Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 9th Nov 2021

Phantom Dancer

Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 9th Nov 2021

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-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

PLAYLIST

Pee Wee Erwin Tin Roof Blues (theme) + That's A'Plenty

Stan Kenton Orchestra (voc) June Christy and Band Tampico

Ray Anthony Orchestra I Get a Kick Out of You + Close

Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Bill Thomas Stay As Sweet As You Are

Vincent Valsanti Orchestra Two Hearts

Vincent Valsanti Orchestra (voc) Spooky Dickinson Miss Otis Regrets + What a Difference a Day Makes + Close

Jimmy Dorsey 'Dorseyland' Band Open + Mississippi Mud

The Clock Watcher The Clock Watcher's Show

Jessie Fuller San Francisco Bay Blues

Ray Miller Orchestra + Vocal No Place Like Home

Ray Miller Orchestra (voc) Mary Williams I Ain't Got Nobody

Ray Miller Orchestra + Vocal Caressing You

Ray Miller Orchestra Royal Garden Blues + No Place Like Home (theme)

Benny Goodman Orchestra Let's Dance + Hunkadola

Benny Goodman Trio (voc) Audience Where or When

Benny Goodman Orchestra Walk Jenny Walk

Benny Goodman Orchestra Swingtime in the Rockies

Eddy Howard Orchestra (voc) Eddy Howard A Little Bit Independent

Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Ennis and Alan Simms The Answer is Love

Eddy Howard Orchestra Cherokee

Sterling Young Orchestra (voc) Bobbie Ennis It Had to be You

Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden Blues

Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden Esquire Bounce

Mildred Bailey Ole Rockin' Chair

Jack Teagarden and Coleman Hawkins Basin Street Blues

Dorsey Brothers When the Saints Go Marching In

Jack Teagarden (tp & voc) Louis Armstrong Basin Street Blues + Jeepers Creepers

Gerry Mulligan Night Walk

Everybody St Louis Blues

Phantom Dancer