Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 3rd Mar 2020

It's International Women's Day this month so this week's Phantom Dancer feature artist from live 1920s-60s radio is electric guitar pioneer, Mary Osbourne. There's also a set of women singers from live 1930s-40s radio. You'll hear Mary's guitar with Gay Claridge's big band broadcasting from Chicago in 1944. You'll also hear her sing from that same broadcast. Then a couple of commercial jazz sides for you spun by jazz critic Leonard Feather in a 1951 edition of his Voice of America series, 'Jazz Club USA'. The Phantom Dancer produced and presented by 1920s-30s singer and actot Greg Poppleton can be heard online from 12:05pm AESDT Tuesday 3 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ The last hour is all vinyl.

MARY

Mary Osborne was born into a musical family. Her mother played guitar and her father made violins. Her earliest instruments were piano, ukulele, violin and banjo. She first played guitar at age nine. At ten, she was playing banjo in her father's ragtime band. She also had her own radio program, which she would continue to perform on twice weekly until she was fifteen. When she was twelve she started her own trio of girls to perform in Bismarck, North Dakota. The music she was playing during this time period was largely "hillbilly", in which the guitar was simply used to accompany her own vocals. Aged fifteen, Osborne joined a trio led by pianist Winifred McDonnell, for which she played guitar, double bass, and sang. During this time, she heard Charlie Christian play electric guitar in Al Trent's band at a stop in Bismarck.

CHARLIE

She was enthralled by his sound, at first mistaking the electric guitar for a saxophone. She said, "What impressed everyone most of all was his sense of time. He had a relaxed, even beat that would sound modern even today." Osborne immediately bought her own electric guitar and had a friend build an amplifier.  She sat in with Christian, learning his style of guitar.  Later, McDonnell's trio got absorbed into Buddy Rogers's band, after Rogers heard them play in St. Louis. But within a year of the band moving to New York in 1940, the trio broke up and left Rogers's band, having found husbands. Osborne married trumpeter Ralph Scaffidi, who encouraged her musical career.

PROGRESSIVE

During the 1940s, Osborne sat in on jam sessions on 52nd Street, where she played with some of the biggest names in jazz and quickly made a name for herself. 1941 saw Mary go on the road with jazz violinist Joe Venuti. In 1942 she was working freelance in Chicago when she made a recording with Stuff Smith. In 1944, as you'll hear on this week's Phantom Dancer, she sang and played her electric guitar in the Gay Claridge Orchestra. In 1945 Osborne headlined a performance with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins and Thelonious Monk in Philadelphia, to reviews and audiences that praised her specifically. She, Tatum, and Hawkins went on to record in concert in New Orleans. Osborne moved back to New York in 1945. There she recorded with Mary Lou Williams in 1945, Coleman Hawkins, Mercer Ellington, and Beryl Booker in 1946, and led her own swing trio. You'll hear two of these sides played by jazz critic Leonard Feather on this week's Phantom Dancer. Her trio lasted from 1945–1948 and played in clubs on 52nd street, had a year-long engagement at Kelly's Stables, and made several recordings. Throughout the 1950s, she played with Elliot Lawrence's Quartet on The Jack Sterling Show, a daily morning CBS radio program, and appeared on the television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. In this week's PHANTOM DANCER VIDEO, you'll see her with a band of jazz greats backing Billie Holiday on an Art Ford Tv show. The last few years of the decade she spent recording, both with Tyree Glenn and as a leader. Shortly after, Osborne felt that she had been doing the same thing musically for too long and wanted a change. In 1962 she started learning Spanish classical guitar under Alberto Valdez-Blaine. She used classical techniques, such as pick-less playing, in her jazz playing.

BUILDER

In 1968, Osborne moved and settled into Bakersfield, California, where she lived the rest of her life. With her husband, she started the Osborne Guitar Company. She taught music and continued to play jazz locally and in Los Angeles. She played in the Newport and Concord festivals in the early 1970s, and in the Kool Jazz Festival in New York in 1981. In 1989 and 1990, she played at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival, and in 1990 also played at the Playboy Jazz Marathon. In 1991, in what would be her final performances, Osborne returned to The Village Vanguard in New York for a week-long engagement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ElUzVAgm_0 Make sure you come back to this blog, Greg Poppleton's Radio Lounge, every Tuesday, for the newest Phantom Dancer play list and Video of the Week!

3 MARCH PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #426
107.3 2SER Tuesday 3 March 2020 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 - 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 - 5:55pm National Program: 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Sunday 10 - 11pm 5GTR Mt Gambier Mon 2:30 - 3:30am 4NAG Keppel FM 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 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am
Set 1	A Date With The Duke
Take The A-Train (theme) + Carnegie Blues	Duke Ellington Orchestra	'A Date With The Duke' ABC/AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Otto, Play Thar Riff Staccato	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ray Nance	'A Date With The Duke' ABC/AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
All At Once + Yesterdays	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Kay Davis	'A Date With The Duke' ABC/AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Set 2	Australian Radio
Brown Slouch Hat	Joan Blake	'Song of Australia' ABC Radio 1942 4 Sep 1948
Sahara	Wally Portingale All-in-Fun Revue	'Army on Parade' 2CH Sydney 0ct 1943
Waltzing Matilda	116th Rhythm Ensemble (voc) Ron Williams	2UE Sydney 1944
Set 3	Trumpet Playing Band Leaders
Memories of You (theme) + The Wish I Wish Tonight	Sonny Donham Orchestra (voc) Tommy Randall	'One Night Stand' Terrace Room Hotel New Yorker NY AFRS Re-broadcast 16 Jul 1945
Open + Blue Skies	Lee Castle Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Ice Terrace Room Newark NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 20 Feb 1934
Eight Bar Riff + Rose Room	Harry James and his Music Makers	'One Night Stand' Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Sep 1945
Set 4	Mary Osbourne - Pioneer Electric Guitarist
Apple Blossoms in the Rain + Kentucky	Mary Osbourne (voc and eg) Gay Claridge Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Chez Paree, Chicago AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Sep 1945
Mary's Guitar Boogle	Mary Osbourne Trio	'Jazz Club USA' Voice of America 1951
Low Ceiling	Mary Osbourne (eg) Beryl Booker Trio	'Jazz Club USA' Voice of America 1951
I Love You	Mary Osbourne (eg) Gay Claridge Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Chez Paree, Chicago AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Sep 1945
Set 5	1944 Swing Radio
I Cover The Waterfront	Benny Carter Orchestra	Trianon Ballroom Southgate Ca 1944
Minnie the Moocher (theme) The Very Thought of You	Cab Calloway Orchestra and voc.	'One Night Stand' Club Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 22 Sep 1944
The Lion and the Mouse	Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra	Terrace Room Hotel New Yorker NYC 1944
After You've Gone + Goodbye (theme)	Benny Goodman Orchestra	'Jubilee' AFRS New York City 21 Jul 1944
Set 6	Louis Armstrong Radio
The Blues	Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller	Aircheck New York City Oct 1938
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?	Louis Armstrong	Wintergarden Theatre WNBC NBC NY 19 Jun 1947
You're Just In Love	Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton	'Guest Star' Radio Transcription NYC 12 Dec 1954
Royal Garden Blues	Louis Armstrong	'Damon Runyom Memorial Jazz Concert' Blue Note WENR ABC Chicago 11 Dec 1948
Set 7	1930-40ss Women Singers
By The Light of the Silvery Moon	<div class="style1" align="left"Ruth Etting	'Ruth Etting Show' WHN NYC 13 Jun 1947
It's You, You, Darling	Marian Mann (voc) Bob Crosby Orchestra	Terrace Room Hotel New Yorker WOR Mutual NY 25 Mar 1940
Whistling in the Dark	Loyce Whiteman (voc) Gus Arnheim Orchestra	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Hollywood 1931
There's a Small Hotel	Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Maxine Gray	'The Lady Esther Serenade' WABC CBS NY 26 Aug 1936
Set 8	1940s Modern Jazz Radio
C-Jam Blues	International All-Stars	Aircheck Hollywood Dec 1947
Back Talk	Woody Herman Orchestra	'Wild Root Show' ABC 8 Feb 1946
Manteca	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Winter Palace Radio Sweden Stockholm 2 Feb 1948