The Swingsters Put in a Dreamy Live Set at the KOOP Radio Studios!

I dug The Swingsters live set on The Big Band & Classic Jazz radio show, on KOOP 91.7, last Saturday morning, November 7th. BB & C Jazz is hosted by Thomas Durnin from 9-10 AM every Saturday morning, and provides unique coverage of the early days of American Jazz. This particular crisp fall day, The Swingsters put in a groovy live set at the fairly new studio of KOOP on Airport Blvd, here in Austin (Hornsby Austin!).

I`m not their publicist, but just putting in a good word for these accomplished musicians and the dazzling sounds they project (into microphones & the open air). I don`t jive you, I have the very first Swingsters record! Actually, it`s just a nine song cassette, but the quality is quite good, with a harmonious blend of the instruments (Jay Robillard, the host of The Lounge Show, was their sound engineer). Even the upright bass, played by Thomas Durnin, is present in the mix and audible (from my recording), especially when I play it on my cassette deck, on my trusty 1999 Ford F-150 truck.

The Swingsters started off with a dreamy Moonglow, first recorded by the Joe Venuti Orchestra in 1933. They followed with a pleasant, loungy Honeysuckle Rose, written by the stride piano virtuoso Fats Waller, in the year 1929. Next,Georgia On My Mind had a wonderful piano vamp by Tommy Griffin spiffily plopped in its middle section on an unknown bar. Fourth was Fly Me to the Moon, written by Bart Howard in 1954, with another great piano inprov passage.

The Swingsters followed with a stirring rendition of Perdido, a mostly familiar Duke Ellington number. The sixth song was Rosetta that featured Dave Beverage *(correct me, if the spelling is wrong) on the vocal. Dave also plays guitar for the band. However, my very favorite was The Blue Room, that was known as a bread and butter tune for the Bennie Moten Orchestra. There was a famous Victor/Bluebird session for this song on December 13th, 1932. I have replayed this one (Swingsters version, mind you) several times just this morning.

The Swingsters will perform live music at the Gill Cypress Grill (South Austin, I think) this coming Thursday, November 19th, from 6:30-8:30 PM. I believe in this early jazz revival myself, & am convinced it will stick with young people once they study this fascinating period in American music history (1910-1935-roughly). I`m trying to get a better grip on the period myself. Better keep tuning in to Big Band & Classic Jazz! *The photo is the Bennie Moten Kansas City Orchestra. The thumnail is a hot green 1970 Dodge Dart.

The Lounge Show on KOOP Radio Was a Spook-Tacular Shock-A-Rama!

The Lounge Show, with Jay Robillard as host, on KOOP Radio 91.7 (on Saturdays from 10 AM-12 PM-it`s streamed on the World Wide Web too!), was a SPOOK-TACULAR SHOCK-A-RAMA yester-morn, with two hours of Halloween-themed zingers! Jay piggybacked a bulging black bag of delirious ditties up to the KOOP station as sonic trick-or-treats. I`ll just give you a sliver of a microscopic specimen of `is corpus derelictus, by way of radio clarion blasts as buzzing riff-raff bats.

A tingle of fright shimmied down my spine, as I listened to Bob McFadden (with Rod McKuen), an Einstein of a voice-over artist, sing The Mummy, with his wormy and wimpy-throated spoof of a rendition. He can`t scare one iota even outta a hip, finger-snappin` beatnik Daddy-O  that he encounters on the street, who claims he has “a warped groove.”

That is a rare one from 1955 that I have never heard, A Man in a Raincoat, by a Canadian singer, Priscilla Wright. The black and white over here on the right is Priscilla Wright. As usual, I forever marvel over Ghost Riders in the Sky, written by Stan Jones and performed by Vaughn Monroe-a # one hit in 1949. I`m a fool for tall cowpoke yarns told `round a campfire of lonesome Yosemite Sams. Odles of artists have covered this gem too!

Furthermore, Jay sprinkled in some movie trailers for good measure, or maybe some of them were radio spots…don`t know for certain? There was The Vault of Horror that used the slogan “a life worth leaving,” then there was Vampire Playgirls (Devil`s Nightmare), an Italian/French co-production from 1971, starring Erica Blanc with its dated sex appeal. Frogs (starring Ray Milland) croaks like a good toad to see and AstroZombies is a B flick combo of Sci-Fi & Horror that I`d like to run my eyes over some bleak night.

Green-Eyed Dragon *(these lyrics differ from the JCT version), performed by John Charles Thomas was the whipped cream & maraschino cherry of the show for me! Thanks for a wonderful Halloween radio show, J.R.!  P.S. I saw Paranormal Activity yesterday, & trembled with the jeepers -creepers for nearly two hours!