[78-L] No News, Good News...

[Taylor Bowie]

I didn't say that black bands playing sweet stuff was "news."  I said I was 
sorry that more if it didn't make it onto records. That's one of the things 
that makes the Teddy Hill so interesting to me...it preserves a side of 
black music of the era which is often overlooked or forgotten today.

Taylor


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Sultanof" <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Good post from fnarf


> Many Black bands could play like the sweet bands of the era. Students are
> often surprised when I tell them that black bands could play waltzes and
> tangos if they were requested - and they were! Sy Oliver told me that 
> there
> were many waltzes in the Lunceford book, and big band historian Jim Maher
> was repeatedly reminding us that ANY band that could not play any type of
> music was a rare occurence. So the fact that a black band like Hill's 
> could
> sound like a white sweet band is hardly news. Armstrong and Hampton are on
> record that they loved the Lombardo band.
>
> Record labels were not exactly going to waste their shellac on Lunceford
> playing a tango, and even Benny Goodman only recorded one waltz during his
> big band years.
>
> Jeff Sultanof
>
> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Al,
>>
>> My point was that the Hill performance is in the style of many sweet 
>> bands
>> of the era,  and better than many,  including much of the output of the
>> bands you mention.  Also that there are not very many recordings of black
>> bands of the era that are so close to standard pop stuff.
>>
>> Taylor
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "simmonssomer" <simmonssomer at comcast.net>
>> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 3:31 PM
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Good post from fnarf
>>
>>
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
>> > To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> > Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 6:08 PM
>> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Good post from fnarf
>> >
>> >
>> >> Taylor Bowie wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>> One of my favorite mid-30s "sweet band" records is the Teddy Hill 
>> >>> Orch.
>> >>> version of Got Me Doin' Things,  with clipped muted brass, 
>> >>> hotel-band
>> >>> tenor
>> >>> sax (by Chu Berry!?!?!),  and a wonderful "business man's bounce" 
>> >>> from
>> >>> the
>> >>> rhythm section.   And a totally wonderful "sweet band" vocal from
>> >>> trumpeter
>> >>> Bill Dillard...I love his singing.  A great record by any measure, 
>> >>> and
>> >>> it
>> >>> makes me wish that other black bands had gotten more of a chance to
>> >>> record
>> >>> this kind of pop commercial arrangement...I'm sure they played them 
>> >>> at
>> >>> live
>> >>> gigs.
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>> Taylor
>> >> --------------------------
>> >> That performance sounds more like Will Osborne to me. And didn't Berry
>> >> admire Freddy Martin?
>> >>
>> >>      Julian Vein
>> >
>> > Hmmm. admittedly these distinctions (sweet or hot) are subjective, and
>> > although the performance in question is not precisely "hot' ,...it is
>> not,
>> > in my opinion, anything close to  something played by a "sweet" or
>> "hotel"
>> > band. Hill had a swinging big band with a full and well articulated 
>> > brass
>> > section and good reeds.
>> > Bill Dillard's vocal was no more "sweet" than thousands of
>> run-of-the-mill
>> > swing era big band vocals, By the mid and late thirties the "sounds' 
>> > made
>> > by
>> > Guy Lombardo or Blue Baron and Tommy Tucker were those made by sweet
>> > bands.
>> > If you play a Teddy Hill record and compare to those bands I think 
>> > you'll
>> > gratefully  hear one hell of a difference.
>> >
>> > Al Simmons
>> >
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>>
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