John Kirby, double bassist, tuba and trombone player, 1930s proponent of ‘Chamber Jazz’, Bach fan, and band leader is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. His sextet was also the first to play the jazz standard, Undecided, and had a hit with Loch Lomond, sung by Maxine Sullivan.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV. I host the show which is heard online and over 20 radio stations. Enjoy past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 9 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

TUBA

John Kirby had been a trombonist until 1927 when Jimmy Harrison persuaded him to play tuba. Shortly after, Kirby played tuba with Bill Brown and His Brownies, with pianist Charlie Sheets, and then with John C. Smith’s Society Band all in New York City.

In 1929 he joined Fletcher Henderson‘s orchestra as tuba player, playing some complicated tuba work on a number of early 1930s Henderson recording.

DOUBLE BASS

In the early 1930s, Kirby took bass lessons from Pops Foster and Wellman Braud (bassist with Duke Ellington). About 1933 Kirby left Henderson to play two stints with drummer Chick Webb as double bassist. He returned to Henderson and then joined Lucky Millinder. He led his own quartet for a short time in 1935.

SEXTET

John Kirby formed his sextet for a residency at the  Onyx Club in NYC in 1937. At first, the band gave singer-drummer Leo Watson featured billing (you’ll hear the band with Leo Watson singing from a 1939 broadcast). It then, until 1941, usually had Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Russell Procope (alto saxophone), Billy Kyle (piano), O’Neill Spencer (drums), the line-up you’ll hear announced in the 1941 Chamber Music Society broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer. With the byline, ‘The Biggest Little Band in the Land,’ the sextet first recorded in August 1937 with a swing version of Loch Lomond. Singer, Maxine Sullivan, became Kirby’s second wife in 1938.

Band member illness, the death of one member, and the WW2 draft changed the sextet’s line-up post-1941, which then at different times included Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Clyde Hart, Budd Johnson, and Zutty Singleton.

In 1946, Kirby got the surviving sextet members back together, with Sarah Vaughan as vocalist, but the reunion did not last. A concert at Carnegie Hall in December 1950 attracted only a small audience, which “crushed Kirby’s spirit and badly damaged what little was left of his career.”

POST WW2

Kirby and his orchestra had a 30-minute radio program, Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm (also known as The John Kirby Show) on CBS April 7, 1940–January 12, 1941. The program also featured Sullivan and the Golden Gate Quartet. Kirby and Sullivan have been cited as “the first black artists to host a jazz-oriented series.”

9 MARCH PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #478
107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 March 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 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm
Set 1	Duke Ellington
Diminuendo in Blue	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Club Zanzibar AFRS Re-broadcast 7 Oct 1945
Rocks in My Bed	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Joya Sherrill	‘One Night Stand’ Club Zanzibar AFRS Re-broadcast 7 Oct 1945
Crescendo in Blue + Close	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Club Zanzibar AFRS Re-broadcast 7 Oct 1945
Set 2	1930s Music
I’m Gonna Lose My Gal + Shine on Harvest Moon + You’re Such a Comfort to Me	Johnny Green Orchestra (voc) Ruth Etting	‘Oldsmobile Program’ WABC CBS NY 16 Feb 1934
Open + Bugle Call Rag + Besume Mucho	George Olson Music (voc) Del Campo	‘The Lucky Strike Hour’ WEAF NBC Red NY 1 Dec 1932
Open + Down South	B. A Rolfe Silvertown Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1936
Set 3	Chamber Music Society
Open + Flyin’ Home	Paul Lavalle Woodwinds	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue 7 Jul 1941
Comin’ Through The Rye	Diane Courtney	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue 7 Jul 1941
Buglar’s Dilemma	John Kirby Sextet	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue 7 Jul 1941
Set 4	John Kirby
Honeysuckle Rose	John Kirby Sextet (voc) Leo Watson	‘Rudy Vallee Show’ WEAF NBC Red NY 24 Mar 1939
Beethoven Riffs On	John Kirby Sextet	Comm Rec New York City 15 Jan 1941
Open + I’ve Learnt a Lesson	John Kirby Sextet (voc) Rosetta Williams	‘One Night Stand’ Aquarium Restaurant NYC AFRS Re-broadcast Jul 1944
Bounce of the Sugar Plum Fairy	John Kirby Sextet	Comm Rec New York City 15 Jan 1941
Set 5	Fats Waller
I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby + Truckin’	Fats Waller	WHIS Studios Bluefield WV 2 Feb 1936
Ain’t Misbehavin’	Fats Waller	‘Personally, It’s Off the Record’ WABC CBS NY 23 Sep 1943
There’s a Girl in My Life	Fats Waller	‘Personally, It’s Off the Record’ WABC CBS NY 23 Sep 1943
Honeysuckle Rose + Close	Fats Waller	‘Personally, It’s Off the Record’ WABC CBS NY 23 Sep 1943
Set 6	1930s Swing Radio
I’d Do Anything For You	Seger Ellis Chois of Brass	Radio Transcription new York City 1937
One, Two, Button Your Shoe	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WABC CBS NY 18 Mar 1937
Announcers’ Blues	Paul Whiteman Orchestra (tb) Jack Teagarden	‘Paul Whiteman’s Musical Varieties’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 19 Jan 1936
They Can’t Take That Away From Me	Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Billie Holiday	Aircheck Savoy Ballroom 30 Jun 1937
Set 7	Mod Alto Sax
Repetition	Charlie Parker and Strings	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 7 Apr 1951
Conversation	Charlie Parker & Symphony Sid	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Birdland WJZ ABC NY 7 Apr 1951
If I Had You	Lee Konitz	Storyville Copley Square Hotel WHDH Boston 5 Jan 1954
Set 8	Women Singers on the Air
It’s a Blue World	Ella Fitzgerald (voc) Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra	Savoy Ballroom WEAF NBC Red NY 4 Mar 1940
Don’t Blame Me	Sarah Vaughan (voc) Billy Eckstine Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Mar 1945
Mad About The Boy	Lena Horne (voc) Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
No Love, No Nothin’	Dinah Washington (voc) Lionel Hampton Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Trianon Ballroom Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 16 Jun 1944