The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

"A Blues Serenade", April 1935, Royal Blue Columbia 3051-D, Smith Ballew Vocal. Played on a Columbia 810. Gnome not included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_uK3h ... e=youtu.be

Charlie Spivak, Bunny Berigan, Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill, and Ray Bauduc in the lineup.

"Moonlight Bay", Decca 1239, April 1937. This is the original "Shadow" blue label pressing, not the 1950s black label reissue. Great band with Sterling Bose, Bunny Berigan, Hal McIntyre, Dick McDonough. Glenn himself wrote the arrangement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZyZ5C6 ... e=youtu.be

"Time On My Hands", Brunswick 7915, June 1937. Spivack, Bose, McIntyre, McDonough. The band is becoming more cohesive here, but hasn't quite got the "Miller Sound" yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kArsh3s ... e=youtu.be

"Don't Wake Up My Heart", Brunswick 8152, May 29, 1938. Suddenly, here it is- that "Miller Sound"! Tex Beneke joins the band on sax this session, and a very young sounding Ray Eberle makes his debut. This is the final session before Miller moved to Victor Bluebird and fame.

https://youtu.be/nprCtj8hwlM

And, just for fun- the rest of the 1935 Columbia session...

"Moonlight on the Ganges", Smith Ballew, 3051-D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKmIV9LdZf4

"In A Little Spanish Town", Columbia 3058-D. Rust says this is a Glenn Miller arrangement, but Artie Shaw claimed credit decades later when he was in his 90s- Could very well be- the arrangement does sound quite "Shavian"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOWJOi ... e=youtu.be

And... the last one isn't cooperating so we'll leave it to the imagination for now.

Great songs George! Thanks for the videos. Early Glenn Miller is pretty great stuff.

I agree - interesting to hear the sound developing from those early recording sessions.

I can't wait to listen to all of these!

So, I guess there's no real truth to how the trumpet player splits his lip on the music stand (OUCH, btdubs) ... "Awww he'll be out for WEEKS!" ... and the arrangement to Moonlight Serenade is rewritten overnight for clarinet leads and the "sound" is birthed? It sure makes for a great scene in a movie, fwiw.

SteveM wrote:I can't wait to listen to all of these!

So, I guess there's no real truth to how the trumpet player splits his lip on the music stand (OUCH, btdubs) ... "Awww he'll be out for WEEKS!" ... and the arrangement to Moonlight Serenade is rewritten overnight for clarinet leads and the "sound" is birthed? It sure makes for a great scene in a movie, fwiw.

Yeah, they took a lot of poetic license in those movies. I don't think the Miller movie mentioned anything about how GM was a Dorsey Bros. sideman in the early 30s often filling in for Tommy when Tommy played trumpet. Dorsey lent Miller some dough to get started, and Glenn wasn't properly grateful to Tommy for that in Tommy's opinion, which led to a falling out with Tommy financially backing Bob Chester's Miller clone band in retaliation. You don't piss off an Irish kid from Pennsylvania coal country.

Most of these guys were overly romanticized in those tribute films. There was almost never a sudden "eureka!" moment where they finally recognized that vision they'd had all along. When Benny Goodman suddenly became King of Swing he had been trying really hard to be a society dance band a la Meyer Davis as his Melotone and the first Columbia sides show us. Glenn was sorta trying to be a jazzman. Artie Shaw was trying to be Paul Whiteman in a small way; he really preferred elaborate "concert" type music heavy on strings.

It's all really interesting how all the Swing Era greats' lives really intertwined in the studios for at least ten years before they started hitting their stride. Goldkette, Whiteman, Selvin, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Fletcher Henderson, Duke, Oliver, Redman, Andy Kirk, Bennie Moten... these were the mentors that made it happen.

melvind wrote:Great songs George! Thanks for the videos. Early Glenn Miller is pretty great stuff.

Thanks for the kind words- my "videos" suck compared to yours! Some day I need to get more serious with this but I don't have much free time, it seems. Ah, the joys of self- employment. One can work whatever hours one chooses... so long as it's ALL of them.