Watch: Jan Savitt and His Band

Today's video focuses on Jan Savitt and His Orchestra.  This fantastic short film was filmed in October of 1945 and released to the general public in March of 1946 by Warner Bros.

It focuses on some of the highlights of Jan Savitt's career up to that point, describes Savitt's jump from classical music into swing, and contains some great music by Savitt and his band.  You can definitely tell this was filmed by a major studio like Warner Bros. by the very good camera work and use of sets.  A big improvement over the Soundies we are used to watching here.

Enjoy!

Watch: "Jan Savitt and His Band" from 1946

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Soundie: "Everybody's Jumpin' Now"

Today's Soundie stars Noble Sissle and His Orchestra performing "Everybody's Jumpin' Now".  This was released to Panoram in December of 1946, which was near the end of the road for Soundies themselves.  Noble's band only had seven members, and at the time, that was considered small for an orchestra.  (That would soon change as the era came to a close.)  The director compensated for this by spreading out the members over a wide range of space to make the band look bigger.

Also featured as a dancer is Mabel Lee. Mabel Lee first appeared in Soundies as an extra in Louis Jordan's "Old Man Mose".  She eventually received more attention and soon became Soundies' own musical star. Mabel Lee ended up appearing in over a dozen Soundies, many of which, she herself, was the featured singer or dancer.

In this particular Soundie, both Sissle and Lee team up to provide so much energy.  Such a great performance.

Enjoy!

Watch: Noble Sissle and His Orchestra performing 

"Everybody's Jumpin' Now" released in 1946.

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The Melody Hour (AFRS)

I've recently cleaned up and posted some great tracks from an AFRS show called "The Melody Hour" to the station.  I've included a brief history of show below.  Some of the artist you'll hear are Buddy Clark, Jo Stafford, Dick Haymes, The Dinning Sisters and the Mullen Sisters.  The majority of the music was supplied by Percy Faith and His Orchestra.

Listen to Swing City Radio for Buddy Clark's upbeat versions of "On A Slow Boat To China" and "Fun And Fancy Free".  Also keep an ear out for Jo Stafford and Dick Haymes teaming up on "Darn It Baby, That's Love" and "The Old Piano Roll Blues" along with a fantastic version of "Sooner Or Later" by The Dinning Sisters.

Listen to: Buddy Clark singing "On A Slow Boat To China" from 1948

"The Melody Hour" was the retitled name of NBC radio's long running series "The Carnation Contented Hour". The AFRS obtained rights to rebroadcast the program to military personnel during and after World War II.  It was a 30 minute musical show re-recorded by the Armed Forces Radio Service without commercials or sponsorship messages. During the mid 1940's until the early 1950's, this program was distributed and broadcast throughout the AFRS Network by means of radio transcription discs.

"The Carnation Contented Hour" (the original version of the series) began January 4, 1932, on the Blue Network and was broadcast for two decades until its final broadcast via CBS on December 30, 1951.

Enjoy!

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