09 November 2021
(Until 09 November)Ray Miller Top 1920s Band Leader – Phantom Dancer 9 November 2021
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Ray Miller, popular 1920s band leader and trombonist, whose jazz band was the first to play at the White House (in 1924) is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. This is a ‘classic’ Phantom Dancer from May of this year. I won’t be in the studio due to a film commitment.
Check out this scholarly article about that first White House encounter with jazz which included Ray Miller and his Orchestra, Al Jolson and a host of New York City showbiz stars
http://vjm.biz/white_house.pdf
The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV which I’ve had the plaesure of producing and presenting for you since 1985.
LISTEN TO a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.
HEAR show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 9 November at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
RAY
Not much is known about Ray Miller outside of his performance career which stretched from 1916 until he disappeared off the scene in 1930.
In 1916, he worked as a singing waiter at the Casino Gardens in Chicago, home of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB).
Miller followed the ODJB to New York City, where he formed a band, the Black and White Melody Boys, featuring himself on drums and New Orleans native Tom Brown on trombone. The band performed in vaudeville and featured in musical productions before disbanding.
Around 1920s, Miller formed a dance band. At different times, its members included Ward Archer (drums); Charlie Rocco (trumpet); Miff Mole (trombone); Danny Yates (violin); Roy Johnston (trumpet); Rube Bloom and Tommy Satterfield (piano); Louie Chasone (tuba); Frank Trumbauer, Andy Sannella, Billy Richards and Andy Sandolar (saxophones); and Frank O. Prima (banjo).
The orchestra recorded for Columbia and OKeh before signing an exclusive contract with Brunswick Records in late 1923.
MILLER
The Ray Miller Orchestra played more jazz-influenced music after Mole and Trumbauer joined in 1924. Late, in thart year, after performing for President Coolldge at the White House on 17 October, they recorded Irving Berlin‘s song “All Alone” with Al Jolson singing. The band had residencies at the New York Hippodrome and Arcadia Ballroom in New York City as well as in Atlantic City.
Their most successful recordings included “The Sheik of Araby” (OKeh, 1922), “I’ll See You In My Dreams” (Brunswick, 1925), and “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies” (Brunswick, 1930).
After Mole and Trumbauer left, Miller moved his base to the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1927, and performed regularly for the powerful radio station WLW. He left Cincinnati and formed a new band in Chicago in 1928, which for a few months included trumpeter Muggsy Spanier and clarinetist Volly De Faut. Miller and his orchestra recorded regularly for Brunswick in Chicago until 1930.
On this week’s Phantom Dancer you’ll hear the Miller Band on radio transcriptions recorded to advertise Sunny Meadows washing machines recorded on five minute 78 rpm radio discs between December 1928 and February 1929.
His last Brunswick recording, ‘Kiss Me With Your Eyes’ with ‘When It’s Springtime in the Rockies’, was recorded in Chicago in March 1930.
He disbanded in 1930 afterwhich he disappeared from the record. It is guessed that he died in 1974.
9 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 NOVEMBER 2021 | ||
Set 1 | Swing Bands One Night Stand Radio | |
Tin Roof Blues (theme) + That’s A’Plenty | Pee Wee Erwin | ‘One Night Stand’ Nick’s Restaurant AFRS Re-broadcast 14 Dec 1950 |
Tampico | Stan Kenton Orchestra (voc) June Christy and Band | ‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania NYC 27 Sep 1945 |
I Get a Kick Out of You + Close | Ray Anthony Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 11 Jan 1952 |
Set 2 | Vincent Valsanti (Ted Fio Rito) | |
Stay As Sweet As You Are | Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Bill Thomas | Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934 |
Two Hearts | Vincent Valsanti Orchestra | Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934 |
Miss Otis Regrets + What a Difference a Day Makes + Close | Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Spooky Dickinson | Cocoanut Radio Transcription TRANSCO Los Angeles 1934 |
Set 3 | Trad Radio | |
Open + Mississippi Mud | Jimmy Dorsey ‘Dorseyland’ Band | ‘The Jimmy Dorsey Show’ Radio Transcription 1950s |
The Clock Watcher’s Show | The Clock Watcher | KTSP St Paul-Minneapolis 1949 |
San Francisco Bay Blues | Jessie Fuller | Pier 23 KGO San Francisco 1959 |
Set 4 | Ray Miller | |
No Place Like Home (theme) + Angry | Ray Miller Orchestra + Vocal | Sunny Meadows Radio Show Radio Transcription Chicago 18 Jan 1929 |
I Ain’t Got Nobody | Ray Miller Orchestra (voc) Mary Williams | Sunny Meadows Radio Show Radio Transcription Chicago 25 Jan 1929 |
Caressing You | Ray Miller Orchestra + Vocal | Sunny Meadows Radio Show Radio Transcription Chicago 14 Dec 1928 |
Royal Garden Blues + No Place Like Home (theme) | Ray Miller Orchestra | Sunny Meadows Radio Show Radio Transcription Chicago 14 Dec 1928 |
Set 5 | Benny Goodman 1930s Radio | |
Let’s Dance + Hunkadola | Benny Goodman Orchestra | ‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Apr 1935 |
Where or When | Benny Goodman Trio (voc) Audience | Madhattan Room Hotel Pennsylvania NYC WABC CBS NY 23 Oct 1937 |
Walk, Jenny, Walk | Benny Goodman Orchestra | ‘Let’s Dance’ WEAF NBC Red NY 4 May 1935 |
Swingtime in the Rockies | Benny Goodman Orchestra | Madhattan Room Hotel Pennsylvania NYC WABC CBS NY 27 Oct 1937 |
Set 6 | 1940s Radio Transcriptions | |
A Little Bit Independent | Eddy Howard Orchestra (voc) Eddy Howard | Radio Transcription New York 1948 |
The Answer is Love | Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Ennis and Alan Simms | Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1940 |
Cherokee | Eddy Howard Orchestra | Radio Transcription New York 1948 |
It Had To Be You | Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Ennis | Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1940 |
Set 7 | Esquire Jazz Concert | |
Blues | Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden | ‘First Esquire All Star Jazz Concert’ Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944 |
Esquire Bounce | Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden | ‘First Esquire All Star Jazz Concert’ Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944 |
Ol’ Rockin’ Chair | Mildred Bailey | ‘First Esquire All Star Jazz Concert’ Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944 |
Basin Street Blues | Jack Teagarden and Coleman Hawkins | ‘First Esquire All Star Jazz Concert’ Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944 |
Set 8 | 1950s Jazz TV | |
When the Saints Go Marching In | Dorsey Brothers | ‘Stage Show’ CBS TV NY 1 Jan 1955 |
Basin Street Blues + Jeepers Creepers | Jack Teagarden (tp & voc) Louis Armstrong | ‘Timex All-Star Jazz Show’ CBS TV NY 30 April 1958 |
Night Walk | Gerry Mulligan | ‘Timex All-Star Jazz Show’ CBS TV NY 30 April 1958 |
St Louis Blues | Everybody | ‘Timex All-Star Jazz Show’ CBS TV NY 30 April 1958 |
