Bloggerhythms

There's a store near me - appropriately named The Archive - that sells used books, comics, magazines, old trading cards, old post cards, records, CDs, DVDs, video games, toys, pop culture memorabilia and more. Are you looking for old Mad Magazines? They have them. Old Atari game cartridges? It's a possiblity. The place looks, feels and smells just like the musty warehouse it is, and I love it. None of The Archive's music is ever sold at collector's prices. Anyone can go in and pay a buck a piece for CDs and even their more in-demand vinyl is nicely priced. I visit there on occasion just to see what I can find. That's where I discovered the genre bending, classic album by Ray Charles, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music ,   originally released by ABC-Paramount Records on a 12-inch LP way back in 1962 and on CD by Rhino Records in 1988 with three bonus tracks. First, a little background for those of you who are unaware of the original ...

Below is one of the first five CD reviews to ever appear on Bloggerhythms. It was posted almost twenty years ago, and it's being revived now because of the sad news Brian Setzer wrote on his  Facebook   page on February 13, 2025. "Hi everybody, I just wanted to check in with you all. Towards the end of the last Stray Cats tour I noticed that my hands were cramping up. I’ve since discovered that I have an auto-immune disease. I cannot play guitar. There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play. I have seen some progress in that I can hold a pen and tie my shoes. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I was at a point where I couldn’t even do that. Luckily, I have the best hospital in the world down the block from me. It’s called the Mayo Clinic. I know I will beat this, it will just take some time. I love you all, Brian." ------------------------------------------ On Vavoom! , Brian Setzer's fourth orchestra release, the former leader ...

Among my earliest memories of listening to music for adults were playing my Mom's 78 RPM records on my portable record player. Even when I was eight years old I thought a lot of her music sounded cheesy and dated, but I took a liking to her Glenn Miller, Harry James, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson records. Miller and James sparked any interest in jazz that I have today, and we all know that Crosby was - and continues to be - a legend, especially at Christmastime. On the other hand, many people are only aware of Jolson as the star of  The Jazz Singer , the first partially talking, feature-length movie with synchronized speech, way back in 1927. My mother told me that Jolson was a massive multi-media star. He dominated the American music scene from World War One into the early 1930s. To this day I can't tell you why I liked him so much way back when, and the fact that I still do could be nothing more than ...

Doc Severinsen made dozens of albums with various outfits while working for Johnny Carson and leading The Tonight Show Band from 1967 until Carson retired in 1992, but it took the trumpeter until 1986 to take his TV band into the studio to record a very good album, The Tonight Show Band With Doc Severinsen . Severinsen led a large, high energy group of nineteen musicians if you count the boss who was the primary soloist on nine of the thirteen tracks. While Severinsen and his men didn't break any new ground, much of the CD is loaded with extremely well-played, modern arrangements of old 30s and 40s big band standards, including instrumental hits of trombonist Tommy Dorsey ("I'm Getting Sentimental Over You"), clarinetist Artie Shaw ("Begin The Beguine"), and vibraphone player Lionel Hampton ("Flying Home"). The set also includes three Benny Goodman classics, "King Porter Stomp," "Don't Be That Way,...

I'm sure classical music fans will howl about the crimes committed by The Brian Setzer Orchestra so let this be a warning to those of you whose ears are easily offended: Wolfie and Ludwig never rocked like this. Even to Setzer's most ardent fans Wolfgang's Big Night Out may appear to be the biggest gimmick this side of Weird Al Yankovic but somehow it's a contrivance that works. I don't know if Setzer meant this album as a joke or not. He takes some of the world's most famous classical masterpieces and hilariously renames them after totally reinventing them. Beethoven's "Fur Elise" became "For Lisa," "Blue Danube" has flowed into "Some River In Europe," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" became "Take A Break Guys." The "1812 Overture" is now "1812 Overdrive." The title track was derived from Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" and Mendelssohn's famous wedding march wa...

Photos by Karin Ricci Large stadium concerts have never been my favorite places to watch live music. Unfortunately, in the case of many of planet Earth's most popular artists they're the only venues I'll ever have a chance to enjoy them until they reach legacy status and play smaller concert halls many years from now. Such is the case with Michael Bublé who performed for almost two hours in Philadelphia's not-quite-sold-out basketball and hockey arena, The Wells Fargo Center. Bublé performed many of his best-known songs - twenty-four in all - in a mostly energetic, flashy extravaganza featuring everything from neon lights to pyrotechnics. It was Vegas all the way but that isn't a criticism because even with several hi-def video screens offering closeups the concert-goer's intimacy  with the performer just wasn't there. That meant big entertainment became the modus operandi for the evening. Bublé endeared himself to the local crowd early in the set by acknowl...

Big band -  A large dance  or jazz band  of ten musicians or more, usually featuring improvised solos by lead players but otherwise playing orchestrated music . When most people think of big bands today they often conjure up faded, black and white images of Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Count Basie and Woody Herman. Those men led some of the more popular outfits whose heyday was during the latter part of The Great Depression and the Second World War - approximately 1935 to 1946. It's the only time in history that jazz was at the forefront of American popular music. As a kid I became a fan of these large ensembles through my Mother's old, scratchy, breakable, 78 RPM records. My fascination with big bands continued into my early adulthood and was a significant influence in giving birth to any interest I have in jazz today. Despite the fact he r...

Night & Day: Big Band is the album Chicago released in 1995 two years after the ill-fated  Stone of Sisyphus  was recorded.  When I first discovered it in a record store I immediately thought "OMG, more unnecessary dreck from this formerly great band." Then, a different thought popped into my head. "Hey, because it's a big band CD maybe the Chicago horn section is actually playing a prominent role again," and upon listening I was gratified to learn that their original horn section of James Pankow, Walt Parazaider, and Lee Loughnane were all on board and did a really fine job.  Much of  Night & Day  is the closest Chicago came to rediscovering their original jazz-rock roots that they completely abandoned in the late 70s. At the same time  they managed to sound like the Bill Champlin-Jason Scheff version of the band they evolved into in the 90s but with a new a sense of purpose. While the famous outfit doesn't sound like th e vintage Kath-Guerci...

Stevie Ray Vaughan, center, with Double Trouble & John Hammond on right It took over a year for my wife and I to clean out my late father-in-law's house that was loaded with five decades of possessions he never threw away. It was extremely time consuming. Just like everyone else, we've been stuck at home lately so we decided it's now time to clean out our house. We want to do it now because in the future, when there is possibly only one of us, the survivor will not have to spend more time than necessary getting rid of stuff that is no longer needed or wanted. We were also inspired to purge -  believe it or not - by Ringo Starr. A few years ago the drummer and his wife decided to sell a lot of his memorabilia including the famous drum kit he used while rising to international superstardom with The Beatles. It was the set you see in hundreds of pictures, the one he used to record many of their early hits. It's the one he played on The Ed Sullivan Show . I decided that...

The Brian Setzer Orchestra take their loud, rocking big band formula and apply it to some classic holiday music, revitalize it, and make it totally their own. If you missed this album upon its initial release in 2002 you must open your wallet and lay down your holiday green so you can start your Christmas party immediately. Setzer’s flaming, frantic, greaser rock guitar dominates many of the hard rocking tunes while always meshing perfectly with the brass and reed sections on such seasonal standards as "Sleigh Ride," "Winter Wonderland" and "Jingle Bells." Setzer welds his leather jacket and tattoo persona perfectly into the lyrics of the latter track by changing the closing line to "Oh what fun it is to ride in a '57 Chevrolet." These songs are always overplayed every Christmas but the fresh arrangements Setzer offers up are a welcome adventure. Not every track roars at breakneck speed. The pace slows down a bit for guest Ann-Margaret wh...

It's time to start the new year off with some house cleaning. In February 2013 Bloggerhythms followed the lead of many other sources on the web and posted that trombone player Paul Tanner, who had just passed away, was the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the World War Two era's most popular big band. (Read Mr. Tanner's brief but very interesting biography here ). As it turns out Tanner was not the band's lone survivor. Instead, the honors go to Herman "Trigger" Alpert, a stand up bass player who joined the Miller organization at the height of their popularity in 1940 when he was only twenty-four years old. Alpert died on December 21, 2013 in Florida at age ninety-seven. Jazz fans often criticized the band for sounding too stiff and stodgy so the highly regarded Alpert was a welcome addition to the lineup. He provided them with a freewheeling spirit that was sorely missing from their ranks. Alpert was drafted into the service the ...

Until Paul Tanner (1917 – 2013) passed into the great recording studio in the sky earlier this month most people, including me, had never heard of him. Yet he's quite an interesting fellow who played on some of pop music's greatest recordings as part of a long and diverse career in the business. It's hard to believe that there was still someone alive who played in the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The trombonist was the last surviving member of Miller's famous big band. He played with them from 1938 until 1942 on almost all of the bandleader's hits including "In the Mood," "A String of Pearls," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," and "Pennsylvania 6-5000." What makes Tanner fascinating is the fact he was also the man who played on one of rock's most famous songs in 1966. He was responsible for the electro-theremin on The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations." After Tanner left the Army Air Force at the conclusion of World...

It isn’t often (actually, maybe never) that Bloggerhythms’ Wayback Machine has taken us on a ride to the days of the 78 RPM record and to pre-World War Two America but as a casual fan of the old big bands now is the time to stop, get off, and visit with Rowland Bernard Berigan, a jazz trumpet virtuoso of the late 1930S. Berigan's nickname was "Bunny" and he was mostly known for one outstanding song, "I Can't Get Started," written by Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke, a composition that he turned into a hit record in 1937. The lyrics to "I Can't Get Started" are definitely dated. They reference the Spanish Civil War, FDR, and Greta Garbo but its story still resonates today. It's about a man who lists all of his many nearly impossible accomplishments yet has failed at the one thing he wants most: winning the girl of his dreams. (The great Temptations' hit of the late 60s, "I Can't Get Next To You," has a very similar theme...

Benny Goodman's 1962 visit to the U.S.S.R. was the first time a jazz band from the United States toured the country at the invitation of the Soviet government. It was also the first time an American jazz band was recorded there in concert. The King Of Swing assembled a big band that played to an audience that was mostly unfamiliar with the genre. Benny Goodman In Moscow is a double live LP released on RCA Records shortly after the tour. No CD has ever been released in America and only a bootleg version has ever been issued in Europe. According to Ken Dryden, writer for the All Music Guide , the bootleg CD omits a couple of tracks, and has mistakes in the liner notes, so if you can find a copy of this extremely rare LP you've uncovered a gem. For many reasons this is a big band jazz recording worth hearing. The sound quality of the performance is exceptional, and not just when compared to the recording standards of the day. Then, of course, there is the music. Goodman af...