or surrounding area, please contact us.
Amanda Carr, Founder
Charlie’s Angel by Arnie Koch
Dick Ruedebusch from Milwaukee was a powerhouse on the trumpet, similar to Al Hirt. In 1965, Dick was playing with the Salt City Six in the Lounge at the Cape Colony Inn in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, led by Sam Donahue with featured vocalist, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was playing in the main ball room.
The band also featured lead trumpet player, Charlie Shavers. Shavers had first joined Tommy Dorsey in1945 to play the jazz chair and sometime lead trumpet. It was the first time an African-American had become a regular member of the band. Peggy Schwartz, a member of Dorsey’s Sentimentalists, recalled that, despite his importance to the band, “Charlie had to go through the backdoor of hotels on the road. He could never eat with the rest of the band. We had to bring him whatever he wanted from the restaurant or diner.” Continue Reading
“A Night to Remember at Carnegie Hall” … by Arnie Koch
On November 1976, drummer Danny D’Imperio joined Woody Herman’s “Thundering Herd” for a 40th Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall. It was in November, 1936 that the fledgling Herman crew, newly- constructed from musicians from the disbanded Isham Jones orchestra, played its first job at the Roseland in Brooklyn.
As the “Alumni Herd” gathered at the rehearsal studio, a jazz columnist described the scene: Continue Reading
Those Were the Days…By Arnie Koch
Most of top jazz clubs have long since faded away, but not from our memories. In Boston, there was the Hi Hat at Massachusetts and Columbus Avenues where Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Roy Eldridge frequently appeared and Symphony Sid did his nightly broadcasts over WCOP. Nearby was The Savoy which featured more traditional jazz as did Storyville in the basement of the Buckminster Hotel in Kenmore 
. It was run by former BU student and jazz impresario, George Wein, who later founded the Newport Jazz Festival. The clubs provided work for many future stars such as George Benson who appeared at Estelle’s on Tremont St. I can remember going to Paul’s Mall on Boylston Street and seeing Bette Midler with a young accompanist named Barry Manilow. Continue Reading
Wall Street Journal applauds the ABBPS
From Keeping the Big Band Sound Alive by Nat Hentoff, in The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 3, 2010).
Characteristically, Ms. Carr has researched, pondered and created a specific agenda for the ABBPS. It will not only provide educational clinics and master classes to students from elementary school through college, but also assist young music teachers, many of whom have not had any experience with this music but are expected to teach public-school jazz bands or music ensembles. “We plan to focus on schools that don’t have enough funding for a curriculum that would support, in whole or part, big-band education or performances,” she says.
But to bring vivid pleasure to all this orientation, the ABBPS will, Ms. Carr continues, “perform live concerts in schools, playing selected arrangements from our library and getting young people excited about this music. Kids needs to hear this music played live.”
Read the full article here or click here to download a PDF version.
12
