28 June 2022
(Until 28 June)Don Redman Swing Inventor? Phantom Dancer 28 June 2022
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Don Redman is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Don Redman was a U.S jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer. He’s hailed as the arranger who invented swing. He’s the uncle of saxophonist Dewey Redman and great-uncle of saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Carlos Redman.
The Phantom dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.
LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 28 June) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
Here’s Don Redman singing with his Orchestra in a Vitaphone short feature from 1933…
DON REDMAN
Don Redman’s father was a music teacher. His mother was a singer. He started playing trumpet at age 3 and joined his first band at the aged 6.
By the time he was 12, he was proficient on all wind instruments ranging from trumpet to oboe as well as piano.
He studied at Storer College in Harper’s Ferry (where the third video, The Don Redman Jazz Heritage Awards was filmed, see below.). He then studied at the Boston Conservatory.
On graduating he joined Billy Page’s Broadway Syncopaters in New York City.
SWING
Crucial to the developement of swing, Redman joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1923 on clarinet and saxophones. He began writing arrangements for the Henderson Orchestra which created the Swing sound.
A trademark of Redman’s arrangements was the band playing harmony under written solos. He played brass and reed sections off each other in a call-response pattern, having one section punctuate the figures of another, and moved the melody around different orchestral sections and soloists. This innovative Swing sound forms the basis of much big band jazz writing.
He left Henderson in 1927 to join McKinney’s Cotton Pickers as their musical director and leader. He was responsible for their great success and arranged over half of their music. In 1931 he started his own orchestra.
ORCHESTRA
With his own band, Redman started at a residency at the Manhattan jazz club Connie’s Inn. Redman signed with Brunswick Records and undertook a series of radio broadcasts – part of one you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer.
He sang with his orchestra, sharing the microphone with the ‘Black Crosby’, Harlan Lattimore. By 1937, his orchestra featured ‘The Swing Choir’. Redman’s vocal style on his own songs like ‘I Heard’ and ‘Try Getting a Good Night’s Sleep’ is recitative in style.
Don Redman and Orchestra in the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon, “I Heard”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rABrHxCuT7M
Redman disbanded his orchestra in 1940 and concentrated on freelance work writing arrangements for Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Harry James.
He traveled to Europe in 1946 leading an all-star band that included Don Byas, Tyree Glenn, and Billy Taylor. He appeared on Uptown Jubilee on the CBS Television network for the 1949 season. In the 1950s, he was music director for singer Pearl Bailey.
In the early 1960s, he played piano for the Georgia Minstrels Concert and soprano sax with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s band.
Don Redman’s legacy continues – The Don Redman Jazz Heritage Awards, 2016…
28 JUNE PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #551 | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 28 June 2022 | ||
Set 1 | 1940s Swing Radio | |
Sound Off (theme) + Sheik of Araby | Teddy Wilson and Red Norvo Band | ‘Sound Off’ AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
Remember (theme) + Woodchoppers’ Ball | Benny Goodman Orchestra (theme) Woody Herman Orchestra | ‘Jill’s All-Time Juke Box’ AFRS Hollywood 1945 |
When They Ask About You + Sound Off (theme) | Hal McIntyre Orchestra (voc) Gloria Vance | ‘Sound Off’ AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
Set 2 | Dixie | |
Open + Panama | Paul Tanner and his Solid Seven | ‘Yank Bandstand’ AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
Down The Road Apiece | Art Hodes (piano) | ‘Dixieland Club’ AFRS Re-broadcast5 Sep 1951 |
When The Saints Go Marching In + Getting Sentimental Over You | Dorsey Brothers Orchestra + Duke Ellington + Buddy Rich + Johnny Ray | ‘Stageshow’ WCBS CBS TV NYC 1 Jan 1955 |
Set 3 | Frank Sinatra | |
Open + With a Song in My Heart | Frank Sinatra | ‘Treasury Star Parade’ Radio Transcription 1944 |
Great Day + You’ll Never Walk Alone | Frank Sinatra | ‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription 1948 |
That Old Black Magic + Auld Lang Syne + Put Your Dreams Away (theme) | Frank Sinatra | ‘Songs by Sinatra WABC CBS NYC 31 Dec 1943 |
Set 4 | Don Redman | |
Try Getting a Good Night’s Sleep | Don Redman Orchestra (voc) Don Redman | Comm Rec NYC 26 Feb 1932 |
Odds and Ends | Don Redman Orchestra (voc) Don Redman | Casino de Paree WABC CBS NYC 22 Dec 1933 |
Redman Rhythm + Close (At the beginning of Redman Rhythm, the radio reception for this 1933 home disc recording improves) | Don Redman Orchestra | Casino de Paree WABC CBS NYC 22 Dec 1933 |
A Two Time Man | Don Redman Orchestra (voc) Don Redman | Comm Rec NYC 19 Sep 1932 |
Set 5 | Let’s Dance | |
Let’s Dance (theme) + The Object of My Affection | Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Buddy Clark | ‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NYC 1 Dec 1934 |
Honeysuckle Rose + Love is Just Around the Corner | Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Buddy Clark | ‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NYC 4 Jan 1935 |
Chicago | Benny Goodman Orchestra | ‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NYC 2 Feb 1935 |
Set 6 | Radio Transcriptions | |
Tumbling Tumbleweeds | Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Lee Bennett | Radio Transcription 1939 |
Cradle Song (Brahms) | Les Elgart Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1946 |
Love Song of Renaldo | Jan Garber Orchestra (voc) Fritz Heilbron | Radio Transcription 1941 |
Largo (Dvorak) | Les Elgart Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1946 |
Set 7 | Selling Shoes and Aeroplanes | |
I’ve Got Five Dollars (theme) + One Man Band | Freddy Rich Orchestra | ‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932 |
Somebody Stole My Gla | Freddy Rich Orchestra | ‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932 |
A Happy Landing | Freddy Rich Orchestra | ‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932 |
San | Freddy Rich Orchestra | ‘Friendly Five Footnotes’ Radio Transcription 1932 |
Set 8 | Modern Jazz | |
Night and Day | Django Reinhardt with Paul Baron’s Orchestra | ‘This is Paris’ NBC 1949 |
If I Were a Bell | Buddy Rich Quintet | Birdland WABC ABC NY 7 Nov 1958 |
Theme + Jordu | Stan Getz Quartet | ‘Bandstand USA’ Red Hill Inn Pennsauken NJ Mutual 18 May 1957 |