SwingDJs

HI,

I'm in the process of preparing a BG Alumni show that will air this Friday (Jan 27).

Here is a list off the top of my head on people who were members of the BG band. I'm not going to include people who recorded with Benny, but didn;t tour - example is Ella.

Any other significant people you can think of?

Bunny Berigan
Lional Nampton
Jess Stacy
Ziggy Elman
Harry James
Helen Ward
Helen Forrest
Peggy Lee
Teddy Wilson
Gene Krupa
Bucky Pizzarelli
Jack Teagarden
Cootie Williams
Mel Powell
Charlie Christian
Jimmy Maxwell
Buddy Greco
Johnny Mercer
Ken Peplowski
Glenn Miller

Jimmy Rushing
Ethel Ennis

CafeSavoy wrote:Jimmy Rushing
Ethel Ennis

Thanks. I had never heard of Ethel. Nice little bio on her here:

http://www.mrlucky.com/songbirds/html/j ... ennis.html

For Jimmy Rushing, I'm aware of the famous Brussels tour that he did. But I'm not sure Jimmy was a 'regular' member of the band at any time. Was Jimmy a member in the 40s?

One tough thing about Benny is he didn't have a regular band past about 1949 or so. He would do tours and ambassador things. but I'm not certain I would call him a regular and steady band leader past the late 1940s. So it becomes a little fuzzy about people and the 'regular' relationship they may have had with BG past 1949.

A few more names popped into my head while I was writing this:

Glenn Miller
Murray McEachern
Dave Mathews
Babe Rusin
Lawrence Brown

Nick Fatool
Dave Tough
Jo Jones
Big Sid Catlett
Louis Belson
Johnny Guarneri
Count Basie
Fletcher Henderson
Allan Reuss
Dave Barbour
George Van Eps
Barney Kessel
Chris Griffin
Vido Musso
Georgie Auld
Red Norvo
Slam Steward
Martha Tilton
Lou McGarrity
Artie Bernstein
Harry Goodman

From the one Sextet session
Lester Young
Buck Clayton
Freddie Green
Walter Page

John Kirby (from one of the late quartet sessions)

Also, when did Bucky play with Benny? That seems like that would be into the 50's.

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your list. I'm going to divide this into 3 groups.

1) People who played regularily and toured with Benny
2) People who did only a few recording sessions with Benny.
3) Unknown - need more research in my discography software

Regular Players with BG wrote: Nick Fatool
Dave Tough
Louis Belson
Fletcher Henderson - arranger and occassional pianist
Allan Reuss
Dave Barbour
Barney Kessel
Chris Griffin
Vido Musso
Georgie Auld
Red Norvo
Martha Tilton
Harry Goodman

Non Regular Players - occassional Recordings wrote: Jimmy Rushing
Jo Jones
Big Sid Catlett
Johnny Guarneri
Count Basie
Slam Steward
Lester Young
Buck Clayton
Freddie Green
Walter Page
John Kirby

Unknown - Need more research wrote: George Van Eps
Lou McGarrity
Artie Bernstein

Regarding Bucky Pizzarelli: Bucky played with Benny in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Again during this time, Benny really didn't have a regular band.

There are some recordings of Bucky with Benny. The one I immediately recall is from the Time Life Swing Era set. There is a (3)LP and now (2)CD transfer of live recordings that Benny did in the 1950s, 60s and into the early 70s. Some marvelous things in this set. I think it is called The King Live or something along those lines. It is the only live stuff in the entire Swing Era set.

Non Regular Players - occassional Recordings wrote: Jimmy Rushing
Jo Jones
Big Sid Catlett
Johnny Guarneri
Count Basie
Slam Steward
Lester Young
Buck Clayton
Freddie Green
Walter Page
John Kirby

Unknown - Need more research wrote: George Van Eps
Lou McGarrity
Artie Bernstein

George Van Eps was the original guitar player in the band from 1934-1935 on the Let's Dance program. He left when the band went on tour in 1935 and recommended his student, Allan Reuss.
Lou McGarrity played trombone starting in 1941, including several sextet sessions.
Artie Bernstien played bass from 1939-1941 and maybe more. He's on all of the CC sextet sessions.

By the way Johnny Guarneri played piano for a couple years especially on the CC sextet sessions. I would knock him into the higher category

Jonathan,

Thanks. George Van Eps was an amazing player. I got a CD of recordings he did in the 1940s. Some amazing playing. In listening it sounds like 2 players, yet there is only one.

I took the liberty of adding my original list from above. Thanks for the updated list. How does this look?

Regular Players with BG wrote: Bunny Berigan
Lionel Hampton
Jess Stacy
Ziggy Elman
Harry James
Helen Ward
Helen Forrest
Peggy Lee
Teddy Wilson
Gene Krupa
Bucky Pizzarelli
Jack Teagarden
Cootie Williams
Mel Powell
Charlie Christian
Jimmy Maxwell
Buddy Greco
Johnny Mercer
Ken Peplowski
Glenn Miller
Murray McEachern
Dave Mathews
Babe Rusin
Lawrence Brown
Nick Fatool
Dave Tough
Louis Belson
Fletcher Henderson - Composer, arranger and occassional pianist
Allan Reuss
Dave Barbour
Barney Kessel
Chris Griffin
Vido Musso
Georgie Auld
Red Norvo
Martha Tilton
Harry Goodman
George Van Eps
Lou McGarrity
Artie Bernstein
Johnny Guarneri

Non Regular Players - occassional Recordings wrote: Jimmy Rushing
Jo Jones
Big Sid Catlett
Count Basie
Slam Steward
Lester Young
Buck Clayton
Freddie Green
Walter Page
John Kirby

John Bunch

Arrangers Jimmy Mundy, Spud Murphy, et al.

Trumpet player Charlie Spivak
Jack Teagarden

Heinie Beau
Miff Mole - 1920s jazzman playing in BG's 4F band during the war
Al Klink

Thank You

I've got a lot of great ideas from your list.

BTW - many of the names who really didn't lead many bands can be found on the massive and wonderful Mosaic set:

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.a ... =170-MD-CD

I've guessing 1/3 to 1/2 of my music on the upcoming show will be from this set.

The show is going to air - Jan 27th - 9-11pm EST in the USA. I think we are -6 hours GT

FYI