Sound Beat

From Coast Coast, from every state in the Union…it’s Groucho Marx and…

Have you heard the siren’s call today? You might have, and not even known it.

Coleman Hawkins got it in him one day to stray from the jazz norm, and he opened the door for a new style of music. Hawkins played tenor sax, which wasn’t really recognized as a jazz instrument until he helped make it one. Body and Soul, heard here from 1939, signaled a stylistic change in jazz; the improvisation throughout the song simply hadn’t been recorded in the genre.  The end result? Bebop, a form of jazz dependent on improvisation and a snappy pace. Hawkins directly influenced the greats that followed soon after. Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis would all play back up for Hawkins. What extreme honor did the Library of Congress bestow on this recording? In 2004, Body and Soul was entered into the LOC's National Recording Registry, for songs that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

The first copyrighted film was not a comedy, a thriller, but a…(ahem)...bodily function

Most kids take their piano lessons at school, or at a neighbor’s house. But Hazel Scott was always a bit above “chopsticks”.

Couples sway to the music, hand in hand, step matched for measured step. But we're not in Austria, or Vienna...we're in Ponce, Puerto Rico

You’re listening to the Lennon Sisters from 1956 and…

Everyone knows John Philip Sousa for his marches. And, okay, so….yes, this is a march too, but so much more.

Up and Atom! It’s the Music of the Atomic Age, and…

Artie Shaw sure knew how to surround himself with the right crowd.

The best thing to happen to campfires since split wood.

Merv Griffin with Freddy Martin and his Orchestra on a 1950 RCA Victor record

Pianist/singer/ jack of many trades Ivory Joe Hunter with “Since I Met you Baby”.

Perhaps the most popular song in American campaign history, and its very unlikely source.

Half a century after the Battle of Gettysburg, veterans from both sides gathered at the battle site to pay tribute to the fallen.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was included on Harris’ Blue Kentucky Girl, a Warner Brothers LP.

Jean de Brunhoff introduced Babar the Elephant to the world in1931…though some credit belongs to his wife and children.

...In a hurry!

Dame Nellie Melba’s Farewell speech, recorded at Covent Garden in 1926. Plus...dessert!

Victor Young and his Singing Strings