"Because ignorance of your culture is considered uncool"
Gene Krupa Band, featuring Anita O’Day and Charlie Ventura – Spotlight Bands – January 1946 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Digging deep into the vault this week for a performance by The Gene Krupa Band, featuring the legendary singer Anita O’Day, along with the pre Bop-For-The-Peaple Charlie Ventura on...
Gil Evans Orchestra – live from Studio 105, Maison de la Radio, Paris – November 4, 1976 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Gil Evans for a stay-at-home Sunday. Recorded at Radio France, Studio 104 in Paris on November 4, 1976. For all the decades Gil Evans was active, he...
Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour’s Orchestra – In Session for C.P. Mac Gregor – Jan, 1945 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Peggy Lee is probably a name which may not register with people below a certain age. Her career spanned some six decades, from the 1930s to the 1990s....
Carla Bley Big Band – live from Paris – Studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris – March 16, 1982 – Radio France – Carla Bley Big Band for this Christmas eve. Okay, maybe not full of Christmas music, but this concert is joyous as hell – and if it...
Thad Jones – Mel Lewis Big Band – Live in Paris – Recorded at Studio 104 – Maison de la Radio – Paris – Sept. 8, 1969 – Radio France Musique – Thad Jones – Mel Lewis Big Band, recorded live in Paris in September of 1969. Normally I don’t...
Conversations With Artie Shaw – Guest: John Simon – Feb. 29, 1972 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Critics – an alternately loved and despised lot, viewed by some as a combination of giddy swooning fan and stone-faced curmudgeon. The critic, throughout history has been a starmaker and icon-basher. Why...
Wardell Gray Live at Birdland – April 28, 1951 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Wardell Gray this weekend. One of the true guiding lights in Post-War Jazz, he was that link between Big-Band and small group Jazz, and his collaborators read like a who’s who of the Jazz world....
Tommy Dorsey – Live From The Casino Gardens Ballroom – Ocean Park, Santa Monica – June 1947 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – For a change, Big Band for this edition of Downbeat. Just prior to and shortly after World War 2, Big Band Swing was the mainstay of mainstream...
Stan Kenton and His Orchestra – Mini-Concert from The Casino at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire – July 21, 1953 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Stan Kenton this week. At a time when Big Bands were on the wane, Sten Kenton, with his New Concepts In Rhythm and full 20-piece...
Earl Bostic and his Orchestra – A Gay Day – King Records #5081 – 1957- Earl Bostic this weekend, with one of the last 78’s King Records issued, just before everybody switched over to 45 for good. A Gay Day (Gay . . as in happy) was not a hit,...
