Tommy Dorsey - Hot Stuff 1940 - 1942

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Eyeball
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Tommy Dorsey - Hot Stuff 1940 - 1942

#1 Post by Eyeball » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:16 am

kitkat wrote:John, could you give us some tips about which albums can at least help us collect a good chunk of 1940-1942 Tommy Dorsey stuff?

Thanks!
Sure, I'd love to, but that's a problem. By some cruel trick of fate, lots of the best TD stuff from that era has never been reissued or was reissued decades ago on LP and never again, plus issued among his many other recordings of other eras. All his bands were good, but the 1940 - 1942 (on record) and then his wartime band, plus a fair amount of good stuff from 1946 is his 'best' material.

His band in the 30s is very fine with lots of pop dance numbers and Jazz and Swing numbers featuring good, hot men like Bunny Berigan, but the 40-42 band just brings all the best elements together.

He totally re-vamped his band as he realized he had fallen behind the 'newer guys' like Shaw and Miller and even Goodman. So he dumped many of his sidemen, all his vocalists and brought in Sy Oliver to be the chief arranger for his band. Night and day difference between 1939 and 1940. You wouldn't know it is the same band.

So.....later today let me try and look over what is on CD these days. Maybe some stuff has come out that I don't even know about.

There was a TD/Sy Oliver CD on Victor that had a lot of good stuff on it. I think someone told me it was cut-out.

I made cassette copies of all my TD 78s when I got rid of them, so I am lucky.

Another good CD from him from that exact era is all live broadcasts which feature his pop and rhythm singer, Connie Haines (Still alive and active in Florida! She turned 21 while with Dorsey.) She was very bouncy and light and had a great personality and vibrant singing style, yet is now almost completely forgotten - she has 2 web sites, though. Yeah...look for that one on line b/c it has quite a few rhythm and hot jump tunes, almost all medium to uptempo. Good sound quality on that CD.

Dorsey was very dancer conscious as much of his audience was high school, college and young adult. Even his ballad performances frequently had a kick to them with some roof blasting ensemble work or a hot solo to wrap up the disc.

Ummmm...there was a 2 LP set on RCA that I am pretty sure made it out onto CD - all live stuff and just about all of it from 40 - 43.

Later!

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#2 Post by Eyeball » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:25 am

http://www.jazzitude.com/bldorseya.htm

Here's a write up I did of Dorsey which focused on his best bands.

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#3 Post by GemZombie » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:00 am

I used to have access to some of those Reissue LP's when I was doing my radio show... indeed it wsa good stuff.

I also find a lot of the Sy Oliver stuff to be among Dorsey's best work.

I wonder if Proper will ever do a Dorsey box set.

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Eyeball
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#4 Post by Eyeball » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:16 am

ANOTHER ONE OF THEM THINGS
SERENADE TO THE SPOT
WELL, GIT IT!
SWINGTIME UP IN HARLEM
BLUE SKIES
QUIET, PLEASE
NOT SO QUIET, PLEASE
DEEP RIVER - 4.5 minutes that just doesn't quit.
LOOSE LID SPECIAL
SO WHAT?

FWIW - All the Sinatra/Dorsey sides have been reissued and there is a lot of non-ballad stuff in there at nice middle tempos. And all the Pied Pipers stuff with TD has been reissued - more good middle tempos with the band kicking ass even on a novelty like "Nine Old Men".

Yes...the 'best' TD stuff is scattered over LPs from the 50s to the 90s.

I like his 30s band if I am in a relaxed 30s mood. Some of the hot stuff from that era is good, too. Edythe Wright was first rate.

All the MARIE clones are good. I like SWEET SUE in the MARIE clone version.

He was on Victor from 1935 - 1950....hundreds of sides.

It's too slow for most dancers, but his recording of I DON'T KNOW WHY is a prime example of how a ballad can still have 'guts'. Once the vocal is over, some genius of an arranger turned himself loose on the tune with fabulous writing for the sax section with a whole chorus to themselves and then mega intense brass work. Again, the section writing for the trumpets is...well..thrilling....I am surprised the studio didn't explode. They rip it up! 1946 vintage. Half the record is instrumental.

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#5 Post by Haydn » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:48 am

I agree there's a lot of good Tommy Dorsey stuff around. My current favourite TD track is a version of Easy Does It, available on this compilation CD - it's track 18 -

http://tinyurl.co.uk/cfqz

I'm not sure when this 'Easy Does It' was recorded (I can't even find the CD at the moment to see if the recording date's on there), but the tracks on this compilation were recorded between Sep 26, 1935-Nov 23, 1944.

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#6 Post by Eyeball » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:45 am

"Easy Does It" - 1940, IIRC. Another Sy Oliver chart, IIRC.

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#7 Post by russell » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:39 pm

I have the OOP Sy Oliver arrangements CD. Hard to get hold of but great material.

http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Indeed-Tommy- ... B000008AS6

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#8 Post by Eyeball » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:37 pm

And almost everyone a solid winner!

1. Lonesome Road, Pt. 1
2. Lonesome Road, Pt. 2
3. Well All Right (Tonight's the Night)
4. Night in Sudan
5. Stomp It Off
6. Easy Does It
7. Quiet Please (It's the Drummer in Me)
8. So What - features Don Lodice on enor sax
9. Swing High
10. Swanee River
11. Deep River - Oh, yeah!
12. Yes, Indeed!
13. Loose Lid Special
14. Swingin' on Nothin'
15. Hallelujah! - *This one is great!
16. Moonlight on the Ganges
17. Well, Git It!
18. Mandy
19. Opus One
20. Chloe
21. At the Fat Man's
22. Minor Goes Muggin'

These is really top shelf stuff.

Lonesome Road is by Sy Oliver? The first 4 - Hmmmmm........Those are SO arrangements? They are early - 1939.

I see they are asking 50 bucks for this one.

I don't know the TD record of "Moonlight...Ganges" I will need to see if I actually have this CD.

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#9 Post by russell » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:29 am

Actually Lonesome Road Part 1 and 2 arranged by Bill Finegan, Well All Right, Night in Sudan arranged by Paul Weston.
Also Moonlight on The Ganges, Chloe - arr Finegan

A little white lie on the cover :-)

Note - Duke Ellington plays piano on The Minor Goes Muggin'

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#10 Post by GemZombie » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:03 am

Man I'm glad I got a copy of that CD years ago. :)

$50? wow.

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#11 Post by kitkat » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:26 am

John, no rush, but if you're ever listening to your tapes for listening pleasure, while you sit around could you write down recordings you think swing dance DJs would like to know about and, as you capture them, put them on this thread? Putting the song titles next to the album you found them on would be ideal, if you saved that information and it's not too much trouble.

It sure would be nice to have a list to turn to whenever I'm in a thrift store, at a garage sale, etc.

Even if I can't play record-to-CD stuff at a dance (sound quality), I'd like to get to listen to it in my living room, hear what you're talking about, and fantasize that it's good enough to play!

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#12 Post by Eyeball » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:43 am

russell wrote:Actually Lonesome Road Part 1 and 2 arranged by Bill Finegan, Well All Right, Night in Sudan arranged by Paul Weston.
Also Moonlight on The Ganges, Chloe - arr Finegan

A little white lie on the cover :-)

Note - Duke Ellington plays piano on The Minor Goes Muggin'
God, I'm good!

THey must have had other Sy Oliver charts to put on there. Aside from the date being wrong, those sides don't sound like the work SO was doing/did for TD when he jumped ship from Lunceford.

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#13 Post by Eyeball » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:51 am

kitkat wrote:John, no rush, but if you're ever listening to your tapes for listening pleasure, while you sit around could you write down recordings you think swing dance DJs would like to know about and, as you capture them, put them on this thread? Putting the song titles next to the album you found them on would be ideal, if you saved that information and it's not too much trouble.

It sure would be nice to have a list to turn to whenever I'm in a thrift store, at a garage sale, etc.

Even if I can't play record-to-CD stuff at a dance (sound quality), I'd like to get to listen to it in my living room, hear what you're talking about, and fantasize that it's good enough to play!
Sure. Can do.

One easy way to handle the garage sale/thrift shop quest is to simply get any thing by Tommy Dorsey that came out on RCA Victor or their budget labell, RCA Camden. They all have the same wide assortment of Dorsey sides from 1935 to 1950. None of the LPs were ever focused on one era, except for the chronological series on RCA Bluebird - which were all 2 LP sets in chrono order from 1935 to 1939.

If you can get the LPs cheaply enough, you will find the gens among the items you dont especially care for....though there are always suprises when you hear something you didn't think you'd like and you do.

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#14 Post by kitkat » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:22 pm

Thanks.

Y'know, it's too bad that there're no sound samples of records up on Allmusic.com. :?

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#15 Post by Eyeball » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:10 pm

kitkat wrote:Thanks.

Y'know, it's too bad that there're no sound samples of records up on Allmusic.com. :?
But there must be on the stuff for sale sites.

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