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Ghost Band
A ghost band is a legacy band that performs under the name of a deceased leader. In rock and roll, it is a band that performs under the name of the band whose founders are either deceased or have left the band. Use of the phrase may refer to a repertory jazz ensemble, such as a Dixieland band, with a longstanding, historic name. But in the strictest sense, a ghost band is connected in some way to a deceased leader. Origin of the phrase Gene Lees, Woody Herman's biographer, and several other sources attribute the coining of the phrase to Woody Herman, who used it to refer to successors of dance bands from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is a ghost band with a twist: the name is new, but the band is closely identified as being the legacy of The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and like the Mingus Band, is producing new works. Thad Jones, who had once been a trumpeter with the Count Basie Orchestra, led Count Basie's ghost band with critical acclaim.''Jazz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Lees
Frederick Eugene John Lees (February 8, 1928 – April 22, 2010) was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist. Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist. His lyrics for Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado" (released as "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars"), have been recorded by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Queen Latifah, and Diana Krall. Biography Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Lees was the eldest of four children born to Harold Lees, a violinist, and Dorothy Flatman. His sister, Victoria Lees, is the former Secretary General of Montreal's McGill University, and his brother, David Lees, is an investigative journalist and science writer. Beginning his writing career as a newspaper reporter in his native Canada, between 1948 and 1955 Lees contributed to ''The Hamilton Spectator'', the ''Toronto Telegram'', and the ''Montreal Star'', and first worked as a music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Platters
The Platters was an American vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound bridges the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new burgeoning genre. The act has gone through multiple line-ups over the years, earning it the branding tag "Many Voices One Name", with the most successful incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams (singer), Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, founder and naming member Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor. The group had 40 charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100, '' Billboard'' Hot 100 between 1955 and 1967, including four number-one hits. In 1990, the Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Platters continue to perform around the world with Herb Reed Enterprises (an LLC set up by Reed in response to numerous fake Platters groups) owning the rights and trademark to the name. Band formation and early years The Platters formed in Los Angeles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cab Calloway Orchestra
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole. Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the '' Billboard'' charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Records, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith. He scored and arranged music for many films and television shows, earning an Academy Award and three Grammy Awards. He found commercial and critical success with a new generation in the 1980s, in a trio of Platinum albums with Linda Ronstadt. Early years Riddle was born in Oradell, New Jersey, the only child to survive to birth, and after, of Marie Albertine Riddle (a native of Mulhouse, France, whose father was Spanish) and Nelson Smock Riddle, who was of English-Irish and Dutch descent. His mother had suffered six miscarriages and one stillbirth in her lifetime. It was his mother's secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Mcintyre
Hal McIntyre (born Harold William McIntyre; November 29, 1914, Cromwell, Connecticut – May 5, 1959 Los Angeles, California) was an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. McIntyre played extensively as a teenager and led his own octet in 1935. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a temporary slot as an alto saxophonist behind Benny Goodman; this lasted only ten days, but Glenn Miller heard of his ability and drafted him as a founding member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, where he played from 1937 to 1941. Miller encouraged McIntyre to start his own group again, and the McIntyre Orchestra first played in New Rochelle, New York in 1941; the ensemble included vocalists Gloria Van, Ruth Gaylor, and Al Nobel, bassist Eddie Safranski, and saxophonist Allen Eager. They played many major ballrooms throughout the United States, and played overseas for troops during World War II. He toured extensively with songstress Sunny Gale until the summer of '51. He maintained t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Elgart
Lester Elliott Elgart (August 3, 1917 – July 29, 1995) was an American swing jazz bandleader and trumpeter. Early Years Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Elgart grew up in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey with his brother Larry. They were exposed to musical influences early in their lives. Their mother, Bessie (Aisman) Elgart, was a concert pianist before her marriage to Arthur Elgart, a manufacturer's representative. She is said to have given a piano recital at Carnegie Hall, and at one time had her own music conservatory. At age 10, Les was attracted to bugling after joining the Cub Scouts. Later, he turned to the cornet, and then the trumpet. Both brothers attended Pompton Lakes High School, where Les was elected president of the school orchestra. He was playing professionally by the age of twenty. Career The First Band During the 1940s Les was a member of bands led by Raymond Scott, Charlie Spivak, and Harry James, occasionally finding himself alongside brother Larry. They forme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his Tone (musical instrument), tone, and was influential on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band. Early life Harry James was born in Albany, Georgia, United States, the son of Everett Robert James, a bandleader in a traveling circus, the Mighty Haag Circus, and Myrtle Maybelle (Stewart), an acrobat and horseback rider. He started performing with the circus at an early age, first as a contortionist at age of four, then playing the snare drum in the band from about the age of six. It was at this age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Modernaires
The Modernaires was an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s alongside Glenn Miller. Career The Modernaires began in 1934 as "Don Juan, Two and Three," a trio of schoolmates from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York. The members were Hal Dickinson, Chuck Goldstein, and Bill Conway. (Jay Warner, in his book ''American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today'', wrote, "They called themselves Three Weary Willies". He added that the trio performed as Don Juan and Two and Three when they "headed for New York in the mid-'30s".) After singing on radio station WGR in Buffalo, New York, for "the enormous sum of $10 a month", the trio went to New York City and gained an engagement of 26 weeks on CBS network radio. The group's first engagement was at Buffalo's suburban Glen Falls Casino, with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. Fio Rito also used them on electrical transcription recordings. They then joined the Ozzie Nelson Band, and became known as "The Thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart. Originally including such musicians as Buck Clayton and Lester Young in the line-up, the band in the 1950s and 1960s made use of the work of such arrangers as Neal Hefti and featured musicians such as Thad Jones and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Its recordings of this era included collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. History Early years Count Basie arrived in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927, playing on the Theater Owners Bookers Association (TOBA) circuit. After playing with Walter Page's Blue Devils, in 1929 he joined rival band leader Bennie Moten's band. Upon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multiple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenn Miller Orchestra (1956–present)
The Glenn Miller Orchestra is a band formed after the loss of Glenn Miller, named in memory of him and the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. History After the disappearance of Glenn Miller in 1944, the band was reconstituted under the direction of Tex Beneke, its lead tenor saxophonist, singer, and one of Miller's longtime close friends. A few years later, the Miller estate, having parted ways with Beneke over creative differences, hired Ray McKinley, principal drummer and later leader of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra, to organize a new "ghost band" in 1956, the Glenn Miller Orchestra. In the 1990s, the GMO was also called the World-Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra. Hollywood contributed to the band's popularity and that of its founder and original members with the 1953 release of ''The Glenn Miller Story'' on the big screen. The band garnered award nominations and box office success, as well as top hit status for its soundtrack album in 1954. The Glenn Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single " Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music. Featuring five male vocalists and dancers (save for brief periods with fewer or more members), the group formed in 1960 in Detroit under the name ''the Elgins''. The founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes. In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruffin, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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