Jeep Jockey Jump

Although the Glenn Miller Orchestra has been criticized and/or derided by jazz critics, it was nonetheless a part of the era. Myself, I prefer the live airchecks that are floating around more than any of the studio recordings, and though I do like several of his biggest hits, I think the Army Airforce recordings were rather uninspiring. But that is merely my opinion, and others may enjoy this last part of Miller's career. "In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort. At 38, Miller was too old to be drafted, and first volunteered for the Navy but was told that they did not need his services. Miller then wrote to Army Brigadier General Charles Young. He persuaded the United States Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, "be placed in charge of a modernized Army band." After being accepted into the Army, Miller's civilian band played its last concert in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 27, 1942. His patriotic intention of entertaining the Allied Forces with the fusion of virtuosity and dance rhythms in his music earned him the rank of captain and was soon promoted to major by August 1944.

At first placed in the United States Army, Miller was transferred to the Army Air Force. Captain Glenn Miller served initially as assistant special services officer for the Army Air Forces Southeast Training Center at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1942. He played trombone with the Rhythmaires, a 15-piece dance band, in both Montgomery and in service clubs and recreation halls on Maxwell. Miller also appeared on both WAPI (Birmingham, Alabama) and WSFA radio (Montgomery), promoting the activities of civil service women aircraft mechanics employed at Maxwell.

Miller initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras. Miller's attempts at modernizing military music were met with some resistance from tradition-minded career officers. For example, Miller's arrangement of "St. Louis Blues March", combined blues and jazz with the traditional military march. Miller's weekly radio broadcast "I Sustain the Wings", for which he co-wrote the eponymous theme song, moved from New Haven to New York City and was very popular. This led to permission for Miller to form his 50-piece Army Air Force Band and take it to England in the summer of 1944, where he gave 800 performances. While in England, now Major Miller recorded a series of records at EMI owned Abbey Road Studios. EMI at this time was the British and European distributor for RCA Victor. The recordings the AAF band made in 1944 at Abbey Road were propaganda broadcasts for the Office of War Information. Many songs are sung in German by Johnny Desmond and Glenn Miller speaks in German about the war effort." (Wikipedia). Enjoy! +

Tracks

Disc One
01 - Over There
02 - Anvil Chorus
03 - Stardust
04 - Song Of The Volga Boat Men
05 - Farewell Blues
06 - They Are All Yanks
07 - My Ideal
08 - Mission To Moscow
09 - Sun Valley Jump
10 - Tuxedo Junction
11 - I'll Be Around
12 - Poinciana
13 - I Hear You Screamin'
14 - Juke Box Saturday Night
15 - My Blue Heaven

Disc Two
01 - Saint Louis Blues March
02 - It Must Be Jelly
03 - Blues In My Heart
04 - Everybody Lover My Baby
05 - Medley
06 - Victory Polka
07 - There'll Be A Hot Time In The Town Od Berlin
08 - Flying Home
09 - Here We Go Again
10 - Glenn  Miller - Jeep Jockey Jump
11 - Enlisted Men's Mess
12 - Begin The Beguine
13 - In The Mood

Last Cent

I'm challenging myself to see how many I can share this month, and Red Nichols is always a good choice (courtesy of a fellow collector). "Overrated in Europe in the early '30s when his records (but not those of his black contemporaries) were widely available and then later underrated and often unfairly called a Bix imitator, Red Nichols was actually one of the finest cornetists to emerge from the '20s. An expert improviser whose emotional depth did not reach as deep as Bix or Louis Armstrong, Nichols was in many ways a hustler, participating in as many recording sessions (often under pseudonyms) as any other horn player of the era, cutting sessions as Red Nichols & His Five Pennies, the Arkansas Travelers, the Red Heads, the Louisiana Rhythm Kings, and the Charleston Chasers, among others, usually with similar personnel. Nichols studied cornet with his father, a college music teacher. After moving from Utah to New York in 1923, Nichols, an excellent sight-reader who could always be relied upon to add a bit of jazz to a dance band recording, quickly became in great demand. His own sessions at first featured trombonist Miff Mole and Jimmy Dorsey on alto and clarinet, playing advanced music that utilized unusual intervals, whole-tone scales, and often the timpani of Vic Berton along with hot ensembles. Later on in the decade his sidemen included such young greats as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Adrian Rollini, Gene Krupa, and the wonderful mellophone specialist Dudley Fosdick, among others; their version of "Ida" was a surprise hit.

Although still using the main name of the Five Pennies, Nichols' bands were often quite a bit larger, and by 1929 he was alternating sessions featuring bigger commercial orchestras with small combos. At first Nichols weathered the Depression well with work in shows, but by 1932 his long string of recordings came to an end. He headed a so-so swing band up until 1942, left music for a couple of years, and for a few months in 1944 was with Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra. Later that year he re-formed the Five Pennies as a Dixieland sextet and, particularly after bass saxophonist Joe Rushton became a permanent member, it was one of the finer traditional jazz bands of the next 20 years. Nichols recorded several memorable hot versions of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," the best being in 1959. That same year a highly enjoyable if rather fictional Hollywood movie called The Five Pennies (and featuring Nichols' cornet solos and Danny Kaye's acting) made Red into a national celebrity at the twilight of his long career. Nichols' earlier sessions have been reissued in piecemeal fashion during the digital era, with later albums remaining unavailable." (Allmusic.com). Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Indiana
02 - Dinah
03 - On The Alamo
04 - Sally, Won't You Come Back
05 - It Had To Be You
06 - I'll See You In My Dreams
07 - Some Of These Days
08 - That Da Da Strain
09 - Basin Street Blues
10 - Last Cent
11 - Rose Of Washington Square
12 - I May Be Wrong
13 - The New Yorkers
14 - They Didn't Believe Me
15 - Wait For The Happy Ending
16 - Can't We Be Friends
17 - Nobody Knows
18 - Smiles
19 - Marianne
20 - Get Happy
21 - Somebody To Love Me

Scrap Your Fat

Many years ago I had a double-LP set of Abbott & Costello radio shows that I listened to until I knew every line, laugh, song, etc. One of those shows featured Connie Haines singing "Salt Water Cowboy" and it was apparently the public debut of the song. One day the LP grew legs and disappeared (along with the rest of my collection) so for years I kept an eye open for a replacement. However, later copies of the LP had the song cut out! Enter, the digital age. I thought I had ripped the correct disc to share that song, but apparently got the wrong one. Now I have to go through everything and make sure I still have the right one! Regardless, although several of the songs here are familiar, this set includes versions by other artists and is still worth a listen. Click on the cover image for a high-res scan. Enjoy +

Tracks

1. Rosie The Riveter - The Sportsman Quartet
2. I'm A Hillbilly Yankeee Doodle Boy - Texas Jim Lewis with the Hoosier Hot Shots
3. The Guns In The Sky - Glenn Miller
4. If It's Gonna Help Win The War - The Hoosier Hot Shots
5. The G.I. Jive - Johnny Mercer
6. Praise the Lord and Pass The Amunition - Jimmy Carrol, David Broekman and His Orchestra
7. Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder - Glenn Miller
8. I'd Like To Give My Dog To Uncle Sam - Ozzie Waters
9. D-Day - Nat King Cole
10. Scrap Your Fat' - Mildred Bailey
11. Keep The Home Fires Burning - Charlie Barnet
12. A Rodeo Down in Tokyo - Ozzie Waters
13. There'll Be A Jubilee - The Andrews Sisters
14. I'm Getting Corns For My Country - Cass Daley
15. There Ain't No Wings on a Foxhole - Meredith Wilson
16. The Tommy Gun Boogie - Slim Rodgers
17. This Is The Army - John Conte
18. 4-F Ferdinand - Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
19. Hillbilly Soldier Joe - The Johnson Sisters
20. Comin' In On A Wing and a Prayer - Anita Ellis
21. Here Comes The British - Johnny Mercer
22. Smoke On The Water - Wesley Tuttle
23. The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B - The Andrews Sisters.