The Big Bands


I remember reading an article in a magazine called High Fidelity, that no longer exists, that showed sonograms of recordings by musicians and singers. The author compared Louis Armstrong singing and Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet. There was a remarkable similarity in the tracings. That is not surprising. What I did find surprising is that the sonograms of Tommy Dorsey playing the trombone and Frank Sinatra singing were also quite similar. Sinatra often mentioned that he learned to breathe listening to Tommy Dorsey’s trombone. But it is not only that. He also learned phrasing with Tommy Dorsey.


These curious findings remind me of the time of the big bands. I was about 10 years old when I began to listen to the 78 rpm records that my older brothers bought. 


This was the time of the big bands, and I loved them. We listened to Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey... And also Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Jimmie Lunceford... Not only these people were superb musicians, they also had many other superb musicians working with them. And they had good vocalists. Many big band vocalists evolved to solo singers, they actually started the trend. People like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Dick Haymes...
Tommy Dorsey and his trombone - Wikkimedia Commons


Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra was my favorite. He was one of the best trombone players of all time, and had excellent musicians, like Buddy Rich, Bunny Berigan, Ziggy Elman,  Charlie Shavers, and Buddy DeFranco, just to mention a few. His vocalists were Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Connie Haines, Jack Leonard, Edythe Wright, Dick Haymes and the Pied Pipers.  


For the best years of the Dorsey orchestra his arrangers were Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston and Sy Oliver. Occasionally they were also composers. Stordahl and Weston penned many compositions, the most famous being Day by Day and I Should Care. Sy Oliver was an excellent jazz musician and penned the fantastic Opus 1, Well, Git It and Yes, Indeed, and his arrangements for The Sunny Side of the Street, Blue Skies and Swannee River became famous.


Stordahl later became Frank Sinatra’s arranger and conductor for the Columbia years.  Paul Weston invented mood music. One other Dorsey musician later became a famous arranger: Nelson Riddle.


Tommy Dorsey’s records were created more than 60 years ago, but they are still pleasant to our ears. And I prize my collection of CD’s that were carefully produced by people who new the importance of these old 78 rpm recordings. 


If you like American music and have never heard Tommy Dorsey’s records, try to listen to some of his music. You will not regret it.

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