Nov. 29, 2024

Make Believe Ballroom - 11/29/24 Edition

Make Believe Ballroom - 11/29/24 Edition
Make Believe Ballroom - 11/29/24 Edition
Make Believe Ballroom
Make Believe Ballroom - 11/29/24 Edition

On this week's Make Believe Ballroom broadcast on member supported Jazz 90.1 in Rochester, NY, and on other fine radio affiliates across the United States as well as in the United Kingdom – a program dedicated to enjoying the music of some long...

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On this week's Make Believe Ballroom broadcast on member supported Jazz 90.1 in Rochester, NY, and on other fine radio affiliates across the United States as well as in the United Kingdom – a program dedicated to enjoying the music of some long forgotten big bands and their leaders - this and many more great records to enjoy on the show!

WEBVTT

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It's make Believe ballroom time.

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Put all your cares away.

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All the bands are here to bring good cheer your way.

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It's make Believe ballroom time and free to everyone. It's

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no time to friend your Dalis said bombs, close your

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eyes and vis.

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You lie in your solitude. Your favorite bands are on

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this dance and mister Miller, but you're in the wood.

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Its make Believe ballroom time. We are a sweet romance.

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As you make it. Come on, Joe, last dance last.

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Hi, folks, I'm Jeff Presler, turning on the lights of

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the make Believe Ballroom and welcoming you into my Crystal

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studio for another program of the great hits of the

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nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. I'm hosting the show to

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keep the music in traditions of past hosts Martin block Al,

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Jarvis William B. Williams, and the legendary Steve Allen alive.

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Whether one of my longtime listeners or perhaps a new

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listener today on public broadcasting or community radio stations across

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the US as well as in the United Kingdom, grab

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your dance ticket, It's free and let's listen to some

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wonderful big band era music, Hello world, and from coast

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to coast on stations like Jazz ninety point one, WGMC

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in Rochester, New York, and many other fine public, university

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and community radio stations. Welcome to the Make Believe Ballroom,

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and thanks for joining me this hour as I share

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some wonderful swing jazz and big band music and many

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of the stories behind the records and the personalities who

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recorded them. I hope you're all having a great day friends.

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I'm sure you've heard without a doubt of the Andrews Sisters,

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and the Boswell Sisters, and perhaps the King's Sisters. But

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how about the Dinning Sisters. The sisters started performing in

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the mid thirties, and by the early nineteen forties they

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were not just making a number of records and doing

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radio appearances, but they were often seen in soundy films.

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One of my favorites was this soundy tune about a

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certain officer Clancy, who patrolled on Delancey Street.

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Clancy, what's the cop phone Delancium down on the Laze Street? Clancy,

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He just never did take a fancy to his de

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Lacey be so practice. Elise Cancel is Leise and the

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Trafford up to Harlem Bar the tie of police. Classy

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met the fellow name yeahs him Alanda Tavon. Yansy contended

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to teach mister Classier the drunk and Sussie you for

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Patsy struck.

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Down the street street for repeat.

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Brother, How that Irish car forget the boogy beat? Clancy?

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What's the coup phone Delancey down on the lassie street, Clancy,

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he just never did take a fancy to his de

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lassie be so impracticed, police canceled his lease. Let me

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Passford up to Harlembari.

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Chief of police.

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Classy met a fellow name Yancy Orlanda Tavon. Yes see,

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compare it to teach mister clancyer to drunk and Susie,

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you were fatty struck down the street beetle repeat brother,

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How that Irish car forget.

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The boogy beat?

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Tweet tweet, then call it planty with the reed beat.

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Nobody notices the fat beat. He's number one of their esteem.

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He's on the beat, Oh Clancy, laxis beat. It's Romancier

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a brother have gas block Plancy controlling his nice fix

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so fancy he's wait today to the block.

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And when he struck down the street. People repeat, brother,

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how that Irish car?

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Forget that boogy beat.

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Mister Clancy from de Lancey Street, you go get the

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first place to Redello.

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He's got a toe. It's so fine.

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A mellow regarding Clancy, Cleopod Stokowsky sales ca quote a

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very talented bellow, mister Clancy from De Lancey Street.

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You should meet a cod wins and read.

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The guy with the bugs.

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Let's stop lay brondy lasty dream.

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That was Clancy, performed by twins Gene and Ginger and

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sister Lou who comprised the Dinning sisters who opened the

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show today here on the make Believe ballroom. How about

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one more from the sisters. This is a tune recorded

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on Capitol Records in nineteen forty five.

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Would that sim show.

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Men that Lindy hop away.

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There's a brand new rhythm that's the top today.

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I'll bet it's even tops.

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We of amoss.

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A hundred million people giving.

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Bolly eight stars because the birds and a trees they're rusting,

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and even a Brees seems to say.

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You better get have the chippen to a rhythm that's

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red and white and blue. When you be a lord,

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just get swinging.

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You can be so bright and gay the rhythm in

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you bits gloom man do when the rhythm is red.

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And white and blue.

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We all know how much it's worth to laugh and

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make our livings.

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There's no other place on earth where they.

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Use up to thanksgiving.

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The future may hold lots.

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Of changes things of all Still I see the music

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for river will benue while the rhythm is red and

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white and blue. You'd better again have been chippen to

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a rhythm red white and blue.

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The rhythm and you bids bull men do to rhythm

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red button.

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We all know how my chs worth to make a

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live things.

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There's no.

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Please?

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Were they you who's up to thanksgivings?

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The future may hold lots of changes.

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They still lessing the musical River will venue while the river.

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Is red and white and blue.

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At the end of World War two the song the

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rhythm is red, white and blue. The Dinning Sisters. We

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just heard Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra wrapping it up.

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Recorded in New York City, September twelfth, nineteen thirty four.

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You know I always like to play on the program.

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And you'll know this if you've been a longtime listener.

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I like to play on the show and give tribute

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to the many band leaders, arrangers and musicians who were

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popular during the big band era, but over the years,

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for whatever reason, faded from the memory. For any one

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of a number of reasons. One of those musicians and

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band leaders was in New York's Dick McDonough. Let me

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play one of his records as an orchestra leader, and

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then a little more about him.

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Oh you ain't got rhythm? Every night he sits in

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the house along because he ain't got rhythm. Every night

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he sits now and wears a brown He attracted some

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attention when he found the part he mentioned, God, he

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ain't got rhythms, and no one's with him and the

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loneliest man in town, a lone live man is he

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ending over his book, his wife and fambly he giving

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him dirty looks cause he ain't got ridom when they

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call him a bits to call him down with the

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dear being aviator. He encircled thee a waiters body, ain't

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got ridoms and no one's with the loneliest.

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Man in town.

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Recorded for the Mellowtone label on January the fifth, nineteen

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thirty seven, Dick McDonough and his orchestra with a chick

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Bullock vocal. He ain't got rhythm And if you were

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with us last week, if you recall from a listener's request,

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the listener asked for any version of the songway Back

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Again in Indiana, and I happen to pick a chick

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bullock vocal for that request. But back to Dick McDonough.

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McDonough's career began as a banjo player. By the early

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nineteen thirties, he'd switched to the guitar, and as soon

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as a guitarist, was in demand as a studio musician,

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recording with all the big names of the era, Tommy Dorsey, Jovinudi,

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Benny Goodman, Jack T. Garden. He played for the vocalist

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Billy Holliday, Glenn Miller, and just a large host of

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other high profile artists of the day, and despite a

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relatively short career, his influence can be heard by generations

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of jazz guitarists who learned from his well. I guess

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you would call it his complex harmonies and syncopated rhythms.

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Let's listen to a guitar piece he recorded with fellow

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guitarist Carl Kress in nineteen thirty four. Its title is

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Chicken Ala Swaying, What a great name, and it showcases

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McDonald's accomplished single string and sophisticated chord work, a song

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guitarists young and old have played and continue to play

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to this very day.

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That's That's.

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That's the.

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Chicken Alice Swaying, Dick mcdonaugh and Carl Kress. Unfortunately, an

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alcoholic h McDonough died in nineteen thirty eight at the

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very young age of only thirty four years old. Dick

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McDonough and folks, you are listening to the one, the only,

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the original Make Believe Ballroom coming to you from the

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Crystal Studio in New York and broadcast in one form

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or another since Martin Block began this program in February

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of nineteen thirty five at WNEW Radio in New York City.

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And if folks, I had planned to stick to my

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show schedule, but you know, after playing Dick McDonough, I

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said to myself myself, why don't I stick with a

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few more musicians who made an impact during the big

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band era but are not really remembered today, like the

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Benny Goodman's Arty Shaws, and Glenn Miller's of the World.

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And I am swinging the chair as I frequently do,

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over to the playlist computer looking for a tune by

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John Kirby and his Orchestra. Let me play one of his,

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then a little about John, another musician who unfortunately died

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when he was way too youngthing.

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This media.

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Lead.

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This is.

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John Kirby and his Orchestra. It feels good, recorded in

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New York City, January the ninth, nineteen thirty nine. And

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a little bit about John Kirby. And since I'm improvising here,

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I didn't prepare any notes on Kirby, but to the

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best of my recollection, he was from the South Virginia.

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I think Kirby started enjoying classical music as a youth.

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He was originally a trombone and tuba player, but he

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switched with success to bass in the early nineteen thirties

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in order to play in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He gained

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his real success in the end of the nineteen thirties

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with his own sex stet. I think it was originally

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named the Onyx club Boys, And with the Onyx club

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Boys there were vocals in many of his recordings, provided

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by his at that time wife Maxine Sullivan. Unfortunately, after

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World War Two, his career began to decline and he

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died before a play and comeback. I think he passed

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in the very early nineteen fifties, when he was in

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probably at that time only his mid forties. Let's play

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one more in tribute to John Kirby here with his

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wife Maxine Sullivan and a great American standard.

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A night and day.

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One only.

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And under the sun.

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Weathery to Mior.

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Max no different, starling where you I dream of you?

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Why is it so that this longing for you follows

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wherever I?

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In the roaring traffic schools, in the silence of my

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lonely room, I dream of you.

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Under the hind of me, there's a no such a

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hungry yearning for being inside of me, And it's Doorman

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whose won't be.

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Until you let me spend my life making mock.

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And nine.

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Under the hull.

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There's a no such a hungry learning burning inside.

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Me, and it's Corman for me, Angel, you let me

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spend my life making buckles and night.

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And night and day. Maxine Sullivan vocal with the John

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Kirby sex stet recorded on Victor Records in nineteen thirty

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eight and friends to keep this segment of little remembered

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big band leaders going big band leaders who were popular

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during the era but are really no longer remembered. I

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bring you this gem.

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Of any bliss.

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Please don't bubble and treat me, solve me.

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You never seem to realize what.

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The word love me.

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Maybe you sparble every morning, swabble every night. Wonder why

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you spark when I thought of bit you right, don't bomble,

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don't sparbles, don't bubble.

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Day a night.

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You know I love you more. But worse guy, just

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can't understand why you see me this way. You seem

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so un kind of things you say make me believe

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you don't love me. Away those puffles, those pumble.

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Those cobbles that are.

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Please don't squabble. Harlan Leonard and his Rockets vocal refrain

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by Ernest Williams, recorded on Bluebird Records in Chicago, Chily

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the fifteenth, nineteen forty. I'm laughing at that title. Don't squabble,

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And I'll explain why I'm laughing in a second. Harlan

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Leonard was a bandleader and clarinetist from Kansas City. He

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joined the legendary Benny Molten's Orchestra in nineteen twenty three

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when he was just seventeen, and he stayed until nineteen

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thirty one. In nineteen thirty one, he and Theamin Hayes

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formed the Kansas City Skyrockets. Now, Harlan was tough and

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set in his ways. After a dispute with the Chicago

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local of the American Federation of Music, the band broke up.

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I guess they had a squabble. In nineteen thirty nine,

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though Leonard formed Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. The band

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quickly became a leading band in Kansas City and then

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went out and toured nationally. And like I said, Harlan

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Leonard was tough. Case in point, the legendary Charlie Parker

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played in the band for Harlan for five weeks, but

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he was fired by Leonard for lack of discipline. That

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band of Harlan's broke up during the Second World War,

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and Leonard, who was pretty much fed up at that time,

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he left professional music now due to his tough, no

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nonsense personality. Harlan went on to be in the banking

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industry and then his real calling a job so well

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suited for him he became an IRS agent Harlan Leonard.

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Here on the Make Believe Ballroom, I'm Jeff Bresler, and

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you're listening to The Make Believe Ballroom, coming to you

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from the Crystal Studio in New York, and I have

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gone totally off script today since the start of the show.

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But that's good because I'm now playing little remembered band leaders.

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I started with Dick McDonough and we played a bunch

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more underrated and long forgotten bands. I just picked another

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one off the playlist for you. Not much information at

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all about Willie Farmer and his orchestra, maybe a pseudonym

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for another musician, regardless, he left us for posterity. This recording.

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Pfact Tut tut sat cut statut.

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Our holem.

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Folks feed blue, don't know what to do. They can't

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hear a pane when it's curfew time and harm got a.

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Clozy store every night had for you. Can't hear a

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pane when it's.

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Court few time and hallm.

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Just when things start jumping and everybody is feeling so right.

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The headman, he says something about close enough.

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For the night.

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They would like to play till afrecon.

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So I'm a band, A go few diamond.

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Willie Farmer and his Orchestra Curfew Time in Harlem, recorded

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for Bluebird Records in nineteen thirty eight. An underrated band indeed,

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and as a bonus a great vocal from Jack Scant

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Powell Willie Farmer. And as I was listening to the

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Willie Farmer Curfew Time in Harlem, I picked another one,

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this record from long forgotten clarinetist Lenny Conn's short lived

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orchestra he Lenny Cohn and his Orchestra Anything Goes on

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Standard Records, recorded in nineteen forty four. I'm Jeff Bresler,

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and you're listening to the Make Believe Ballroom. If you'd

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like to reach me, I'm Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio

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dot com. That's Jeff at Make Believe Ballroom Radio dot com.

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And perhaps if we have a little time left towards

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the end of the program, I could read some listeners'

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emails to you. And I also want you to remember

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that if you'd like to hear past programs in this

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radio series in podcast form, go to MakeBelieve Ballroom Podcast

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dot com. That's MakeBelieve Ballroom podcast dot Com or visit

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your favorite podcast provider, whether that be Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio.

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We are on all of them, and today we are

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all over long Forgotten band Leaders, a somewhat improvised show

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at a totally different list of things to cover today.

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But one thing let to another, and here we are

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as I dig myself into a hole, and I'm continuing

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to scramble to bring you some rare recordings of long

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forgotten band leaders. And with that in mind, how about

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Dick Rogers who was a singer, comedian, songwriter, and pianist

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best known for making his mark in big band music

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history as the lyricist of Harlem Nocturn. Dick Rogers was

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a member of the Ray Noble Orchestra or Will Osborne

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Band played a Little Ray Noble for you last week.

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Rogers was associated with Will Osborne for a number of years.

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Osborne's band was writing high for a while, but went

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on the decline in nineteen forty. Osborne was starting to

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panic at the lack of traction his band had, so

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he decided to create a vaudeville show of sorts with music,

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and in addition to the music, a comedy acts and

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song parodies, which quite frankly, did not work well for him.

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So Osborne, fed up, decided to move to Hollywood in

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nineteen forty, knowing his band was on life supports and well.

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Osborne moved to Hollywood in nineteen forty, knowing his band

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was on life support, and he asked Dick Rodgers if

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he'd like to take over. He did, and he did well,

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according to Billboard magazine review in nineteen forty two, which

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said he acquitted himself credibly, as did his orchestra. The

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magazine called him capable, saying he could sing, compose, play.

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And lead.

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So let me play a tune by Dick Rogers and

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his Orchestra.

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An English.

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Nothing that.

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Saint, that's a kind of fish, but.

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Really some.

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At Dick Rogers and his Orchestra beaver Hop Unassociated Records

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recorded in nineteen forty one. Nice Swinger from the Oft

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overlooked Dick Rogers and did I mention his nickname was

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Stinky Dick Stinky Rogers and his orchestra. I also mentioned

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that Dick Rogers wrote the lyrics for Harlem Nockturn, with

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Earl Hagen composing the music. Now Harlem Nockturn was originally

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written for the Ray Noble Orchestra and truly made famous

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by Duke Ellington turning it into a big band classic.

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The tune is usually presented as a pure instrumental, but

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since we're talking about Dick Rogers, let's play a vocal

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version featuring Ernestine Anderson. Ernestine Anderson, the great jazz and

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blues vocalist.

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Deep music things the night, deep in the horror of Holland.

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And though the stars are bright, the darkness is tad

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in me. Oh, what a sad reframe.

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Are not turned fun?

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In the horror.

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That Malchi strayed.

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Forever is had in me?

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The melody cleans around my heart streams.

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It won't let me go when I'm lonely, clear.

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My heard in trees as sun hollis.

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It takes wee wee b.

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And I can't sweet add an egal to.

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It, sings to the mode the lodsome refrain of a love.

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The malody size it laughs when it cries.

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A mody in Blue bad Ways, a lone night thru.

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With the doll.

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It's gone.

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Godes ever.

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For lonely art, not.

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The familiar melody of Harlem Nocturn with vocal versions sung

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by Ernestine Anderson, lyrics by Dick Stinky Rogers here on

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the make Believe ball Room and folks. Another musician from

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the big band era who played on for decades but

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unfortunately gained little notoriety, was Art van Dam, who played

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jazz accordion. Van Dam toured Europe frequently, and he was

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popular with jazz enthusiasts in Japan, but never really took

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off in the United States. He died at eighty nine

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years of age and played right up close until his death.

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Here is one from the Art van Dam Quartet, but

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00:51:27.760 --> 00:52:04.760
he trip. That's a nice rendition of flying home from

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the Art van Dam Quartet, recorded in nineteen thirty five.

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And friends, we have come to that time in the

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broadcast when I take a peek at the big bull

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of a clock on the wall here in the Crystal

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studio to see how much time remains in the program.

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And I think we have to probably hold over this

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week's email readings until next week, and that will leave

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me time to play another record or two from a

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long forgotten band later. If that's okay with.

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You, Up you dop.

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An instrumental swinger from the regrettably overlooked New York based

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Freddie Barns Orchestra The Gandy Dancer, recorded in nineteen thirty eight. Friends,

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it's been a pleasure doing this pretty much improvised broadcast

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for you today. As you recall, I played Dick McDonough

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earlier in the program. I played him as a bandleader

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and musician who is unfortunately little remember today, and that

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led me to search out a number of records from

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our big computer playlist of thousands of tunes to bring

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you a virtual cavalcade of songs presented by bandleaders who

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were hot during the thirties and forties but just about

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forgotten today, so important that we continue to play their music.

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We are now going out with the tune by Will Osborne,

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the bandleader who Dick Rogers replaced. Let me know how

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you like today's improvised show. You can email me at

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Jeff Make Bully Ballroomradio dot com. That's jeffa Make Bully

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Ballroom Radio dot com. And don't forget you could go

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00:56:25.400 --> 00:56:30.119
to your favorite podcast provider to hear past radio broadcasts

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00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:34.280
of this program. So until next week, this has been

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Jeff Bressler.

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Fish the

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Yah