Sauter-Finegan, Stan Kenton and Billy May were three 1953 bands making way-out sounds on NBC radio and are this week’s Greg Poppleton Phantom Dancer feature artists. You’ll also hear from vocal group The Hi-Los, an influence on young pianist, Herbie Hancock. Read the three band leader stories below…

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop 2 hour mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio. On-air with Greg Poppleton since 1985.

The Phantom Dancer produced and presented by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton can be heard online from 12:05pm AEST Tuesday 14 April at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

The last hour is all vinyl.

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

SAUTER – FINEGAN

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was an American swing jazz band popular in 1953.
The orchestra was led by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, who were both experienced big band arrangers. Sauter played mellophone, trumpet, and drums. He had attended Columbia University and Juilliard. Finegan had studied at the Paris Conservatory. They began recording together in 1952, using inventive arrangements that made use of a variety of unusual instruments, including many orchestral instruments as well as oddities like the kazoo and the beaten human chest.

A June 7, 1952, article in the trade publication Billboard described the new group as “a creative band, which will combine dance music as well as mood interpretations.”

The group initially had a three-year contract with RCA Victor, with plans “for about 16 sides a year.” Their first chart appearance was with “Doodletown Fifers”, their version of a Civil War tune called “Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilo”. “Nina Never Knew” (featuring vocalist Joe Mooney) and “The Moon is Blue” (with Sally Sweetland) soon followed on the charts. With the success of the singles, they put together a 21-member touring ensemble and began playing venues in 1953.  Because the group played in dance halls rather than concert venues, they encountered little success on the road, and quit touring in 1955 after having accrued much debt.

June Christie singing with the Stan Kenton Orchestra

STAN KENTON

In 1950 Kenton fput together the large 39-piece Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra that included 16 strings, a woodwind section, and two French horns. The music was an extension of the works composed and recorded since 1947 by Bob Graettinger, Manny Albam, Franklyn Marks and others. Name jazz musicians such as Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, Milt Bernhart, John Graas, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Laurindo Almeida, Shelly Manne, and June Christy were part of these musical ensembles. The groups managed two tours during 1950–51, from a commercial standpoint it would be Stan Kenton’s first major failure.

In order to be more commercially viable, Kenton reformed the band in 1951 to a much more standard instrumentation: five saxes, five trombones, five trumpets, piano, guitar, bass, drums. The charts of such arrangers as Gerry Mulligan, Johnny Richards, and particularly Bill Holman and Bill Russo began to dominate the repertoire. The music was written to better reflect the style of cutting edge, be-bop oriented big bands like those of Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Herman. Young, talented players and outstanding jazz soloists such as Maynard Ferguson, Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, Sal Salvador and Frank Rosolino made strong contributions to the level of the 1952–53 band. The music composed and arranged during this time, which you hear from live 1953 radio, was far more tailor-made to contemporary jazz tastes and was one of the high points in Kenton’s career as band leader.

Billy May, sousaphone

BILLY MAY

After playing tuba for a few local bands, May heard Charlie Barnet’s band on the radio in his hometown of Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1938, he approached the bandleader and asked if he could write arrangements for the band. From 1938–40, he wrote arrangements and played trumpet for Barnet’s big band.

His arrangement of the Ray Noble composition “Cherokee” became a major hit of the swing music era. During the Barnet days, May revealed a significant flair for satire on a composition, “The Wrong Idea”, composed with Barnet, ridiculing the bland “Mickey Mouse” style of safe big-band music, with specific aim at bandleader Sammy Kaye, known for his “swing and sway” trademark. May’s caustic lyrics to the song called it “swing and sweat with Charlie Barnet”. Bandleader Glenn Miller hired May away from Barnet in 1940. “May points out that he was not responsible for any of the [Glenn Miller] band’s signature hits, but he did write the beautiful left-field introduction to [Bill] Finegan’s [arrangement of] ‘Serenade In Blue'”.

May’s charts often featured brisk tempos and intricate brass parts. One distinctive feature of his style is his frequent use of trumpet mute devices; another, a saxophone glissando, is widely known as his “slurping saxes”. He wrote in slower tempos, sometimes using string arrangements.

LOOK AT THIS 1930s DRUM KIT

Your Phantom Dancer Video of the Week is from a Larry Clinton 1939 Vitaphone short with vocals by Bea Wain and Ford Leary. Also note the clear shots of the 1930s drum kit where the cymbals are on bent poles attached to the bass drum.

14 APRIL PLAY LIST