The Era Of The Big Bands- As Played By Former Members Of The Big Bands

  

 

Big Band has a certain elegance to it; its style captivates music lovers to this day. Sadly all we have from this fabulous era of music is old 78 rpm recordings, leaving us to dream what it was like to hear artists like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey at their prime in the late '30s and early '40s live. Many albums have been made to do just that, and the Bihari brothers, owners of the Modern/Crown/Custom record labels, made their share of these recreations and recycled them endlessly.

These recordings you hear here were made by former members of these famous orchestras. I have found that these recordings are the best cover records made by a budget label in the late '50s. This album is a mere sampler of what was recorded with these "Members of..." orchestras. I hope you enjoy this album as much as I do!

The complete album.

"Themes from Cleopatra" Conducted by William Rogers on Crown Records!

A budget jacket front at its finest.

      This is quite the album; it's a must-have for a Crown collector such as myself. This is a typical movie tie-in album that the Bihari brothers issued in 1963. The thing that makes this album so interesting is that it features a back slick that is custom made for the album, for most Crown albums at the time featured a back that just listed other Crown record albums you could buy. I hope you enjoy the title selections from this album by William Rodgers!

Eric Silver and his Orchestra play a tribute to Glenn Miller

The marching band and the American flag only seem fitting on the last two tracks.

      Eric Silver, if that's his real name (and I so doubt it) and his most likely European orchestra that was most likely paid peanuts to make these recordings, was not that bad. This album's cover art is hard to place, I just cannot decide if it is simply cheap or sort of fitting (see comment under jacket picture). This album has its moments, the Glenn Miller material is nicely covered, the public domain tunes are arranged well, so I guess the album is decent. The material is grab bag like as far as tune selections go, and the last two tracks are just marches. I kind of like this album if I didn't I would be spending my precious time transferring it and making a post featuring it. I hope you enjoy the selections that I have posted for you here, and if you want to hear the full album click this link to go to the playlist.

American Patrol

Anvil Chorus

The Mexicali Brass play Michelle!

The Mexicali brass was one of the many (and also nameless) studio groups that recorded for cheap budget labels in the mid 60's that were made to cash in on the Tijuana Brass's success. These cheap budget albums often featured just one or two Tijuana Brass tunes and then filled the rest of the record  with cheap filler music. This album is not covering a TJB tune, but rather a Beatles tune that was popularly being covered as a instrumental by almost every orchestra known to man (at least as far as budget labels go). I now present you with yet version of this timeless track Michelle (click to go to the video).