Jazz, blues and nostalgia by Sjaak Roodenburg.
Musical signatures. In the swing era, dance orchestras usually had a so called signature tune. Just like some solo artists also had melodies or songs that were inextricably linked to them.
People used to say about the trombone that it sounded like ‘a dying cow in a thunderstorm’. It was only when Jack Teagarden made his entrance in the music scene that the trombone became just as interesting as the trumpet. Teagarden’s theme song became ‘I gotta right to sing the blues’.
Count Basie’s theme song came about by chance. At a radio station, they asked the bandleader to fill some time at the end of their broadcast. He then improvised and mixed two tunes. The song was titled ‘One O’Clock Jump’, because it was almost one o’clock.
The leading arranger of Louis Armstrong composed the somewhat stinging composition ‘Leap Frog’ for Les Brown and his Band of Renown, ’the ice cream soda-band’.
Boyd Raeburn was a bandleader who regularly changed his style. When he started playing ‘progressive jazz’, he was not only inspired by bebop but also by Stravinsky. As his signature tune, he chose a composition of George Handy, who mangled the name of a European painter. That’s how the title of the song became ‘Dalvatore Sally’.
Duke Ellington wrote ‘Cotton Tail’ for tenor saxophone player Ben Webster exclusively. In Ben’s recording of the tune you hear one beautiful solo after another.
The witty song ‘Sugar Blues’ has been Clyde McCoy’s trademark for decades. He produced the funny ‘wah-wah’ sounds with his muted trumpet and must have performed with these sounds thousands of times. The melody gave him the nickname ‘king of corn’.
Furthermore, the Palace of Nostalgia presents the signature tunes of Stan Kenton, Benny Carter, Gene Krupa, Earl Hines, Bunny Berigan, Lionel Hampton and the Dutch Ramblers.
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