George Patterson Roaring Forties

Create your badge

google-site-verification=QrKYv8t5Pr0_7Zd9GDqYi8hal53cmJRjdG4IFVYBPZk

BRIAN SETZER

If you like Brian Setzer Music then you will love THE ROARING FORTIES. Come get your free track and compare at www.theroaringforties.com

Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York. Beginning in January 1979, he has fronted the popular rockabilly band, the Stray Cats.
After performing locally from New York to Philadelphia under various band names with no real success, singer and lead guitarist Setzer, drummer Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell) and bassist Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) decided in June 1980 to go to London, England where they believed people would better appreciate their sound and style.
To get the money for their plane tickets, Brian, Lee and Jim went to Sam Ash Music on 48th Street to sell their instruments and gear to the store, and rather than negotiating simply sold all of their equipment for just enough money for three one-way plane tickets. Upon their arrival, they decided to call themselves the "Stray Cats", a name suggested by Rocker because of their status as 'strays'. After performing for only a few months they drew the attention of British producer Dave Edmunds and released a series of successful singles in the UK, which countered the already-entrenched punk scene in London with the more simple stripped down rockabilly sound, which immediately caught on with the youth.
After releasing several singles and two albums in England, the Stray Cats finally caught America's attention with the 1982 album Built for Speed, which included the two Top Ten hits, "Rock This Town" (#9) and "Stray Cat Strut" (#3). This album was basically a re-release of many of the songs from the two previous albums: the self-titled "Stray Cats" and "Gonna Ball" (they have never been released in America). Their follow-up 1983 album Rant 'N Rave with the Stray Cats included the two successful singles: "(She's) Sexy + 17" (#5), and "I Won't Stand In Your Way" (#35).
After only four years, the Stray Cats separated in 1984, but reunited briefly to record albums and mount tours several times all the way through the early 1990s. From 1985 to early 1986, Setzer was the lead guitarist for the touring version of Robert Plant's ensemble band, The Honeydrippers.
In the summer of 1986, Setzer released his first solo album, The Knife Feels Like Justice, which marked a huge move away from his trademark sound and towards a more mainstream 'rock-roots' sound, which was popularized at the time by such other artists such as John Cougar Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen. The album was given very little promotion by his label and as a result it only found minor success, peaking at only number 45 on the Billboard US album charts. The album has become a cult favorite among those who understood the message Setzer was trying to attempt, such as the world's nuclear proliferation, the immigration issue, the understanding of religion and the 'working man's blues', such as unemployment, loneliness, etc.
In 1987, Setzer played the part of Eddie Cochran in the biographical film on the life of Ritchie Valens, La Bamba.
In the mid-1990s Setzer once again resurrected an older form of youth-oriented music, swing and jump blues music, when he formed The Brian Setzer Orchestra, an ambitious 17-piece ensemble project, which released four studio albums, a Christmas disc and several live releases between 1994 and 2002. His group's biggest success (and Setzer's outside the Stray Cats) came in 1998 with the release of the album The Dirty Boogie which cracked the top ten on the US album charts and featured a hit single, a cover of Louis Prima's "Jump, Jive and Wail".


Brian Setzer plays with his orchestra on June 29, 2006 in the East Room of the White House, during the entertainment following the official dinner in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to the United States.
Setzer continued to release solo-billed albums sporadically, including a solo live disc Rockin' By Myself in 1998. In 2001 he released an album titled Ignition with his new trio billed as the '68 Comeback Special. In 2003 he released Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy. A tribute album titled Rockabilly Riot Vol. 1: A Tribute To Sun Records was released on July 26, 2005, in the United States. An album simply titled 13 was released in October 2006.
On September 25, 2007, the Brian Setzer Orchestra released Wolfgang's Big Night Out which features Setzer's take on classical pieces, such as Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Flight of the Bumblebee, and Für Elise. "Wolfgang" earned Setzer his 8th Grammy nomination, this time for Best Classical Crossover album of the year.
On October 13, 2009, the Brian Setzer Orchestra released a new album titled "Songs From Lonely Avenue." For the first time in Setzer's career, he was the sole writer on every song. Frank Comstock, the 87-year-old big band arranger whom Setzer collaborated with on "Wolfgang's Big Night Out," orchestrated most of the horn parts for the album.
On December 14, 2009, Brian Setzer was unable to complete a performance in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was briefly hospitalized because of "dehydration, high altitude sickness and vertigo,"[1] Albuquerque has the highest elevation of any American city of more than 100,000 people and many visitors experience oxygen debt and require ER treatment.
[edit]Honors
Setzer was awarded the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1999 Gibson Awards. As of 1999, the previous recipients of this award were B. B. King, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and John Fogerty.
Since 2000, Setzer has earned 3 Grammy Awards: Best Pop Performance Duo/Group for "Jump Jive An' Wail", and two Best Pop Instrumental Performance awards for "Sleepwalk" and "Caravan". In December 2006 he received his 7th Grammy nomination for his version of "My Favorite Things", again in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category.
[edit]Personal life
Setzer has been married three times: to DeAnna Morgan from 1984 to 1992, with whom he has a son, Cody; to Christine Schmidt, from 1994 to 2002, with whom he has two daughters; and to Julie Reiten, a former singer with the Dustbunnies, in 2005 (they met when she auditioned - and was hired - as a back-up singer for the Brian Setzer Orchestra in 2000). Setzer and Reiten reside in Minneapolis.[2] google46d6cb5db1e797dc.html

GEORGE PATTERSON

KEELY SMITH REVIEW BY GEORGE PATTERSON, SINGER WITH IRELANDS No 1 SWING BAND THE ROARING FORTIES.

I met Keely Smith in Holland at a jazz festival, wish I had n't actually, sometimes its not good to meet your Idols. Still adore what she did and always prepared to give her a second chance
Smith showed a natural aptitude for singing at a young age. At 14, she started singing with a naval air station band led by Saxie Dowell. At 15, she got her first paying job with the Earl Bennett band.
Smith made her professional debut with Louis Prima in 1949 (the couple were married in 1953); Smith played the "straight guy" in the duo to Prima's wild antics and they recorded many duets. These include Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "That Ol' Black Magic", which was a Top 20 hit in the US in 1958. In 1959, Smith and Prima were awarded the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus for "That Ol' Black Magic". Her "dead-pan" act was a hit with fans. The duo followed up with the minor successes "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", a revival of the 1937 Andrews Sisters hit. Smith and Prima's act was a mainstay of the Las Vegas lounge scene for much of the 1950s.
Smith appeared with Prima in the 1959 film, Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, singing "Fever", and also appeared in and sang on the soundtrack of the previous year's Thunder Road. Her song in Thunder Road was "Whippoorwill". Her first big solo hit was "I Wish You Love". In 1961, Smith divorced Prima. She then signed with Reprise Records, where her musical director was Nelson Riddle. In 1965, she had Top 20 hits in the UK with an album of Beatles compositions, and a single, "You're Breaking My Heart". Sadly, her Reprise recordings have never been made available on CD.
In 1985, she made a comeback with I'm In Love Again (Fantasy Records)[citation needed]. Her albums, Swing, Swing, Swing (2002), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001) for which she was Grammy nominated, and Keely Swings Count Basie Style with Strings (2002) garnered critical and fan acclaim.
[edit]2000s

Smith released Vegas '58 – Today a compilation album of her best known songs, all recorded live. Smith has re-recorded a number of songs from her Prima years, including a modified version of "Oh Marie," which has been renamed "Oh Louis" in tribute. By her own admission, she has never had a singing lesson and cannot read music.
She works a light touring schedule. She was booked at the Cafe Carlyle in New York City for the month of April 2007. On February 10, 2008, Smith performed "That Old Black Magic" with Kid Rock at the 50th Grammy Awards.
[edit]Personal life

Keely Smith married Louis Prima in 1953 and divorced him in 1961. Keely and Prima had three children.
In 1965, Keely married Jimmy Bowen. The couple divorced in 1969.[1]
Keely married musician Bobby Milano in 1975 in Palm Springs. Frank Sinatra gave the bride away.[2]
[edit]Musical
If you love the music of Louis Prima you will love THE ROARING FORTIES.COM Come and get your free track on www.theroaringforties.com

LOUIS JORDAN BIOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PATTERSON , SINGER WITH THE JUMP JIVE SWING BAND THE ROARING FORTIES

Louis Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful black bandleader of his day. But in contrast to almost all of his colleagues[citation needed] of all races, he was a major personality in his own right, an all-round entertainer of enormous and diverse accomplishments.
Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who specialized in the alto saxophone but played all forms of the instrument, as well as piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, many of the songs he wrote or co-wrote became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.
Although Jordan began his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.
With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".
[edit]Early life and musical career

Louis Thomas Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.
Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father’s bands instead of doing farm work when school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.
Jordan briefly attended Baptist College in Arkansas and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, with one of his band colleagues having been Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker,[3] and with local bands including Bob Alexander’s Harmony Kings,[4] he went north to Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band.
In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom, Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career—Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.
In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill with tuberculosis of the spine. Webb died after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939, aged only 30; following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the band.
[edit]Early solo career

Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals), Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums).
The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to "The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to "timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)
The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.
Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.
In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.
The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid the standard union scale of US$70 per week -- $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just two weeks.
During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career, and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation Blues".
In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.
By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.
These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached #12 on the pop charts, and it was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.
Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban, which was declared the same month. The ban—imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each record sold—led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history.
"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching #2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's the Use of Getting Sober" (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first #1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached #10 in January 1943. Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord with audiences, reaching #3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching #8 on the race charts and giving Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.
In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making "soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. Unlike many musicians, Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft, except for a 4 week Army camp tour. Due to a "hernia condition" he was classified 4F.[5]
Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade, where it spent six weeks at #1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached #11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.
[edit]1940s

In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".
One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were released in multiple competing versions.
Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", the two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted electric guitar.[6]
Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues". "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance, and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.
Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.
Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides—notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow" -- were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.
[edit]"King of the Jukebox"

The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942–1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover #1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance in the Universal film Follow the Boys. Two years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short Solid Serenade.[3]
He also played a musical performance in the 1946 Monogram Pictures movie Swing Parade of 1946 During this period Jordan again placed more than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen #1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1—his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the #1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive #1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.
Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in a series of short musical films, as well as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs.[7] The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in audio-visual jukeboxes. Jordan also had a cameo role in the Hollywood wartime musical Follow the Boys.
[edit]Decline of popularity

In 1951, Jordan put together a short-lived big band that included musicians such as Pee Wee Moore and others, at a time when big bands were on their way out; this is considered the beginning of his commercial decline, even though he reverted to the Tympany Five format within a year. By the mid 1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he began switching labels. Moving to Mercury Records, Jordan managed to update his sound to full rock and roll with such non-charting songs as "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Salt Pork, West Virginia". After this, however, Jordan's popularity waned and he recorded only for a small following of enthusiasts. He seldom recorded at all after the early 1960s. Jordan died in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975.[8] He is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in his wife Martha's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
During an interview late in life, Jordan made the controversial remark that rock and roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers.
Although Jordan wrote (or co-wrote) a large proportion of the songs he performed, he did not benefit financially from many of them. Many of his self-penned biggest hits, including "Caldonia", were credited to Jordan's then wife Fleecie Moore as a means of avoiding an existing publishing arrangement. The marriage was acrimonious and short-lived—on two occasions, Moore stabbed Jordan after domestic disputes, almost killing him the second time—and after their divorce Fleecie retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan may have taken credit for some songs written by others—he is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett later claimed that in fact he had written the song[9]
[edit]Marriages

Jordan is believed to have been married five times. His first wife was named Julia or Julie, but by 1932 he was married to Texas singer and dancer Ida Fields. He and Fields divorced, and in 1942 he married childhood sweetheart Fleecie Moore. After their divorce, he married dancer Vicky Hayes in 1951, and separated from her in 1960. Finally, he married singer and dancer Martha Weaver in 1966.[4]
[edit]Motion pictures

As well as singing in many films, and appearing in Meet Miss Bobby Sox (1944) and Follow the Boys (1944), Jordan starred in several race films: Beware (1946), and Reet, Petite, and Gone and Look Out Sister (both 1947, when the race films ended).
IF YOU LOVE LOUIS JORDAN, YOU WILL LOVE THE MUSIC OF THE ROARING FORTIES, COME AND GET YOUR FREE TRACK FROM www.theroaringforties.com

LOUIS PRIMA BIOGRAPHY REVIEW BY GEORGE PATTERSON FROM THE ROARING FORTIES SWING BAND

Born on December 7, 1910 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Louis Prima was a trumpeter, band leader, singer, composer, and sometime film star. The son of Italian immigrant parents Angelina and Anthony Prima. He was educated at Jesuit High School, and studied the violin for several years under Hemmersback, before switching to the trumpet. At the age of 17, Louis was inspired by such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. He aquired his first job as a singer and trumpeter in a New Orleans theater - his older brother, Leon, also played trumpet at a local night-spot. In the early 30s Prima worked with Red Nichols, before forming his own seven-piece group called 'New Orleans Gang', with its signature tune, 'Way Down Yonder In New Orleans'. They recorded more than 70 titles in New York for various labels from 1934-39, some of which made the US Hit Parade.

By this stage, Prima was also composing songs, and one of them, 'Sing, Sing, Sing', when developed by Benny Goodman, became a smash hit, and remains a Swing Era classic, as is 'Jump, Jive, and Wail.'

Through the years, Prima wrote and co-wrote many other songs, including 'Robin Hood', which was a success for Les Brown in 1945. Also in 1945, Prima had engagements at Frank Dailey's Terrace Room in Newark New Jersey. He also wrote the 1947 Jo Stafford hit, 'A Sunday Kind Of Love'.

After making an good impression in his feature film debut in the Bing Crosby movie musical Rhythm On The Range (1936), Prima continued to have relatively small, but telling roles in a number of other movies, notably Rose Of Washington Square (1939), in which he enhanced Alice Faye 's rendering of 'I'm Just Wild About Harry' with his ebullient and exciting trumpet accompaniment. By this time he had his own big band which he fronted with great showmanship and panache. 40's Prima hits included 'Angelina', 'Bell-Bottom Trousers' (vocal: Lily Ann Carol), and 'Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)', an amusing novelty from the 1947 Broadway revue 'Angel In The Wings". In 1941 Prima and his orchestra had an engagment at the Trianon Ballroom in Seattle Washington, one of the songs performed there was 'Sing Sing Sing' and featured a 16 year old drummer named Jimmy Vincent, who went on to perform with Prima right on through the Vegas years.

In 1948, Prima began working with the poker-faced 16 year old singer Dorthy Keely Smith daughter of Fannie and Jesse Smith, she was born in Norfolk, VA. After having a hit in 1950 with their joint composition 'Oh, Babe!', they were married on July 13, 1953 and had two daughters,Toni Elizabeth and Luanne Frances. Keely was his fourth wife.

Prima's forte was not subtlety. His singing and arrangements take influences from Dixieland, Jazz, and quite often Rock and Roll. Many times he devised medleys of two tunes at once. Often he scat-sang, with Sam Butera trying to copy him note for note. Another hallmark is Prima using songs from his Italian heritage.

During the next decade they were recognized as one of the hottest nightclub acts in the USA, and became known as 'The Wildest Show In Las Vegas'. Prima's inspired clowning and zany vocals delivered in a fractured Italian dialect, coupled with Smith's cool image and classy singing, were augmented by tenor saxophonist Sam Butera and his group, the Witnesses. A typical performance was filmed at Lake Tahoe in 1957, and released under the title of The Wildest, and they reassembled in 1959 for the feature Hey Boy! Hey Girl! Prima and Smith were awarded Grammys in 1958 for their inimitable reading of the Harold Arlen - Johnny Mercer standard, 'That Old Black Magic'.

In 1958 Prima was briefly in the UK Top 30 with Carl Sigman and Peter de Rose's 'Buona Sera', and two years later made the US singles and albums charts with the instrumental 'Wonderland By Night'. Other Top 40 albums included 'Las Vegas-Prima Style' and Hey Boy!, Hey Girl! In 1961, while still at the height of their fame - and having recently signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Desert Inn, Las Vegas, the couple were divorced, he then married another girl singer Gia Maione, and continued to work in Vegas through 1967.

In 1967 Prima and Butera subsequently attempted to cash in on the then-popular dance fad by appearing in the movie 'Twist All Night', which sank without a trace in spite of items such as 'When The Saints Go Twistin' In'. Most memorable was Prima's contribution in 1967 to The Jungle Book , the Walt Disney Studio's first cartoon feature in four years, which went on to gross about $26 million. Prima provided the voice of the orang-utan King Louie, and sang the film's hit song, 'I Wanna Be Like You'. As a result of Phil Harris' and Prima's success with the Jungle Book movie, they cut two albums "The Jungle Book", on Disneyland records and "More Jungle Book". The combination of receipts from both albums led Prima to a gold record.

In the later years Prima mostly confined himself to performing with a small group at Casino's such as the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas. In the early 1970s Prima's act was no longer a crowd drawer as in the old days in Vegas, so he moved with Butera back to New Orleans, getting steady work for the tourist crowd.

In October 1975 underwent surgery for the removal of a brain tumor. He never regained consciouness from the operation. Disabled and incapable of communicating remained in a coma until in early July of 1978 he contracted pneumonia. Fed through a tube and given hoards of antibiotics, he was given his last rights. Prima a strong willed man hung on for another six weeks until he died from complications due to the brain stem tumor on August 24, 1978 in a New Orleans nursing home. He is buried in the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana along side his mother and father Anthony (died 1961) and Angelina (died 1965) Prima. If you love louis Prima and his music, you will love the music of THE ROARINGFORTIES. Come get a free track from their site www.theroaringforties.com

LOUIS ARMSTRONG IN JAZZ REVIEW BY GEORGE PATTERSON FROM THE ROARING FORTIES JUMP JIVE SWING BAND

The Personification Of Jazz

Louis Satchmo Armstrong

Artist Biography by: Lee Prosser


The auditorium was packed...standing room only. The people were ready. There was an aura of splendor hovering over the audience excitement, allied with love as they waited to hear the inimitable, and, paramount musician, singer, and entertainer the world over..."Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong"
When the band kicked off the intro to "Hello Dolly," the audience went into an emotion-packed uproar as they watched their hero, with his unmistakable prance, walk to the microphone, his trumpet in one hand, his handkerchief in the other...his smile was so big, it could light up Broadway. Louie gave them want they wanted it went something like this..."Hello...Dolly...oh...Hello...Dolly..." Hearing this, the audience clapped and yelled so much, it made you think a cataclysmic eruption was eminent! His fans loved him so much, as did the rest of the world; they showed it with their hands and emotional outburst of respect and adoration for a man who stands for so much primarily, love!

On February 15, 1964, Louis recorded "Hello Dolly" it became an instant hit across the nation, while pushing the Beatles down a few notches. The incredible success of "Hello Dolly" was a remarkable triumph for a man who had revolutionized American music nearly forty years earlier. On July 6, 1971, Louis took his leave; the composite memory of him, the music of America coming from his horn, his total persona-on and off the stage, his humor, his love, which he gave to the world, all of which will linger on as long as there are ways and means to hear and see Louie, we will always have access to the most incredible musician and singer in the history of music............... "The Patron Saint of The Entertainment World."

Louie always thought of himself as, and insisted that he was, a child of the American century; born July 4th, 1900. However, the truth holds that, he was born on August 4th, 1901, which is documented in the Baptismal Registry of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans. The actual date is not as important; but what is important is, what Louis gave to the world...he gave of himself!

Louis grew up in the ghetto of New Orleans; in the area known as Storyville; the boarding houses and the red light district. On one 4th of July, fireworks were going off everywhere. Now Louie, without any fireworks, borrowed a pistol and began shooting some rounds into the air; subsequently, he was abducted by the local authorities and put in the Colored Waif Home, which was founded by Captain Joseph Jones.

From the video documentary, "Satchmo," Edward R. Murrow asked Louie, "What was it like in the Waif Home?" Louie had this to say..."There was a music teacher name Mr. Peter Davis. He didn't notice me at first, he thought I was one of da bad boys from the street. Then one day, he asked me to be the bugler...this was good, I could play the blues. When I got out, I went right to see King Oliver. I know his wife, Mrs. Oliver, she always give me dem red beans and rice. What I want more than anything is lessons. Oliver gave me lessons-I was ready."

Louis was a quick learner. In 1918, King Oliver and his band went to the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago. Louis was asked to take Oliver's place with the hottest band in New Orleans, "Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Orchestra." Then in 1922, Louis joined up with the "Tuxedo Jazz Band." It was this year that King Oliver called for Louie to come to Chicago and play second trumpet at the Lincoln Gardens. In the same interview with Murrow, he asked Louie..."Did that make you happy?" Louie's smile got bigger …"OH - Yeah...could nobody get me out of New Orleans."

King Oliver played with the same style as Louie, but with a softer tone. Louis had some powerful shops, and because of that, in a recording session, Louis was asked to stand some distance behind so as not to overpower the band. Louie played second harmony to King's lead. Louie had an uncanny talent to anticipate a phrase King might play...without music, Louie was in there with the right harmony note. King Oliver was Louie's mentor, he served as a father image for Louie. After two years in Chicago, King Oliver and Louie made musical history. It was here in the Windy City that Louis recorded his solo effort, "Chimes Blues."

Were it not for Olivers' pianist, Lillian Hardin, the trumpet duet might have continued. She took a special interest in Louie and became the second major influence in his life. In 1924, Louie and Lillian were married. Louis was called by the great bandleader and arranger, Fletcher Henderson, to come to NewYork and play in his orchestra. It was his wife who encouraged Louis to go that same year.

So in September 1924, Louie set out to join the Henderson musical conglomerate. He brought with him, a quality of solo playing far exceeding anything that New York had heard thus far in jazz. Louie's musical ideas and the harmony knowledge he learned with Oliver, were a stimulus to action for Henderson's staff arranger, Don Redman. Louie remained with Henderson for about a year.
If you love Jazz you will love The Roaring Forties www.theroaringforties.com

SWING MUSIC AND DANCE By George Patterson of THE ROARING FORTIES

History of Swing Dancing

The history of swing dates back to the 1920's, where the black community, while dancing to contemporary Jazz music, discovered the Charleston and the Lindy Hop.

On March 26, 1926, the Savoy Ballroom opened its doors in New York. The Savoy was an immediate success with its block-long dance floor and a raised double bandstand. Nightly dancing attracted most of the best dancers in the New York area. Stimulated by the presence of great dancers and the best black bands, music at the Savoy was largely Swinging Jazz. One evening in 1927, following Lindbergh's flight to Paris, a local dance enthusiast named "Shorty George" Snowden was watching some of the dancing couples. A newspaper reporter asked him what dance they were doing, and it just so happened that there was a newspaper with an article about Lindbergh's flight sitting on the bench next to them. The title of the article read, "Lindy Hops The Atlantic," and George just sort of read that and said, "Lindy Hop" and the name stuck.

In the mid 1930's, a bouncy six beat variant was named the Jitterbug by the band leader Cab Calloway when he introduced a tune in 1934 entitled "Jitterbug".

With the discovery of the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug, the communities began dancing to the contemporary Jazz and Swing music as it was evolving at the time, with Benny Goodman leading the action. Dancers soon incorporated tap and jazz steps into their dancing.

In the mid 1930's, Herbert White, head bouncer in the New York City Savoy Ballroom, formed a Lindy Hop dance troupe called Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. One of the most important members of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers was Frankie Manning. The "Hoppers" were showcased in the following films: "A Day at the Races" (1937), "Hellzapoppin" (1941), "Sugar Hill Masquerade" (1942), and "Killer Diller" (1948).

In 1938, the Harvest Moon Ball included Lindy Hop and Jitterbug competition for the first time. It was captured on film and presented for everyone to see in the Paramount, Pathe, and Universal movie newsreels between 1938 and 1951.

In early 1938, Dean Collins arrived in Hollywood. He learned to dance the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy and Swing in New York City and spent a lot of time in Harlem and the Savoy Ballroom. Between 1941 and 1960, Collins danced in, or helped choreograph over 100 movies which provided at least a 30 second clip of some of the best California white dancers performing Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy and Swing.

In the late 1930's and through the 1940's, the terms Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing were used interchangeably by the news media to describe the same style of dancing taking place on the streets, in the night clubs, in contests, and in the movies.

By the end of 1936, the Lindy was sweeping the United States. As might be expected, the first reaction of most dancing teachers to the Lindy was a chilly negative. In 1936 Philip Nutl, president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing, expressed the opinion that swing would not last beyond the winter. In 1938 Donald Grant, president of the Dance Teachers' Business Association, said that swing music "is a degenerated form of jazz, whose devotees are the unfortunate victims of economic instability." In 1942 members of the New York Society of Teachers of Dancing were told that the jitterbug (a direct descendent of the Lindy Hop), could no longer be ignored. Its "cavortings" could be refined to suit a crowded dance floor.

The dance schools such as The New York Society of Teachers and Arthur Murray, did not formally begin documenting or teaching the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing until the early 1940's. The ballroom dance community was more interested in teaching the foreign dances such as the Argentine Tango, Spanish Paso Doblé, Brazilian Samba, Puerto Rican Merengue, Cuban Mambo and Cha Cha, English Quickstep, Austrian Waltz, with an occasional American Fox-trot and Peabody.

In the early 1940's the Arthur Murray studios looked at what was being done on the dance floors in each city and directed their teachers to teach what was being danced in their respective cities. As a result, the Arthur Murray Studios taught different styles of undocumented Swing in each city.

In the early 1940's, Lauré Haile, as a swing dancer and competitor, documented what she saw being danced by the white community. At that time, Dean Collins was leading the action with Lenny Smith and Lou Southern in the night clubs and competitions in Southern California. Lauré Haile gave it the name of "Western Swing". She began teaching for Arthur Murray in 1945. Dean Collins taught Arthur Murray teachers in Hollywood and San Francisco in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

After the late 1940's, the soldiers and sailors returned from overseas and continued to dance in and around their military bases. Jitterbug was danced to Country-Western music in Country-Western bars, and popularized in the 1980's.

As the music changed between the 1920's and 1990's, (Jazz, Swing, Bop, Rock 'n' Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Disco, Country), the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing evolved across the U.S. with many regional styles. The late 1940's brought forth many dances that evolved from Rhythm & Blues music: the Houston Push and Dallas whip (Texas), the Imperial Swing (St. Louis), the D.C. Hand Dancing (Washington), and the Carolina Shag (Carolinas and Norfolk) were just a few.

In 1951 Lauré Haile first published her dance notes as a syllabus, which included Western Swing for the Santa Monica Arthur Murray Dance Studio. In the 50's she presented her syllabus in workshops across the U.S. for the Arthur Murray Studios. The original Lauré Haile Arthur Murray Western Swing Syllabus has been taught by Arthur Murray studios with only minor revisions for the past 44 years.

From the mid 1940's to today, the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing, were stripped down and distilled by the ballroom dance studio teachers in order to adapt what they were teaching to the less nimble-footed general public who paid for dance lessons. As a result, the ballroom dance studios bred and developed a ballroom East Coast Swing and ballroom West Coast Swing.

In the late 1950's, television brought "American Bandstand", "The Buddy Dean Show" and other programs to the teenage audiences. The teenagers were rocking with Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry leading the fray. In 1959, some of the California dance organizations, with Skippy Blair setting the pace, changed the name of Western Swing to West Coast Swing so it would not be confused with country and western dancing.

In the 1990's, dancers over 60 years of age still moving their Lindy Hoppin', Jitterbuggin', Swingin', and Shaggin' feet.

SWING STYLES

Savoy Swing: a style of Swing popular in the New York Savoy Ballroom in the 30's and 40's originally danced to Swing music. The Savoy style of swing is a very fast, jumpy, casual-looking style of dancing

Lindy style is a smoother-looking dance.

West Coast Swing: a style of Swing emphasizing nimble feet popular in California night clubs in the 30's and 40's and voted the California State Dance in 1989.

Whip: a style of Swing popular in Houston, Texas, emphasizing moves spinning the follower between dance positions with a wave rhythm break.

Push: a style of swing popular in Dallas, Texas, emphasizing moves spinning the follower between dance positions with a rock rhythm break.

Supreme Swing: a style of Swing popular in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Imperial Swing: a style of Swing popular in St. Louis, Missouri.

Carolina Shag: a style of Swing popular in the Carolinas emphasizing the leader's nimble feet.

DC Hand Dancing: a Washington, DC synthesis of Lindy and Swing.

East Coast Swing: a 6 count style of Lindy popular in the ballroom dance school organizations.

Ballroom West Coast Swing: a style of swing popular in the ballroom dance school organizations and different from the style performed in the California night clubs and Swing dance clubs.

Country-Western Swing: a style of Jitterbug popularized during the 1980's and danced to Country and Western music.

Cajun Swing: a Louisiana Bayou style of Lindy danced to Cajun music.

Pony Swing: a Country Western style of Cajun Swing.

Jive: the International Style version of the dance is called Jive, and it is danced competitively in the US and all over the world.