Greg Poppleton

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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 TrumbauerAndy 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-FM Sydney
LISTEN ONLINE

 

Community Radio Network Show CRN #517

107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 NOVEMBER 2021
12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm
National Program
5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am
3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am
4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am
2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am
2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am
2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am
3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm
7MID Oatlands Monday 3 – 4am + 6 -7pm
2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm
6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 4am – 5am
2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am
1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am
+ Sunday 11pm – 12am
2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm
5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm
Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturday 10 – 11am
+ Wednesday 10 – 11pm
7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am
3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am
3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm

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
All Gigs
12:04 pm - 2:00 pm
2SER 107.3 Sydney
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