A Salute to the Golden Age of American Popular Music
We salute the music from Broadway, Hollywood, New Orleans, Tin Pan Alley and the "melody makers;" i.e. the bands and singers that brought the music to us via the radio, recordings and live events in the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. This is the golden period of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Larry Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc.
Doc Severinsen to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra’s pops: Two dates- Fri Dec 9 8PM and Sun Dec 11, 2011 2PM
Minnesota Orchestra
Doc Severinsen, conductor and trumpet
Minnesota Chorale
Twin Cities Bronze, handbell ensemble
It’s warm, it’s cozy—it’s Doc!—ushering in holiday spirit with the festive sounds of our Orchestra. Delight in lovely traditions and join us for the jolliest concert of the year…hot cocoa for the soul!
Orchestra Hall (Get Directions)
1111 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Doc Severinsen became the Minnesota Orchestra’s pops conductor laureate in April 2007, after completing 14 seasons as principal pops conductor. He has enjoyed a six-decade career as conductor, trumpet soloist and bandleader, well-known as the former music director of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a position he held for more than 25 years.
Severinsen made his Minnesota Orchestra debut in 1965, and in 2003 was featured with the Orchestra in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus’ Concerto for Two Trumpets and Orchestra, written for Severinsen and Manny Laureano, the Orchestra’s principal trumpet. In February 2010 Severinsen and his Mexican-based ensemble, the San Miguel 5 (also known as El Ritmo de la Vida), made a return engagement to Orchestra Hall and in June 2011 he returned with his Big Band show.
In December 2011 he will conduct two holiday pops concerts with the Orchestra and its principal chorus, the Minnesota Chorale.
With more than 30 albums to his credit, Severinsen has recorded everything from big band and jazz-fusion to classical works. He received a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance—Big Band for his recording Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band—Volume I. His most recent recordings include En Mi Corazon with Gil + Cartas, where he was featured special guest (released in 2009) and El Ritmo de la Vida, also with Gil + Cartas, which was released in 2010.
Severinsen currently works with the S.E. Shires Company in Massachusetts, whose line of trumpets include the S.E. Shires Severinsen Destino III, a model developed through Doc’s supervision until his exacting standards of quality and sound were met.
In recent years, Severinsen also served as principal pops conductor of the Milwaukee and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras.
In his non-musical moments, Severinsen enjoys horses, cooking and collecting American art. For more information, visit docseverinsen.com.
The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach, Florida) today announced a new date for the upcoming performance by Grammy® Award-winning singer Diana Krall. Originally scheduled for February 11, the concert will now be held on March 26 at 8 p.m. in the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. Concert Hall.
People who have already purchased tickets to see Diana Krall may retain their tickets for the new date of March 26. Should they wish to receive a refund, they must return their tickets to the Kravis Center box office, in person or by mail, for a refund. If they paid by credit card a refund will be issued to their credit card. If they paid by cash or check, a check will be issued and mailed to the address in their account.
About the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts:
Celebrating 20 Years of Artistic Excellence and Commitment to the Community, the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is a not-for-profit performing arts center whose mission is to enhance the quality of life in Palm Beach County by presenting a diverse schedule of national and international artists and companies of the highest quality; by offering comprehensive arts education programs; by providing a Palm Beach County home in which local and regional arts organizations can showcase their work; and by providing economic catalyst and community leadership in West Palm Beach, supporting efforts to increase travel and tourism to Palm Beach County.
The Kravis Center is located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach, FL. For more information, please call 561-832-7469 or visit kravis.org.
NJ News: State Theatre in New Brunswick will present the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra & The Pied Pipers in A Christmas Gift on Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 3pm. Led by Conductor Bill Tole, and featuring vocalist Nancy Knorr, the program will include a big band selection of holiday songs both old and new as well as the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra hits “Tangerine,” “Maria Elena,” and “I Understand.” This performance is underwritten by Ralph Voorhees. Tickets range from $32-52.
State
The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra was formed by expert Clarinetist/Alto-Saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey along with his brother Tommy Dorsey in the spring of 1934. The band was originally named the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. One of Dorsey’s biggest instrumental hits was entitled “So Rare.”
Jimmy Dorsey CD
Dorsey was given a Gold Record for the song two days before his death in 1957. The orchestra continued on for the next 33 years under the leadership of the great trumpeter Lee Castle.
Today, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra is under the musical direction of trombonist Bill Tole. Tole has recorded with legendary artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and many others over the past four decades. He also portrayed the part of Tommy Dorsey in the movie New York New York in 1977.
The Pied Pipers joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in January 1940, just before singer Frank Sinatra joined the group. Together, The Pied Pipers and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra released their famous song, “I’ll Never Smile Again” which remained a hit on the charts for 15 weeks. This marked just the beginning of their success. Other hits included “This Love of Mine,” “There Are Such Things,” “Stardust,” and “Put Your Dreams Away for the Day.”
In June of 1992, Nancy Knorr, the lead singer of The Pied Pipers, became the featured vocalist with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.
For tickets or more information, call the State Theatre ticket office at 732-246-SHOW (7469), or visit us online at www.StateTheatreNJ.org. The State Theatre ticket office, located at 15 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick NJ, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10am to 6pm; Wednesday 11am to 7pm; Saturday 1pm to 5pm; and at least one hour prior to curtain on performance dates. For information on group outings and discounts, call 732-247-7200, ext. 517. Some additional ticket and transaction fees may apply.
Q. Last year you had a very sad article about Frank Sinatra and Thanksgiving Day dinner at a New York restaurant...please repeat. J.S.
A.This is one story Frank wanted to forget, except for the great kindness he received from Sal; One of Frank Sinatra's favorite eating spots in Manhattan was Patsy’s Restaurant in Midtown. "When Frank Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, friends and fans just showed up at Patsy’s — arguably Sinatra’s favorite restaurant in New York City for decades.
Salvatore Scognamillo, the chef and co-owner, remembered people saying, “I just felt I had to be here today.” It was a place that was strongly identified with Sinatra, who had a special table upstairs in the back. “After he passed away, we needed to celebrate his life,” said Mr. Scognamillo, the grandson of the founder, Pasquale Scognamillo.
On Dec. 12, Sinatra’s birthday, Patsy’s, a New York Neapolitan restaurant, now has a tradition of serving his favorite dishes like clams Posillipo, fusilli with fileto di pomodoro, and ricotta torte for dessert. Another one of Sinatra favorites was veal Milanese. “He loved it paper thin,” Mr. Scognamillo said. “We certainly wouldn’t be in the position we would be today if it wasn’t for him,” Mr. Scognamillo said.
Much of their high-profile customer base is like an exercise in six degrees of separation from Sinatra, he said. For example, he said, “Julia Roberts was brought in by George Clooney, who was brought in by Aunt Rosemary Clooney, and Rosemary Clooney was brought in by Frank Sinatra.” There was one example of Patsy’s level of customer service for Sinatra, also recounted in “Patsy’s Cookbook,” that Mr. Scognamillo said sealed the singer’s loyalty to the restaurant.
One November in the early 1950s, Mr. Sinatra was having a rough time both professionally and personally. His career was in a gradual slide that had steepened after 1948 and hit bottom in 1952. He had divorced and remarried into a tumultuous relationship with Ava Gardner, which was also in decline. It was before his Oscar-winning performance in “From Here to Eternity,” before reinvention as a cosmopolitan crooner of the 1950s from the 1940s starry-eyed boy next door. “Before his comeback, he was down and out,” Mr. Scognamillo recalled. Sinatra was alone at the restaurant the night before Thanksgiving, and many of the other customers walked right past him without acknowledging him. “They are all my fair-weather friends,” he said at the time, Mr. Scognamillo said.
He said he wanted to eat Thanksgiving dinner at Patsy’s. Mr. Scognmillo’s grandfather did not have the heart to tell him that the restaurant was normally closed for the holiday. “He felt like he would have hurt his pride if he had done that, so he didn’t say anything,” Mr. Scognamillio said.
So the restaurant made the reservation. And his grandfather called up the staff and told them to bring their families in for Thanksgiving. “They were moaning and groaning,” Mr. Scognamillio said. But they understood it was for Sinatra.
The restaurant also called in some other guests to fill out the restaurant — though not enough that Sinatra did not notice that it was somewhat emptier than usual the next day. So they opened for Thanksgiving for Sinatra, who had a 3 p.m. reservation. Not until years later did Sinatra find out that they had opened just for him, Mr. Scognamillo said. But no one ever said anything. And the lifelong relationship between Patsy’s and Sinatra was sealed."
Our friend Dennis Spragg has sent this message today from the University of Colorado Boulder American Music Research Center Glenn Miller Archive:
We are pleased to announce the verification of an important discovery that correlates to the events of 15 December 1944 and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Major A. Glenn Miller aboard United States Army Air Forces (AAF) UC-64A-type aircraft 44-70285.
The late Richard Anderton was employed at the Miles Aircraft Establishment atWoodley Airfield, England. Mr. Anderton kept detailed daily observations of the movements of aircraft in the skies around the airfield and in all directions. The observations were arranged in a consistent and precise manner that noted the location of passing aircraft, estimated altitude and direction of flight.
On 15 December 1944, weather conditions were overcast which restricted the number of aircraft that Mr. Anderton could log. However, during his 12:00-15:00 BST observation segment, he logged a UC-64A-type aircraft passing to his east, at the horizon and flying below the overcast in a southeasterly direction.
Mr. Anderton's family has preserved his observation notebooks. They learned about the forthcoming publication of a comprehensive report regarding the events of 15 December 1944 and contacted Dennis M. Spragg of the GMA who is the author of the study. Mr. Spragg carefully reviewed the notebooks, confirmed their authenticity and compared the information to the known facts about the flight path of UC-64A 44-70285.
Mr. Spragg is pleased to confirm that Mr. Anderton's 15 December 1944 observation is consistent with the flight path of UC-64A 44-70285, aboard which as a passenger was Major A. Glenn Miller, Director of the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces ("ABAEF"), Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme (Radio) ("AEFP") of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF).
Major Miller, the famous bandleader, was enroute RAF (Royal Air Force Station) Twinwood Field, Bedfordshire, England to AAF (U. S. Army Air Force Station) Villacoublay, Versailles, France.
UC-64A
UC-64A 44-70285 and its pilot were assigned to the 35th Depot Repair Squadron, Second Strategic Air Depot, VIII AAF Service Command, AAF Abbots-Ripton (Alconbury), Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. The air depot was located adjacent to the Alconbury airbase and aircraft transiting the air depot operated from the Alconbury airbase.
UC-64A 44-70285 departed AAF Alconbury at 13:17 BST 15 December 1944 and landed at RAF Twinwood Field at 13:45 BST to take on passengers. UC-64A 44-70285 departed RAF Twinwood Field at 13:53 BST. The pilot was required to operate the aircraft along a standard air transport route via the navigation waypoints AAF Bovingdon (England), Maidenhead (England), Beachy Head (England), overwater to Fecamp (France) and thence AAF Villacoublay. The Royal Observation Corps observation station at Beachy Head logged a UC-64A-type aircraft with United
States insignia passing overhead along the standard route and traveling underneath overcast cloud cover during the 14:32-14:47 BST observation log. The Beachy Head observation is detailed along with the RAF Twinwood Field departure in the U. S. Eighth Air Force enquiry into the circumstances of the UC-64A 44-70285 flight (January 1945). Based upon the forward cruising airspeed of the UC-64A-type aircraft and reported surface wind observations, the UC-64A-type
aircraft was observed passing overhead Beachy Head at approximately 14:37 BST.
Woodley Airfield (Miles Aircraft Establishment) was located within eight miles of the Maidenhead navigation waypoint. Maidenhead was a point at which the pilot would make a turn from a compass heading of 210 degrees to 135 degrees. An observer at Woodley Airfield could see an aircraft traveling along this route. The Anderton notebooks have similar such observations for numerous aircraft over many months, so the 15 December 1944 observation is a straightforward and consistent notation. Mr. Spragg estimates that UC-64A 44-70285 passed the Maidenhead navigation waypoint at approximately 14:10 BST.
Therefore, Mr. Anderton appears to have been the next-to-last known observer of UC-64A 44-70285 and Major A. Glenn Miller, although from a distance. His observation is another detail which confirms that pilot F/O (Flight Officer) John R. S. Morgan was operating his aircraft on schedule and on course from RAF Twinwood Field to the Beachy Head observation station at 14:37 BST Friday, 15 December 1944. The aircraft did not arrive at AAF Villacoublay. The aircraft
should have passed overhead Fecamp between 15:03 and 15:07 BST and should have arrived at AAF Villacoublay between 15:47 and 15:51 BST. F/O Morgan, Major Miller and passenger Lt. Col. Norman Baessell, VIII AAF Service Command, Milton Ernest, England were never seen again and aircraft wreckage was never located."
The GMA and Mr. Spragg wish to thank the Anderton family for their courtesy and confidence in turning over this new evidence to us for verification. We are pleased to announce our positive finding and confirmation.
The forthcoming comprehensive manuscript "Major A. Glenn Miller, 15 December 1944, The Facts" is being completed and the publication date is pending.
(Note: the airfield and waypoint terminologies cited in this statement reflect the United States Army Air Forces characterizations used as of 15 December 1944).
Jazz News: The Raritan Valley Community College’s Student Jazz Ensemble will perform in concert Thursday, December 8, at 8 p.m., in the Welpe Theatre at the College’s Branchburg Campus.
The group is directed by John Loehrke of New York City.
The ensemble will perform pieces by a variety of jazz artists, including Duke Pearson, Sam Jones, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and Thelonious Monk.
The group also will perform music from the great American songbook, featuring work by composers Jerome Kern and Sammy Cahn. As a special feature, an original composition by a student member of the ensemble will be premiered.
The group includes the following members: Keith Bernstein, Branchburg; John Fiorilla, Watchung; Kyle Kassick, Somerset; Travis Thierren, Matt Ward, Jeffery Boyer, Phillipsburg; Jack Williams, High Bridge; Mike Hufnagel, Mike Hernandez, Flemington; Peter Brown, Whitehouse Station; Nick Callands, Somerville; Dan Curry, Ringoes; Matt Gordeuk, Baptistown; Kevin Guevara, N. Plainfield; Matt Hollenbach, Piscataway; and Charles Mcginnis, Hillsborough.
General admission tickets cost $10 in advance ($12 at the door). Tickets for students and seniors cost $5 in advance ($7.50 at the door). For tickets, call the Box Office, 908-725-3420. For more information, call 908-218-8876.
RVCC’s main campus is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. Serving Somerset and Hunterdon County residents for over 40 years, the College offers more than 90 associate degrees and certificates. RVCC @ Bridgewater, located at 14 Vogt Drive, offers technical, trade, credit and non-credit courses.
Q. What is the true story of how Frank Sinatra got the role of Maggio in the movie From Here To Eternity?
A. Nancy Sinatra gave this interview to a British paper several years ago; Interviewer: "It is often assumed that the way in which Frank Sinatra was cast in the 1953 film From Here To Eternity was as depicted in The Godfather film. The Mob used their influence - for which he won an Oscar - made him the model for Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather, the crooner whose gangster friends make the director an offer he can't refuse. Did we assume likewise?"
Nancy: "You know, it is so funny, that is asked in the UK a lot, but in America hardly at all. I guess that in Hollywood everybody knew it was a joke, although Dad didn't find it funny. He didn't like it. It stirred up some unpleasant stuff from the 1940s and 1950s, and in any case, he was not one to ask for favors. But later in life, he found a sense of humor about it."
"He got the role of Pvt. Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953) after Eli Wallach passed on it to do a Tennessee Williams play on stage, according to Wallach on a broadcast of "Morning Sedition" on "Air America Radio."
However, Tina Sinatra has stated that also providing assistance was Frank's wife Ava Gardner. Gardner's power in Hollywood (friendship with Columbia's studio chief Harry Cohn), helped Sinatra get to audition for From Here to Eternity (1953).
The salary has been reported as either $4000 or $8000.....far below his MGM level. As we all know, his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor helped revitalize Frank Sinatra's professional career.
Frank and Ava separated in October 1953, and finally divorced in 1957.
The Artie Shaw Orchestra is playing Saturday night at the Centenary Stage Company on the campus of Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey.
On the eve of America's entry into World War II, TIME magazine reported that to the German masses the United States meant "sky-scrapers, Clark Gable, and Artie Shaw." Some 42 years after that, in December l983, Artie Shaw made a brief return to the bandstand, after thirty years away from music, not to play his world-famous clarinet but to launch his latest (and still touring) orchestra at the newly refurbished Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York.
Oddly enough, New Rochelle isn't all that far from New Haven, Connecticut, where Artie Shaw spent his formative years and at an early age became a compulsive reader, and where at 14 he began to play the saxophone (and several months later the clarinet), and at 15 left home to play all over America, and meanwhile study the work of his early jazz idols, such as Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, and Louis Armstrong.
At the age of 16 Artie went to Cleveland, where he remained for three years, the last two working with Austin Wylie, then Cleveland's top band leader, for whom Shaw took over all the arranging and rehearsing chores. In 1927 Artie heard several "race" records, the kind then being made solely for distribution in black (or "colored," as they were then known) districts.
After listening entranced to Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five playing Savoy Blues, West End Blues, and other now-classic Louis Armstrong records from the late 1920's, Artie made a pilgrimage to Chicago's Savoy Ballroom to hear the great trumpet player in person. Back in Cleveland, Artie, now 17, won an essay-writing contest which took him out to Hollywood in 1928, where he ran into a couple of musicians he had known back in New Haven who were now working in Irving Aaronson's band. A year later, at the age of 19, Artie moved to Hollywood to join the Aaronson band.
Shortly afterwards, the Aaronson band spent the summer of 1930 in Chicago, where Artie "discovered a whole new world" (as he would much later write, in a semi-autobiographical book The Trouble With Cinderella first published in 1952) when he heard several recordings of some of the then avant-garde symphonic composers' work: Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartok, Ravel, et al, whose work would eventually influence most of our contemporary jazz performers. This influence would soon surface in Shaw's own work when he began to use strings, woodwinds, etc.-notably in a highly unusual album entitled Modern Music for Clarinet, selections of which were also featured in several of Shaw's Carnegie Hall concerts.
When the Aaronson band came to New York in 1930, Artie decided to stay there, and within the year, at age 21, he became the top lead-alto sax and clarinet player in the New York radio and recording studios. After a couple of years of commercial work, he became disillusioned with the music business and bought some acreage with an old farmhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He moved out there to spend the next year chopping wood for a living and trying to train himself as a writer-of books rather than music-since there seemed to be no way at that time to make a decent living playing the kind of music that interested him.
In 1934 he returned to New York to pick up his formal education where it had been abruptly terminated when he left high school at 15, and resumed studio work to support himself. He made his first public appearance as a leader in 1936, in a Swing Concert (history's first) held at Broadway's Imperial Theatre. This proved to be a major turning point in his career, and would in fact ultimately have a significant impact on the future of American Big Band jazz.
Shaw (who was then completely unknown to the general public) did something totally unorthodox to fill one of the three minute interludes in front of the stage curtain while such then established headliners as Tommy Dorsey, the Bob Crosby Band, the Casa Loma Band, etc. were being set up. Instead of the usual jazz group (a rhythm section fronted by a soloist), Shaw composed a piece of music for an octet consisting of a legitimate string quartet, a rhythm section (without piano), and himself on clarinet-an extremely innovative combination of instruments at that time.
Fronting this unusual group, he played a piece he had written expressly for the occasion, Interlude in B-flat, which the group presented to a totally unprepared and, as it turned out, wildly enthusiastic audience. (This, by the way, is the first example of what has now come to be labeled "Third Stream Music.")
Shaw could scarcely have known that within a short time he would make a hit record of a song called Begin the Beguine, which he now jokingly refers to as "a nice little tune from one of Cole Porter's very few flop shows." Shortly before that he had hired Billie Holiday as his band vocalist (the first white band leader to employ a black female singer as a full-time member of his band), and within a year after the release of Beguine, the Artie Shaw Orchestra was earning as much as $60,000 weekly-a figure that would nowadays amount to more than $600,000 a week!
The breakthrough hit record catapulted him into the ranks of top band leaders and he was immediately dubbed the new "King of Swing". Today, Shaw's recording of Begin the Beguine sells thousands and has become one of the best-selling records in history.
Superstardom turned out to be a status that Shaw (as a compulsive perfectionist) found totally uncongenial. Within a year he abruptly took off for another respite from the music business, this time in Mexico. In March of 1940 he re-emerged with a recording of Frenesi, which became another smash hit. For this recording session, he used a large studio band with woodwinds, French horns, and a full string section along with the normal dance band instrumentation-another first in big band jazz history. Later that year he formed a touring band with a good-sized string section, with which he recorded several more smash hits, among them his by now classic version of Star Dust, plus a number of other fine musical recordings such as Moonglow, Dancing in the Dark, Concerto for Clarinet, and many others.
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the unpredictable Shaw quit the music business once again, this time to enlist in the U.S. Navy. After finishing boot training, he was asked to form a service band which eventually won the national Esquire poll. He spent the next year and a half taking his music into the forward Pacific war zones, playing as many as four concerts a day throughout the entire Southwest Pacific, on battleships, aircraft carriers, and repair ships, ending with tours of Army, Navy, and Marine bases (and even a number of ANZAC ones when his band arrived in New Zealand and Australia). On returning to the U.S.-after having undergone several near-miss bombing raids in Guadalcanal-physically exhausted and emotionally depleted, he was given a medical discharge from the Navy. His troubled marriage to Betty Kern (the daughter of composer Jerome Kern) ended in divorce, and in 1944 Shaw formed another civilian band-featuring such great performers as pianist Dodo Marmarosa, guitarist Barney Kessel, and the phenomenal trumpeter Roy Eldridge-with which he toured the country and made many excellent recordings.
In 1947, during another hiatus, Shaw spent about a year in New York City in an intensive study of the relation of the clarinet to non-jazz (or, as he prefers to call it, "long-form") music. This culminated in a tour in 1949 of some of the finest musical organizations in America, such as the Rochester Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Eric Leinsdorf, the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., the Dayton Symphony, three appearances with New York's "Little Orchestra" (one in Newark, a second in Brooklyn's Academy of Music, and the last in Town Hall). After that Shaw recorded the aforementioned Modern Music for Clarinet album, containing a collection of remarkably well crafted symphonic orchestrations of short works by Shostakovich, Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud, Poulenc, Kabalevsky, Granados, Gould, along with Cole Porter and George Gershwin. About that time Shaw again appeared in Carnegie Hall, as guest soloist with the National Youth Orchestra conducted by Leon Barzin, where he received critical acclaim for his rendition of Nicolai Berezowski's formidable Concerto for Clarinet, which he had previously presented in its world premiere a few weeks earlier with the Denver Symphony. Around that time he performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein at a benefit performance, held at Ebbetts Field, for Israel's Philharmonic Orchestra. During that year, Shaw also played numerous chamber music recitals with string quartets, at various colleges and universities around the country.
Another of Shaw's ventures during that period was his great 1949 band, which was virtually ignored by the general public until 1989, when an album of some of its work was released on compact discs by MusicMasters, and has since received remarkable worldwide reviews.
In 1951 Shaw again quit the music business, this time moving to Duchess County, New York, where he bought a 240 acre dairy farm and wrote his first book, a semi-autobiographical work entitled The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity, sections of which have appeared in many anthologies, and which is still in print.
Throughout the early fifties, Artie Shaw assembled several big bands and small combos-as well as his own symphony orchestra, (to play a one-week engagement at the opening of a large New York jazz club called Bop City). One such combo which was formed in late 1953 and recorded in 1954, a group known as the Gramercy 5 (a name he took from the New York telephone exchange of the time), maintain an amazingly high degree of popularity to this day despite the onslaught of Rock, MTV, and other such commercial phenomena.
In 1954 Artie Shaw made his last public appearance as an instrumentalist when he put together a new Gramercy 5 made up of such superb modern musicians as pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Tal Farlow, bassist Tommy Potter, et al. The most comprehensive sampling of that group (as well as a number of others, going all the way back to 1936 and on up through this final set of records) can be heard on a four record album, now a rare item, released in 1984 by Book of the Month Records, entitled: Artie Shaw: A Legacy, which has also received rave reviews. Some of this music was re-issued on two double CD's by MusicMasters as Artie Shaw: The Last Recordings, Rare and Unreleased, and Artie Shaw: More Last Record_ings, The Final Sessions.
Artie Shaw packed his clarinet away once and for all in 1954. In 1955 he left the United States and built a spectacular house on the brow of a mountain on the coast of Northeast Spain, where he lived for five years. On his return to America in 1960 he settled in a small town named Lakeville, in northwestern Connecticut, where he continued his writing, and in 1964 finished a second book (consisting of three novellas) entitled I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead! In 1973, he moved back to California again, finally ending up in 1978 in Newbury Park, a small town about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, situated in what he refers to as "Southern California pickup-truck country."
Since then, aside from a brief venture into film distribution (1954 to 1956), and a number of appearances on television and radio talk shows, Artie Shaw has had very little to do with music or show business. He still gives occasional interviews on television, radio, and newspapers and lectures all over the United States. He still conducts seminars on literature, art, and the evolution of what is now known as the Big Band Era. He has given lectures at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the California State University at Northridge, and Memphis State University. He has received Honorary Doctorates at California Lutheran University and the University of Arizona. His home contains a library of more than 15,000 volumes, including a large collection of reference works on a wide variety of subjects ranging from Anthropology to Zen.
Artie Shaw has been a nationally ranked precision marksman, an expert fly-fisherman, and for the past two decades has been working on the first volume of a fictional trilogy, dealing with the life of a young jazz musician of the 1920's and 30's whose story he hopes to take on up into the 1960's.
Shaw's own life is the subject of a fine feature-length documentary by a Canadian film-maker. Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got is a painstakingly thorough examination of Shaw as he is today and as the leader of some of his great bands, including an appearance from one of his two earlier motion pictures, Second Chorus (1940). (Scenes from his other motion picture, Dancing Coed (1939), were not included in the documentary due to prohibitive cost.) In a review of the film at Los Angeles's Filmex Film Festival in the summer of 1985, Variety commented: "A riveting look back at both the big band era and one of its burning lights." The film has received glowing reviews wherever it has been shown-Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Minneapolis, Toronto, Boston, and on Cinemax-as well as in England, where it ran twice on BBC. It has also appeared at Film Festivals in Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, and Spain (where it took first prize in the documentary category). In 1986 it opened the San Francisco Film Festival, and in 1987 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded it the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature of 1986.
On first meeting Artie Shaw, young Wynton Marsalis remarked, "This man's got some history." Shaw is regarded by many as the finest and most innovative of all jazz clarinetists, a leader of several of the greatest musical aggregations ever assembled, and one of the most adventurous and accomplished figures in American music.
As Artie Shaw goes on into his nineties, he has also developed a crusty humor, as evidenced by an epitaph for himself he wrote for Who's Who in America a few years ago at the request of the editors: "He did the best he could with the material at hand." However, at a recent lecture to the music students of the University of Southern California, when someone mentioned having read it, Shaw said, "Yeah, but I've been thinking it over and I've decided it ought to be shorter, to make it more elegant." And after a brief pause, "I've cut it down to two words: 'Go away.'"
NEW CD: “Davi Sings Sinatra” is a superb love letter to the man who defined twentieth century popular music. It’s theatrical, heartfelt, and beautifully sung, while incorporating a swagger and style that evokes Sinatra.”….Charles Granata—Sinatra author, producer and historian…
There are actors who can sing, and singers who can act and iconic screen star Robert Davi is known in inner circles as the “singer who can act.” Davi, who studied opera as a young man, always intended to make singing his career, but as fate would have it his screen career took flight and there was no looking back. Now after 100 movies with remarkable diversity, hit television credits and his directorial film debut, Davi is returning to his first love, making his major recording debut with a tribute to his mentor the legendary Frank Sinatra.
DAVI SINGS SINATRA: ON THE ROAD TO ROMANCEis scheduled for release October 24, 2011 on Sun Lion Records, distributed through Fontana/Universal Music. In commenting: Jim Urie, CEO and President of Universal Music Group Distribution stated: “If we distributed coffee instead of music we’d label Davi ‘bold, rich and full flavored. We are extremely pleased and excited to have him as part of the Universal Music Group family.” Fontana president Ron Spaulding further stated: "Robert is a national treasure who brings to life all the richness of the American Songbook with this heartfelt and vocally stunning tribute to the Master himself."
The project came together under the guidance of Disney Music Group Chairman Bob Cavallo and was produced by the legendary 14 time GRAMMY Award winning and 33 time GRAMMY nominated producer Phil Ramone. Recorded with a thirty piece orchestra at the famed Capitol Studios in Hollywood, where Sinatra recorded many of his albums, Davi Sings Sinatra has all new arrangements by Nic Tenbroeck and was engineered by Dan Wallin. It was mixed by the incomparable Al Schmitt, who has 18 GRAMMYS and more that 150 gold and platinum selling albums to his credit. States Schmitt, “Robert sounds like he’s been singing these songs all his life. His phrasing and uniquely beautiful baritone voice blend perfectly with the arrangements and the result is what great music is all about.”
As an actor, Davi has been compared to the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and Lee Marvin. He has worked with the biggest names in Hollywood, from Marlon Brando to Clint Eastwood, appearing in such movies as Die Hard, Showgirls, The Goonies and considered one of the top three Bond villains of all time in License to Kill. His television credits are just as vast, starting with the hit NBC television series Profiler and continuing with Stargate: Atlantis and most recently Criminal Minds.
In making his directorial debut and starring in the 2007 award winning film The Dukes, about a one-time rock stars now on hard times, Davi showcased his singing ability. However, it was his motion picture debut in Contract on Cherry St., which made the most profound impact of all—sharing the screen with Frank Sinatra. And now “it’s time for me to go home,” Davi says. “To spend time with my first love, singing and at the same time pay tribute to the legend who was my greatest mentor and the man who was very dear to me.”
Backed by a 50-piece orchestra, Davi has been performing Davi Sings Sinatra to sold-out audiences and high critical acclaim in New York and Los Angeles. TRACK LIST: CLICK HERE FOR PURCHASE INFO
1. Day in Day Out
2. Nice ‘n Easy
3. All The Way
4. I’ve Got the World On A String
5. Witchcraft
6. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
7. Nice Work If You Can Get It
8. Summer Wind
9. Rainy Day
10. The Best Is Yet To Come
11. Mam’selle
12. Too Marvelous For Words
Richard Rodgers’ contributions to the musical theatre of his day were extraordinary, and his influence on the musical theatre of today and tomorrow is legendary. His career spanned more than six decades, and his hits ranged from the silver screens of Hollywood to the bright lights of Broadway, London and beyond. He was the recipient of countless awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. He wrote more than 900 published songs, and forty Broadway musicals.
Richard Charles Rodgers was born in New York City on June 28, 1902. His earliest professional credits, beginning in 1920, included a series of musicals for Broadway, London and Hollywood written exclusively with lyricist Lorenz Hart. In the first decade of their collaboration, Rodgers & Hart averaged two new shows every season, beginning with POOR LITTLE RITZ GIRL, and also including THE GARRICK GAIETIES (of 1925 and 1926), DEAREST ENEMY, PEGGY-ANN, A CONNECTICUT YANKEE and CHEE-CHEE. After spending the years 1931 to 1935 in Hollywood (where they wrote the scores for several feature films including LOVE ME TONIGHT starring Maurice Chevalier, HALLELUJAH, I’M A BUM starring Al Jolson and THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT starring George M. Cohan), they returned to New York to compose the score for Billy Rose’s circus extravaganza, JUMBO.
A golden period followed — golden for Rodgers & Hart, and golden for the American musical: ON YOUR TOES (1936), BABES IN ARMS (1937), I’D RATHER BE RIGHT (1937), I MARRIED AN ANGEL (1938), THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (1938), TOO MANY GIRLS (1939), HIGHER AND HIGHER (1940), PAL JOEY (1940), and BY JUPITER (1942). The Rodgers & Hart partnership came to an end with the death of Lorenz Hart in 1943, at the age of 48.
Earlier that year Rodgers had joined forces with lyricist and author Oscar Hammerstein II, whose work in the field of operetta throughout the ’20s and ’30s had been as innovative as Rodgers’ own accomplishments in the field of musical comedy. OKLAHOMA! (1943), the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, was also the first of a new genre, the musical play, representing a unique fusion of Rodgers’ musical comedy and Hammerstein’s operetta. A milestone in the development of the American musical, it also marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in Broadway musical history, and was followed by CAROUSEL (1945), ALLEGRO (1947), SOUTH PACIFIC (1949), THE KING AND I (1951), ME AND JULIET (1953), PIPE DREAM (1955), FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1959). The team wrote one movie musical, STATE FAIR (1945), and one for television, CINDERELLA. (1957). Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals earned 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and 2 Emmy Awards. In 1998 Rodgers & Hammerstein were cited by Time Magazine and CBS News as among the 20 most influential artists of the 20th century and in 1999 they were jointly commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.
Despite Hammerstein’s death in 1960, Rodgers continued to write for the Broadway stage. His first solo entry, NO STRINGS in 1962, earned him two Tony Awards for music and lyrics, and was followed by DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (1965, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), TWO BY TWO (1970, lyrics by Martin Charnin), REX (1976, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) and I REMEMBER MAMA (1979, lyrics by Martin Charnin and Raymond Jessel).
NO STRINGS was not the only project for which Rodgers worked solo: as composer/lyricist he wrote the score for a 1967 television adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s ANDROCLES AND THE LION for NBC; contributed songs to a 1962 remake of STATE FAIR; and to the 1965 movie version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. He composed one ballet score (GHOST TOWN, premiered in 1939), and two television documentary scores — VICTORY AT SEA in 1952 and THE VALIANT YEARS in 1960 (the former earning him an Emmy, a Gold Record and a commendation from the U.S. Navy.)
Richard Rodgers died at home in New York City on December 30, 1979 at the age of 77. On March 27, 1990, he was honored posthumously with Broadway’s highest accolade when the 46th Street Theatre, owned and operated by the Nederlander Organization, was renamed The Richard Rodgers Theatre, home to The Richard Rodgers Gallery, a permanent exhibit in the lobby areas presented by ASCAP which honors the composer’s life and works.
"It has been a busy past few months with numerous changes made in personnel for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and our preparation for the orchestra's annual Tour of Japan where the band is flying to today. The orchestra will arrive in Tokyo on Thursday and begin performances on Friday. You can follow along and take the trip to Japan with the band by becoming a Facebook friend. "Like" the Glenn Miller Orchestra group Facebook page and view great photos and posts by band members as they travel throughout Japan.
As mentioned in our last newsletter, vocalist Julia Rich is back swinging with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Also, due to the resignation of trumpeter Gary Lamb who was the band's road manager, Julia took on that responsibility as well having done it before. Julia will remain with the band through March 2012 helping to audition and find a new girl vocalist and to help train a new road manager.
Congratulations to vocalist Brian Hemstock who recently announced his engagement to Amy. Brian and Amy are planning a wedding for some time next year.
Some of the other personnel changes include trumpeter Reid Poole from Fountain, CO who replaced Gary Lamb, trombonist John Tyler from Las Vegas, NV, drummer Holbrook Riles III from Mansfield, OH, pianist Theron Brown from Zanesville, OH and bassist Kurt Kotheimer from Akron, OH.
Jan Eberle (daughter of former Glenn Miller Orchestra male vocalist, Ray Eberle) recently joined www.wyyr.com, the Yester Year Radio station. Her program, Swing Museum, airs on Friday nights at 9:00 PM EST. Swing Museum archives are available on www.KSAV.org and www.WYYR.com.
As always, thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you in the near future."
Best regards,
Charles DeStefano
UPCOMING GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA SHOWS
11/11/11 - 12/11/11 Japan Tour
12/13/11 Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, Fairfield, IA 7:30 pm
12/16/11 Fulton City High School, Fulton City, KY 7:00 pm
12/17/11 Bloomington Ct. for the Performing Arts, Bloomington, IL 7:30 pm
The News from the Glenn Miller Orchestra tour bus is on hiatus at this time. Jaime Parker who authored this column has been busy with numerous projects including his application and audition to join the Air Force. Jaime has been accepted to join one of the performing jazz ensemble groups and will be stationed in San Antonio, TX where he will begin boot camp in late December. Jaime will continue performing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra through the end of the current tour which will wind up on December 17th. We wish Jaime the very best in his new career.
Trivia Contest
Be the first person to answer our trivia question correctly and win a baseball cap of your color choice from The Big Band Store
New Question: Glenn and Helen had a Boston terrier for 10 years which helped to fill the void of not having children. What was the dog's name?
Question: Which composer wrote songs for Glenn Miller under his wife's name because he had already signed a writer's contract with Charlie Barnet? He later gave all the tunes to his wife as part of their divorce settlement and she made thousands of dollars on The Glenn Miller Story while he received nothing.
Answer: Billy May
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The Tri-Lakes News of Branson Missouri reported that the silver-haired "Moon River" singer Andy Williams appeared the Moon River Theatre Saturday night and told the audience "I do have cancer of the bladder," Williams said. "But that is no longer a death sentence. People with cancer are getting through this thing. They're kicking it, and they're winning more and more every year. And I'm going to be one of them."
The singer had missed performances this fall due to the previously undisclosed medical condition. He said that he would likely miss his holiday schedule as well, and vowed to return next year to celebrate his 75th year in show business.
Williams had a string of hits in the 1950s and '60s, including "Can't Get Used to Losing You" and "Butterfly, but he is best known for his version of "Moon River." He earned 18 gold and three platinum albums in his career.
Williams hosted annual Christmas specials on television and performed Christmas shows on the road for many years. His 1963 recording, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," is a Christmas standard.
The Iowa native also hosted an Emmy-winning variety television program "The Andy Williams Show," from 1962-71. He published an autobiography, "Moon River and Me: A Memoir," in 2009.
The Artie Shaw Orchestra, one of the most compelling big-bands ever, returns to Centenary Stage Company (CSC) in Hackettstown, NJ for a one-night-only concert on Saturday, November 19th at 8 PM in The Whitney Chapel on campus of Centenary College.
Dubbed “the king of swing” after his hit, Begin the Beguine, Artie Shaw (Photo above) was thereafter renown for his innovative combination of instruments. This power-house big band has accompanied the likes of Tony Bennett, Jack Jones and Buddy DeFranco. The band was featured at the Newport Jazz Festival, and they have toured worldwide. The orchestra is currently under the direction of clarinetist Matt Koza and will play many of the original arrangements that made the orchestra so popular in the 40’s and 50’s. On the eve of America's entry into World War II, TIME magazine reported that to the German masses the United States meant "sky-scrapers, Clark Gable, and Artie Shaw." Some 42 years after that, in December l983, Artie Shaw made a brief return to the bandstand, after thirty years away from music, to launch this latest (and still touring) orchestra at the newly refurbished Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York.
“There's nothing like it,” said Matt Koza, director of the orchestra said,“…to stand in front of the band, to play the music, to be surrounded by the full sound of the brass and the rhythm section, it’s an unparalleled experience.”
Tickets for the Artie Shaw Orchestra can be purchased at www.centenarystageco.org or by calling the CSC Box Office at (908)979-0900. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 day of show.
The Nov 19th performance of the Artie Shaw Orchestra is made possible in part through the support of the Hackettstown Trading Post. Jazz events at CSC are spearheaded by CSC Board Chairman Ed Coyne and Coyne Enterprises.
The Centenary Stage Company is a not-for-profit performing arts series, in residence at Centenary College, dedicated to serving as a cultural resource for audiences of the Skylands region with professional music, theatre and dance events and arts education programs throughout the year. All programs at the Centenary Stage Company are made possible in part through the visionary support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, and CSC members and sponsors, including CSC Premiere Sponsors Heath Village and Fulton Bank (formerly Skylands Community Bank), as well as Hackettstown Regional Medical Center and Mama’s and Café Baci. ##
