Show Notes: 28 August 2011 - Colors of Swing

^^ Click the play button to hear this episode ^^

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends – to borrow a line from Emerson, Lake, .... or was it Palmer? I’m not sure, but all that matters is that you are here at the Meridian Night Club for another edition of the Future of Retro Radio.  

Tonight’s show has been an experimental one – normally, musical director and band leader Bobby Marlette and I have our weekly meetings to discuss upcoming themes and musical selections, we listen to dozens of songs and albums, get our research man John Cameron-Cameron to look up information on artists past and present, we taste test the various Martini Time concoctions to make sure they are up to quality for our Friends of Swing Shift, and then we go about getting the live show ready for the audience that week.
  
This week, I made a dangerous executive decision that didn’t involve NATO.  I invited the audience to become a part of the show and suggest a song or artist that fit this week’s theme – Color.  It could be the title of the song, the subject or even the artist or composer's name.  I would go over the submissions with Bobby Marlette and we would choose the best fits for the show.  If your song was chosen then you would receive free tickets to a live taping and broadcast of the Swing Shift Radio Show and dinner for two on us here at the fabulous Meridian Night Club and Lounge.

The winner of the song requesting contest was Miss Lisa G of Powder Springs, with her request of Blue Skies by Lavay Smith and Her Red-Hot Skillet Lickers. Two colors in one submission.  Nice.

Here are the songs in the rundown for this week's edition:

• Black and White – Bellevue Cadillac
• Pink Cadillac – Paul Bascom
• Red Light! Indigo Swing
• Girl With The Crimson Hair – Imperial Swig Orchestra
• Blue Skies – LaVay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
• My Blue Heaven – Frank Sinatra
• Blues in the Night – Rosemary Clooney
• Orange Colored Sky – Natalie Col
• Jumpin’ at the Green Mill - The Mighty Blues Kings
• Brown Derby Jump – Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
• Sweet Georgia Brown – Ella Fitzgerald
• Mood Indigo – Nina Simone w/ G-Swing

Two of the bed pieces (instrumentals used during the host-speaking portions of the program) we played were:

• Sepia Bounce – Jay McShann
• Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White– Perez Prado

 
Our It's Martini Time segment was equally as colorful, the rich emerald hue brought by the Vodka Grasshopper, courtesy of Josh DuBois of Monkeysee.com.


So that's how the color wheel spins, my friends.  We'll see you on the episode of The Future of Retro-Radio - The Swing Shift Radio Show!

Tommy Cage

Don't forget to listen to us every week on WGUN 1010 AM Atlanta, Saturdays at 1pm or Sundays at 7pm!
If you like what you hear, drop me an e-mail: TommyCage@SwingShiftRadio.com - - Song requests or theme suggestions or requests for a particular beverage to be highlighted on "It's Martini Time!", it is the same address!

New Show tonight! Sunday 28 August @ 7p on WGUN

 Join us as we broadcast from the Meridian Nightclub and lounge for another fun-filled hour of the best in Lounge, Jazz, Rockabilly, Blues, Jive and Swing - tonight on WGUN 1010 AM Atlanta! 

 
Tonight's show is all bout the Colors of Swing, kinda like technicolor without the photo processing,

Hope to see you there!

Tommy Cage

Calling all Friends of Swing Shift!

I'm taking a big chance here - but I am going to throw open to you an opportunity to program the music for an upcoming Swing Shift Radio Show episode!

To do it, all you have to do is submit a song that fits in our format of Blues, Jazz, Swing, Neo-Swing, Jump, Lounge or Rockabilly.

Bobby Marlette (Musical director of The Swing Shift Radio Show) and I will go over the submissions and select the top requested and most appropriate.  The people who's songs are selected will get a shout-out on air and a chance at some further prizes (like tickets to an upcoming live show).

Take a chance and show off your musical knowledge - or just get your favorite performer on the air!

This weeks theme for you to pick possible songs for is:

COLORS - red, green, blue, white, orange, whatever - you get the drill.  It could be in the title, the name of the performer or one of the composers.  Just make sure that the color reference is there and relevant!!


Good Luck!

Tommy Cage - your host
Swing Shift Radio Show

Show Notes - 21 August 2011 - Around the World in 57 minutes

^^ Click the play button to hear this episode ^^

During the past week, Bobby Marlette and  I were out in Atlanta visiting my friend Jamie Chambers.  Jamie was kind enough to treat us to lunch at his favorite restaurant, a little hole in the wall Mediterranean place that specialized in mostly Greek style food.  While waiting to get our meal, I happened to look up on the wall over the kitchen window - there were about 9 flags hung as banners and each one had a different translation of the word "peace" on it.

This is the best I could do to get a picture of the flags - camera didn't work too well in the restaurant.

This elicited a conversation about so many languages, but really only one message.  It was at that point that Bobby and I looked at each other and in unison said, "That's this week's theme!"  Yes, it really did happen like that.  When we returned to the Meridian, Bobby and I went into the deep stacks and started looking for Swing music around the world.

Many times while I’ve been on the microphone here at the Meridian Nightclub, I have often remarked how much American Jazz and Swing has influenced the world at large.  Time to put my money where my mouth is and visit around the world where ever American style blues jazz lounge rockabilly or swing is being played...

Here is the playlist for this week's program:

• In The Mood – Puppini Sisters [UK]
• London Rhythm – The Jive Aces [UK]
• How High The Moon – Imelda May [IRELAND]
• It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) - The Rosenberg Trio [FRANCE]
• Frauen reig’n die Weldt – Women Rule the World – Roger Cicero [GERMANY]
• They All Laughed - Gunhilde Carling and Her Swing Band [SWEDEN]
• He Ain’t Got Rhythm - Jennie Löbel and Her Swing Kings [SWEDEN]
• Zip Zap Zoe – Toini and the Tomcats [NORWAY]
• Høk and Swing – Normaal [NETHERLANDS]
• Cement Shoes Optional - Good Fellas with special guest Ray Gelato [ITALY]
• I Got A New Baby - The Speakeasies Swing Band! [GREECE]
• I Van Enkulu - Cool Crooners of Bulawayo [ZIMBABWE]
• Mari Niça Swing - Eric Triton [MAURITIUS]
• Johnny Jingo - Linda and Her Big King Jive Daddies [JAPAN]

For the "It's Martini Time" segment tonight, I wanted an international flavored drink.  So I went to the one place I knew I could get a drink originally from the only place in America that’s more a part of Europe than the USA – it made perfect sense to travel to the Evergreen Kingdom for a European drink from New Orleans. Thanks to Jeffery Morganthaller from Clyde Commons Bar in Portlandia for his offering of the international Sazerac!

If you have an "It's Martini Time" drink request,  song request or an artist/theme you'd like us to highlight, drop me an e-mail to  TommyCage[at]SwingShiftRadio[dot]com. 

Well that about wraps it up - See you next week on The Swing Shift Radio Show!

Tommy Cage

Listen to us Saturdays @ 1 pm, or a new episode on Sundays @ 7pm on WGUN 1010 Am Atlanta, or join us on TuneIn.com, and search for WGUN.  You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @ SwingShiftRadio!!

Show notes: 14 August 2011

We’ve been getting a lot of cards and e-mails asking for more classic swing and big band. So to fulfill the requests of both our fans – tonight’s excursion will be mostly a look into the vault of Big Bands Past…

 

The Harlem Explosion - when I say that, what do you think it means?  I hope not a literal explosion and tragedy like when Harlem burned due to riots in 1935 or 1943.  I am referring to the explosion of talent and creativity that lead to the national love of Swing, Jump and Jive.

 

If you were in The Big Apple in the late 1920's or early 1930’s there were really only two places to see or be seen – if you were down town you went to the Cotton Club – but if you went uptown, it was the Savoy Ballroom.  Both clubs were home to the best bands, the greatest singers and the hottest music.  

  

The Swing Shift Radio Show will pay homage to the musicians and singers that made those venerable and long gone institutions so outstanding and celebrate their music – the music of Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald and more! 

  

Yes, there were other famous ballrooms and music halls in New York and Harlem, such as The Roseland, The Apollo, The Famous Door, The Meridian; but it was in the Cotton Club and The Savoy that legends were born.

We can’t talk about Harlem music and the Birth of Swing without touching on the controversies of the times…while in the 30’s, the Cotton Club did host the best of the African-American musicians and singers, blacks were not allowed as patrons.  Over at the Savoy, however, you could find the same performers and a mix of whites and blacks dancing.  It was all about the music, and Swing musicians and dancers saw black and white only as keys on the piano or colors of their wing tips.    It was more important to let music be the common language and dance the common expression than find those things that divided us.  Yes, there were always brewing tensions between the various races.  Whether Irish, black, or Puerto Rican, they were all given short shrift and treated very badly.  But the men and women who rose above the fray were the great musicians and singers and performers who had a message to give.

Swing bands and swing dancers breached the wall of racism and struck lasting friendships built on respect for talent and skill.  And before I get yelled at by the sticklers of historical accuracy, there were bad apples on all sides, but give credit where it was due - if it weren't for the likes of Chick Webb and his infamous "Cuttin' Sessions" that pitted one band against another for audience approval (the original Battle of The Bands), the unmistakable skill of Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway, the pervasive enthusiasm of Louis Jordan and Louis Armstrong, or the courage to brave the rapids by men like Benny Goodman or The Dorsey Brothers - American music would be so much the poorer because their contributions would have been marginalized.  Thank God for the Savoy Ballroom and The Cotton Club.

As the bands traveled the country and radio played them for a national audience, their style of music spread and others emulated the New York sound.  Chicago, St. Louis and Memphis mixed it with the blues. In the Big Easy, Dixieland merged with Swing.  Out west, San Francisco, Hollywood and Los Angeles reinvented the music, created bands, and put out motion pictures that further inscribed Swing, Blues, Jump and Jive into the hearts of Americans, making the music patriotic and further attempting to erase the lines of division between the American people. 

With all the amazing talent and great successes growing from the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club, there were also a great number of tragedies – Chick Webb died of his lifelong injuries, aided by his driving performances, Bunny Berigan drank himself under, drugs claimed the life of Billy Holiday,  singer Dorothy Dandridge had a child born with severe brain damage – the list goes on…

.

Perhaps their music is so impressive, so poignant, and so eternal because of the pains each of the Harlem-produced musicians had to endure.  It is in the reflection of the pain that these artists felt that we can only begin to appreciate the great skill and talent they had.  These were people driven to perform and they made their immortal mark on the American Jazz and Swing scene…

Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie (1947)

Here is the rundown for this weeks' show:

• Minnie The Moocher – Cab Calloway (from 1931)
• Oh Boy, I’m In The Groove – Louis Jordan and his Tympani five
• Black and White – Bellevue Cadillac
• Harlem Hot Spot – Crescent City Maulers
• Stompin’ At The Savoy –Judy Garland with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra
• A-Tisket, A-Tasket – Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb and his Orchestra
• Take The A-Train – Duke Ellington w/ Betty Roche vocals
• Come On With The Come On - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
• Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea – Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
• Dinah – Benny Carter(clarinet)/Coleman Hawkins(tenor saxophone)/Lionel Hampton (vibraphone)
• High Society - Bunny Berigan
• Your Mother’s Son-in-Law – Benny Goodman w/ Billie Holiday vocals

 

 

It's Martini Time for this week comes to us courtesy of the Expert Village Test Kitchen - Bartender Bambi Zarillo is back with a "Blue Dragon Martini"

If you have an "It's Martini Time" drink request,  song request or an artist/theme you'd like us to highlight, drop me an e-mail to  TommyCage[at]SwingShiftRadio[dot]com. 

Well that about wraps it up - See you next week on The Swing Shift Radio Show!

Tommy Cage

Listen to us Saturdays @ 1 pm, or a new episode on Sundays @ 7pm on WGUN 1010 Am Atlanta, or join us on TuneIn.com, and search for WGUN.  You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @ SwingShiftRadio!!