Free Daily Podcast Summary
by Frank Miller
The Sounds of the Great Big Bands from Yesterday and Today
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all those great old songs again. This week we will be hearing many of the great bands that recorded for the Decca label. We'll be hearing from Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Bob Crosby, Casa Loma, Lionel Hampton and many others. I hope you enjoy all the bands this week that were part of the Decca family. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
I'm back from vacation and have some new programs under way. Here is the first, spotlighting one of my favorite big bands. Will Bradley was a great trombonist who worked with several name orchestras when he was persuaded to start up his own orchestra in 1939. They had an exciting pianist in Freddie Slack and sperked an interest in boogie woogie with their hit Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar. I hope you enjoy this salute to a great big band leader and musician. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that Woody gave in 1978. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. To celebrate this milestone we will be playing some of his early recordings made between the years of 1939 and 1946 on the show today which is part one of two. I was fortunate enough to see the Herman band in person not once but twice. They were a very exciting band and I have been a fan every since I was in high school. I hope you enjoy this salute to one of America's greatest big band leaders. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
I am continuing this week with part two of Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions which has selected cuts from the Mosaic Record Company's eight disc set of the same name. The sound quality is great and most of these songs are from Artie's classic years. All of the songs on the show are instrumentals as that was how Mosaic elected to produce the set. I hope you enjoy part 2 of The Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
In 2011 I bought two 8 disc sets from the Mosaic Record Company. The first was dedicated to the Columbia sides of Benny Goodman which I presented a show on a few weeks ago. The second is what our show today is about. This disc set featured the classic Bluebird recordings of Artie Shaw. For all the vocal fan listeners I have to apologize as this set only focus on the instrumentals. But what a collection of instrumentals. We start from the year of 1938 and Artie's great recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" and continue from there. Many of the arrangements are by Artie himself or Jerry Gray. This is a great set that is, unfortunately, not for sale anymore. I hope you enjoy part 1 of The Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
This week I am going to continue with part two of the Mosaic box set, The Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Session 1939 -1957. These are many of the recordings that Benny made during those years and these are all instrumental recordings. Benny had some great vocalists during those years but Mosaic kept this set to just instrumentals. Some of the songs we'll be listening to include, Jersey Bounce, A String of Pearls, Birth of the Blues, I'll Get By, and many more. This set is no longer available and so I am happy to be able to present some of these great recordings. I hope you enjoy a look at some of the recordings by Benny and the orchestra. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
This week we will be listening to selections from a Mosaic Record Company set that I have called the Classic Columbia and Okeh Benny Goodman Orchestra Sessions. This is part one of a show I did back in 2012 and repeated almost three years ago in 2019. These are all the instrumental recordings that Benny did for Columbia and the Okeh record label. Unfortunately the producers of this set omitted all the vocals. But there is some fantastic music by the Goodman band starting in 1939 when he switched to the Columbia label. If you are a Benny Goodman fan then I hope you enjoy these two programs. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Get key takeaways from Big Band Bash in a 5-minute read.
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Big Band Bash as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Frank Miller.
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts. Upgrade to Pro for 15, or Premium for 50. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
Big Band Bash publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
Big Band Bash covers topics including History, Music. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.