Through ten of some of the most tumultuous years
in our history, America
was bouyed up by the sounds of the big bands. This space is dedicated to the preservation of
that sound. Primary school music teachers of the period would introduce their subject by pointing out that
the symphony orchestra consisted of the same four sections found in big bands: brass, woodwinds,
percussion and, sometimes but not always in the big bands, strings. This is a not insignificant
point. The big bands did not come up-river from New Orleans as some would lead you to believe.
The big bands preceeded the big band era and live on today. The swing era and the big band era
were contemporaneous, but they were not the same. The big bands would have starved had they
depended on the swingsters for their support. The big bands grew out of economic conditions
which found a great number of talented, musically educated musicians looking for any kind of
work. It was not surprising that these musicians should return to their musical roots, the
classics. The following are some examples of the big band classical repetoire with selections
from Debussy, Lecouna, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikowsky.
Song Number One: One of the most adept popularizers of the classics was
big band leader/arranger Larry Clinton. In 1938, the Clinton band dominated the charts
with classical adaptations, here is a number one chart song as sung by Bea Wain, a Clinton
adaptation of Claude Debussy's Reverie, here titled,"My Reverie."
Song Number TWO: According to George Simon in The Big Bands,
Tommy Dorsey had the opening lick to this next number in his head, but could not come
up with a song to go with it until a classic by Nickolas Rimsky-Korsakov was suggested. The
band worked out an arangement featuring Tommy's trombone and ending with Bunny Berigan's
trumpet chorus. It was well received by the dancers
at the Meadowbrook Ballroom, though still incomplete. Finally, they decided to end as they had
begun and they had this arrangement of "Song of India."
Song Number THREE:In 1939, Glenn Miller recorded this
Mitchell Parish - Peter De Rose adaptation of Maurice Ravel's Pavane Pour Une
Infante Defunte. This was a cover record, that is an attempt to cash in on the
popularity, of Larry Clinton's hit recording of the same song. During the big band era it was
standard practice for record companies to rush into production performances by their bands of
hits recorded elsewhere. It was not unusual for there to be a half dozen or more versions of
a song on the market at one time, each catering to the fans of a given band. Since Larry
Clinton appears above, here we used the Glenn Miller version, though we could just as well
have used Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey's recording of "The Lamp is Low."
Song Number FOUR: Freddy Martin had a big hit with this
classical piece which he helped adapt in 1941; so much so that he made it his theme song.
Perhaps the most exploited of all classical composers was Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky.
The copying was so pervasive that there was even a song written about it at the time called,
"Everybody's Making Money Except Tchaikowsky." Here is his First Piano Concerto in
B-Flat, retitled "Tonight We Love".
Song Number FiVE: The final number is taken from Malaguena, part of
Ernesto Lecuona's Andalusia Suite. Unlike most of the classical composers represented here,
Lecuona was alive to hear the big band versions of his works. He was not pleased. However,
again unlike those dead and gone, he was able to enjoy the royalties which this popularity
brought. Here is Vaughn Monroe's "At the Crossroads."
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