Jazz Articles
Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra: 1944-45 Broadcasts
by Jack Bowers
LIonel Hampton, the first musician to establish the vibraphone as a viable component of Jazz instrumentation, was (with Red Norvo) one of its acknowledged monarchs when these air–check performances were recorded in 1944–45, mostly for the benefit of U.S. servicemen at home and abroad. Hamp was a product of the Swing Era and his bands always swung, powered in this case by such capable sidemen as trumpeters Snooky Young and Cat Anderson, Texas tenor Arnett Cobb, trombonist Booty Wood, pianist ...
read moreHarry James and His Orchestra: 1942-43 Broadcasts with Helen Forrest
by Jack Bowers
No list of the most popular dance bands of the ’40s would be complete without the name Harry James whose stylish trumpet and splendid orchestra were featured in a number of films of the period and performed not only on radio but to standing–room–only audiences in casinos and ballrooms from coast to coast. In the early years of the decade, before personal and professional differences got in the way, James employed one of the era’s best known band singers, Helen ...
read moreJimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra: 1943-45 Broadcasts
by Jack Bowers
Somewhere between the enduring Swing Era “superstars” (Ellington, Basie, Miller, the Dorsey brothers, Harry James, Artie Shaw) and the scarcely remembered “regional bands” stood such enormously popular (and talented) but relatively short–lived “second tier” orchestras as those led by Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Chick Webb, Andy Kirk, Jay McShann, Jimmie Lunceford and others. Lunceford’s ensemble was at its peak in the mid– to late–’30s before the great arranger Sy Oliver left to join the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. These performances, taped ...
read moreTed Weems and His Orchestra: More 1940 "Beat the Band" Shows
by Jack Bowers
While there may not be many people walking around today who even remember the Ted Weems Orchestra, there are a great number, I’d wager, who remember his male vocalist, a fellow named Perry Como, who passed away in May six days before his eighty–ninth birthday. Some may even recall the band’s other vocalist, Marva (later to become film star Marilyn) Maxwell, or Weems’ best–known “intrumentalist,” the unrivaled whistler, Elmo Tanner, who helped make “Heartaches” a mega–hit for Weems and the ...
read moreThe Gene Krupa Quartet: Live from the Inn Club, Chicago, IL, January 11, 1957
by Jack Bowers
By January 1957, when this concert date was recorded at the Inn Club in Chicago, Gene Krupa’s salad days as a member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra and leader of his own big bands were behind him, but he remained a major figure on the Jazz scene, even though his flamboyant style of drumming, once considered state–of–the–art (at least in the public’s mind), had been overshadowed by the incomparable Buddy Rich and such be–bopping innovators as Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, ...
read moreTommy Dorsey and His Orchestra: March / June 1940 Broadcasts to South America
by Jack Bowers
Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, which had gone into a mild decline in the late ’30s, was by 1940 making a strong comeback owing largely to the addition of several key ingredients — star trumpeter Bunny Berigan, whose alcoholism hadn’t as yet subverted his playing; drummer Buddy Rich, late of the Artie Shaw orchestra; the consummate swing arranger, Sy Oliver, lured away from the Jimmie Lunceford band; and a slender young vocalist from Hoboken, New Jersey, by way of the Harry James ...
read moreBobby Sherwood & His Orchestra: 1942-45 Live Broadcasts with Zoot Sims
by Jack Bowers
When the first of these radio broadcasts by trumpeter / guitarist Bobby Sherwood’s orchestra was recorded in December 1942, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims (featured on Gershwin’s “The Man I Love”) had recently celebrated his seventeenth birthday, which makes his solo on that number the more remarkable. Alas, by the time of the second air–check, in January 1945, Zoot was no longer a member of the orchestra and personnel including soloists aren’t identified. This means that the album’s subtitle, 1942–45 Live ...
read moreThe Woody Herman Orchestra / Ina Ray Hutton Orchestra / Bob Crosby's Bobcats: 1946 Broadcasts / 1943-44 Spotlight Band Broadcasts / 1937-40 Broadcasts
by Jack Bowers
Even though there are moments of pleasurable big–band swing in these reissues from 1937–46 by Woody Herman’s First Herd, singer Ina Ray Hutton’s (all–male) orchestra, and Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, they should be of greatest interest to avid record collectors and completists. While Soundcraft has done a respectable job of cleaning the original acetate (and in one case, aluminum) sources, they sound nonetheless precisely like what they were — radio air–checks broadcast more than half a century ago. Those ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 4
