Regarding Sylvia flashing her bits at the Blue Boar. The first I heard of it was a picture in the 'Daily Mirror'. Damn! she was a good looking chick.
Sorry Texas but it was not at the 'Blue Boar'
It was up Netheredge at the Art School Ball.
Off topic but why would the pub be called 'Blue Boar'
There are lots of 'Blue Balls 'around, Maybe an indication of the weather and the testicle preponderance to be affected by the cold.
Surely a Boar would not turn blue if it got cold
__________________
"All the Philistines line up with the Lemmings"
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Your mention of AFN Texas really set my memory banks whirling!I can remember listening to Midnight in Munich,at 11pm in the UK,they were on continental time, with the the man who ran the show Ralph"Muffitt" Moffat, the signature tune was the original Charlie Barnet verson of Skyliner, and featured all the American Big Bands and vocalists,and this was my first introduction to a very strange sound, when he signed off with Painted Rythmn by Stan Kenton,which was quite a shock,after Henry Hall, Jack Payne, Billy Ternent and the like.Some time later there was a concert at the City Hall with a service band, The Blue Rockets and the guest was Ralph Moffat.
A few years after whilst doing my National Service we had a bod in our billet with a portable gramophone and a load of Kenton 78's Intermission Riff,Peanut Vendor, Concerto to end all Concertos you know the rest,and I used to sit enthralled at this wonderful sound, so I really received a thorough grounding in the music of Stan the man.
Don't worry about the past,remember the old saying about looking back"The past is a foreign country"
Great stuff there Highnote. Speaking of AFN again reminded me of another network I used to try to listen to late 40's,on Sunday evenings, was the French station RTF(French Radio Television). They had some good players on there, lots of American guests and some of the good French musicians. I remember the sig tune on that programme was the song 'Boom',the Maurice Chevalier hit, but it was a bebop version done by some French band.
But to get back to Kenton. Now this is really jazznerd. I once drove from Topeka to Wichita in Kansas just to say I'd actually been where Stan Kenton was brought up. And dont get me started on Charlie Parker.
Just thinking, AFN is where I first heard Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, brought up on Tommy Handley, Arthur Askey etc;etc; they were off another planet.
Thanks HIGHNOTE. Talking about late night jazz programmes, did'nt Jack Jackson (one time trumpeter and bandleader) have a record show on late night B.B.C. radio in the late 40's and early 50's? Could be wrong on this one, but I seem to remember his signature tune being Harry James's 'Concerto for Trumpet Blues and Cantable,' then it would blend into Stan Kenton's 'Artistry in Rhythm', he would sign off the show with Kenton's 'Painted Rhythm also.
Re my earlier post. I mixed up two Harry James titles together, one was called 'Concerto for Trumpet' and the other was 'Trumpet Blues and Cantablile'. I seem to think his signature tune was one of them, he ended with Kenton's 'Painted Rhythm'.
No you are not a jazznerd Texas I would have done the same.
The mention of Harry James reminds me the first record I ever bought way way back was Trumpet Blues and Cantablile on a 78 which I played and played on an old wind up gramaphone.
Jack Jackson's late night Saturday programme has awakened another memory, whilst doing my National Service I was statoned at an aerodrome in North Yorkshire servicing transport aircraft engaged on th Berlin Airlift,and one hot Saturday night everyone was listening to the said Jack Jackson, windows open,others relaxing in the NAAFI with a few beers, except us,we were on night duty, and as we walked down to the hangars to work, the tune playing from those open windows was Frankie Laine singing Ghost Riders In The Sky, and whenever I hear that anywhere now, I am immediately taken back in time to that hot Saturday night sixty years ago.
I have been listening to some of the Japanese student Big Bands on You Tube videos,and on one there was a comment on the base trombonists never getting solo's and a reply from a Joe Varsalona saying his dad never did,and when I put a comment asking if he was a relative of Bart Varsalona 0f Kenton fame the reply was,"He was my Dad"
Keep those memories coming from long gone days, long gone days but very happy days.
Jack Jackson did have a record programme late 40's early 50's and actually it was on that programme I first heard the Kenton orchestra. The record was 'Peanut Vendor'. It was a hit about that time and it was all down to JJ. He seemed to be quite a fan.
I remember seeing JJ at the City Hall at some concert or other, he did a bit or comparing, a few jokes, played trumpet a bit, 'course he was past his best.
It seems fantastic to think Stan Kenton's version of 'Peanut Vendor' could be so popular and the best thing is, it never seems to get stale. He did two or three slightly different arrangments down the years,noticable in the solos, but the rhythm and the trumpet section,with that dissonance, remained the same, just a great record.
There were other records by great musicians that became hits like you wouldn't believe. Remember Earl Bostic? Flamingo? I cant think of a juke box without that being on there. That rhythm and blues sound, with the heavy backbeat, the beginning of rock n' roll.
And what of Pee Wee Hunt? 'Twelfth Street Rag'. Not real jazz, said the jazz police, but I liked it, and it went on forever. The 'B side was good too, 'Somebody else not Me'.
'Orange Colored Sky' Nat Cole AND Stan Kenton, I can remember three or four of us kids singing it walking down Catherine St, FLASH, BAM, ALAKAZAM. Innocent days they were.
Rose Murphy, Louis Prima, Louis Jordan, and more, who's names escape me for the moment,
all jazz people trying to make a buck.
Even Billie Holliday, all her records were for the popular market, doing covers of songs sung by white artistes, or stuff that nobody else wanted. She just had to sing. And it so happened that she was that good.
I'm with you TEXAS some of the music may not be strictly jazz but who cares it was truly enjoyable, you could'nt switch on a radio at one time without listening to somebody's rendition of '12th Street Rag'. A few more names from the past, you can't mention Louis Prima without Keely Smith, can you (I believe she's still around and singing.) Nelly Lutcher was another one quite popular, I suppose, in the r&b style. Then who remembers and enjoyed Buddy Morrow's 'Night Train'? I can practically hear all the 'me, me, me's,' on that one. I've seen Buddy Morrow in recent years fronting a Dorsey Bros. tribute band. The late Sheffield jazz enthusiast 'Baz's name comes up quite often, I also attended a few of these 'record' sessions. Geoff ? was another member of that group (I think he owned a corner shop at Heeley Bottom) I seem to remember a guy that managed a Co-op at that time, also a tall guy that was either a lawyer or he worked in some legal office (I'm sorry there names are long forgotten.) Years ago I was passing through Midland Station, this was many years after Baz had passed away, anyway I got myself a taxi-cab and the driver still remembered Baz the cabbie and what a big jazz fan he had been.
You beat me to the punch Fleetwood, Nellie Lucher, that's one of the names I couldn't remember. But 'Night Train', I remember that allright. Buddy Morrow had a hit with it,but it was a Jimmy Forrest song originally. He must've sold it for the price of a hamburger or something. A bit like Charlie Parker's 'Now's the Time' being renamed 'The Hucklebuck' and making a small fortune for somebody else.
I seem to remember Quincy Jones on a talk show, talking about 'any would be composer of music and the like', 'that if you were not in the music publishing business also', you were not in the 'music business at all' . Meaning, I suppose, you could lose royalties, as many have done in the past.
I think that would hold true in any branch of the arts. A good few writers and poets have gone into publishing to keep control of their own stuff. Did you see 'Q' on TV not so long ago, taking solos with the Hampton band? I seem to remember he was in the trumpet section when it also held Clifford Brown and Art Farmer. Someone said he wasn't very good,Quincy that is, bloody hell, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't but he had a lot to live up to with players of that calibre.
Re carmen macrae and quote ide like to anall, i saw lita roza at the city hall
with ted heath, the same thing happened,i wonder who the bloke was.
Incidentally we reffered to her as two and a half litre roza,being sports car nuts.
Great days!
Chris h.
He certainly does PopT.
Surely Chris it was just two litre Roza, subtle though innit?
Anybody remember that other sound in the early 50's, the Red Norvo trio, him and Charlie Mingus and Tal Farlow. No long players there, said all they had to say in about two minutes, and everybody got to solo. We got a lot of them on FBS in Egypt.
Who remembers the Kurt Edelhagen band from Germany playing a City Hall concert back in the 50's or was it earlier? I seem to remember they played in the Kenton style and played all the favourites of the day. Cannot recall if they shared the bill with any other group though. The great Dutch pianist Pia Beck and her Trio was another European, who played the 'City' around that time also, although, I distinctly remember she opened for a British band.
Last edited by fleetwood; 14-07-2008 at 23:28.
Reason: Corrections
Kurt Edelhagen, that was ANOTHER gig I missed. I remember Tubby Hayes worked in the band at one time, and Ronnie Stephenson the drummer.
Did you ever see the Ronnie Scott band at the City? I think it lasted about a year,the band I mean not the concert. Something like an eight piece, with Ronnie Scott, and Pete King on tenors, Benny Green on baritone, Vic Feldman pno, Phil Seaman, I cant remember the trumpet player, either Jimmy Deuchar or Hank Shaw, can't remember the bass player either, or the trombone. Could it have been Ken Wray, wore glasses? I remember they had a singer, Art Baxter, real character, Ronnie Scott had him billed as an ex barrow lad who would'nt be long before he went back to his last profession. I really liked that band.
A few years ago I went to see a little show Benny Green did accompanying Helen Shapiro called 'The Quality of Mercer'. My wife went to get his autograph and get the album on offer. All I could say was 'When did you pack the bari' in then'.
Funny, I always thought of him as a baritone player. Smashing bloke though, one of my jazz hero's, the late Benny Green. I used to buy the 'Musical Express' just for his column, so hip without being pretentious. That was in the 50's.
Kurt Edelhagen,great band,I once heard the story told by the late Alan Dells continental big band advisor about, I think it was the Edelhagen band who were rehearsing some new charts and a young lady singer turned up trying to get an audition,no luck, so she turned up the next day, and the next day, until Edelhagen took pity on her and granted an audition,she was plainly dressed,flat heel shoes, hair scraped back,but absolutely wowed them all,who was she?Caterina Valente.
I too remember the Ronnie Scott band,and agree about Benny Green,very humourous writer,I think he packed up the baritone sax to do his writing,did'nt he write for some of the posh broadsheeets eventually?
Another jazz man who always suited my taste was Stephane Grappelli, boy could he make his violin swing.
Some years ago he was appearing at the Crucible,it was Sunday evening and my jazz buddy was away on holiday so my dear wife,not a jazz lover,said she would go with me as company,and was quite prepared to be utterly bored,but she sat their completely captivated by his playing and lovely personality and thoroughly enjoyed it all.
