BODY AND SOUL
EPISODE 5

From Studio C Chicago, this is “Body and Soul,” a show that covers the waterfront of 1930s and ’40s jazz and swing, blues, Broadway, popular song, country, rhythm & blues, movie music, and more.  I'm Andy Miles, and this is Coleman Hawkins & His All-Stars featuring Django Reinhardt.

Coleman Hawkins & His All Stars feat. Django Reinhardt “Out of Nowhere” (1937)

Peggy Lee “Just A Shade on the Blue Side” (1948)

Illinois Jacquet & His All-Stars “Flying Home Part 1” (1945)

Helen Humes “Blues With Helen” (1938)

The vocalist is Helen Humes; the song, “Blues With Helen.” It was released in 1938. Humes was only 25 years old in 1938 but had made her first recordings a decade earlier. In the late ’30s she found work singing with the Count Basie band, where she remained until 1942.

Illinois Jacquet & His All-Stars before that, “Flying Home Part 1” from 1945. Three years earlier the Louisiana-born tenor saxophonist Jacquet had made his name playing a lengthy solo in live performances and a classic 1942 recording of “Flying Home” when he was a 19-year-old up-and-comer in Lionel Hampton’s band. Hampton co-wrote the song with Benny Goodman and they first recorded it together in the Benny Goodman Sextet in 1939.

We heard Peggy Lee, “Just A Shade on the Blue Side,” the A-side of the the ninth single Lee released in 1948 and the first of them not to chart.

And a classic pairing at the top of the show: tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and guitarist Django Reinhardt. The year was 1937 and the song was “Out of Nowhere,” one of several ’30s tracks that featured the Hawkins-Reinhardt pairing. Benny Carter is also on the record we heard, providing both alto sax and trumpet. We’ll hear more jazz guitar from Django Reinhardt in the next set.

From Studio C Chicago, this is "Body and Soul."  I'm Andy Miles.  Lots of good stuff on the way, including Louis Armstrong, The Mills Brothers, Lester Young, Frank Sinatra, and this from Hank Williams.

Hank Williams & The Drifting Cowboys “Honky Tonkin’” (1948)

Le Quintette Du Hot Club de France “Honeysuckle Rose” (1938)

Louis Armstrong “Love Walked In” (1938)

T-Bone Walker “Mean Old World” (1942)

It’s music from T-Bone Walker, a 1945 Capitol Records A-side called “Mean Old World,” recorded in the summer of 1942. Oddly enough, Walker re-recorded the song in 1956 and a three-year delay once again occurred in the release of the song.

Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra before that, “Love Walked In.” The recording date was May 1938, just three months after the release of the film musical “Goldwyn Follies,” where the Gershwin song made its debut. Sammy Kaye recorded his version in March of ’38 and with it enjoyed the second number one hit of his young career.

Also from 1938 we heard “Honeysuckle Rose” from Django Reinhard’s Quintet of the Hot Club of France.

And at the top of the set, Hank Williams & The Drifting Cowboys, “Honky Tonkin,” one of two recordings Williams made of the song in 1947. The first was released as a B-side, the second, which we heard, as an A-side that went top 15 on Billboard’s country chart, just a few months after Williams had his breakthrough hit, “Move It On Over.” More than 30 top 15 country hits followed before Williams’ death on New Year’s Day 1953 — and another seven came after his death. “Honky Tonkin’” was also a hit for Hank Williams Jr., topping the country chart 35 years after Williams Sr. recorded it.

From Studio C Chicago, this is "Body and Soul," a show devoted to two great decades in American music: the '30s and the '40s.  Next up: a set of music from 1944, starting with the theme to the classic film “Laura.”

20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra “Laura” (1944)

The Mills Brothers “Till Then” (1944)

Lester Young “Jammin’ The Blues” (1944)

Lloyd “Tiny” Grimes “Red Cross” (1944)

The song is “Red Cross” by the jazz guitarist Lloyd “Tiny” Grimes. It comes from 1944 and is notable for featuring Charlie Parker at the beginning of his recording career. In fact, it was Parker’s first session for Savoy Records, and the song is usually released under his name. Parker also wrote the song. “Tiny” Grimes had the songwriting credit on another track from the session, “Tiny’s Tempo.” Both tunes were released a decade later on a popular — and for Parker a posthumous — album called “The Immortal Charlie Parker.”

Also in that set of music from 1944, Lester Young, “Jammin' the Blues,” one of three songs performed by Young in the short film of the same name. Produced by Verve Records founder Norman Granz, the film, which I’ve never seen, attempted to recreate “the jam-session atmosphere of nightclubs and after-hours spots,” and featured a dozen musicians, including and most prominently Lester Young. Only one of those 12 musicians, the guitarist Barney Kessel, was white, and according to his New York Times obituary, “all that was clearly visible of him [in the short film] were his hands, which were dyed black.”

We heard one of the memorable pop hits of 1944, “Till Then” by The Mills Brothers. It topped the R&B chart that year, as well as breaking into the top 10 of Billboard’s Best Seller chart. It was actually the B-side of a song that went to number one on that chart, “You Always Hurt the One You Love.” The two songs gave The Mills Brothers the 20th and 21st top 10 hits of their career; another 10 followed over the next decade.

And at the top of that set of four from '44, the 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra performing the theme to the Otto Preminger film “Laura.” The music was composed by David Raskin, who was given a weekend to come up with the theme song. According to the story, Preminger wanted to open the film with the Duke Ellington song “Sophisticated Lady,” but Raskin objected and went to work on something more fitting, his inspiration said to have come from the demise of his marriage the very weekend he composed the song. Johnny Mercer added the lyrics and a major hit was born. In fact, it was not only the biggest hit of Raskin’s career; at one time it was believed to be the second most recorded song in history, behind “Stardust.” And like “Stardust,” it lives on as a jazz standard, popular with singers and instrumentalists alike. A postscript: Preminger later hired Duke Ellington to compose and perform with his band the score for the late '50s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder.”

And you're listening to "Body and Soul" from Studio C Chicago.  I'm Andy Miles.  One last full set on the show; it starts with Frank Sinatra’s 1946 recording of “September Song.”

Frank Sinatra “September Song” (1946)

Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers “Drifting Blues” (1946)

Jimmy Lunceford & His Orchestra “Swinging Uptown” (1934)

Bud Freeman & His Windy City Five “The Buzzard” (1935)

It’s a 1935 track from Bud Freeman & His Windy City Five, “The Buzzard,” wrapping up our final full set of 1930s and ’40s music in this episode of “Body & Soul.” The tenor saxophonist Freeman was born in Chicago and died there 84 years later; in between he made his name and career in New York City.

Jimmy Lunceford & His Orchestra before that, “Swinging Uptown,” recorded for Decca Records in March 1934.

We heard “Drifting Blues” from Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. One of those Three Blazers was singer and pianist Charles Brown; a couple years after that 1946 recording Brown began his successful solo career. It was “Drifting Blues” that first brought Brown some measure of fame, when it spent six months on the Billboard R&B chart.

And at the top of the set, the most famous of all 20th century singers, Frank Sinatra, performing “September Song,” the Kurt Weill standard that Sinatra recorded for Columbia, Capitol, and Reprise Records over a 19-year span. The first of those, the one we heard, was Sinatra’s final A-side of 1946 and went top 10.

And that brings us to the end of another edition of "Body and Soul" from Studio C Chicago.  I'm Andy Miles.  Thanks for being here.  

I've got one last song on the show; it's one that Sinatra also recorded, but we’re going to hear John Raitt’s original version. From the Broadway cast recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” this is “Soliloquy.”

John Raitt “Soliloquy” (1945)

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