Day 2 - 318 -- More Musical Memories

I took a stroll down memory lane this afternoon. After a quick trip to the grocery store, I sat down with a cup of chai and found a movie from the past on my TV screen. The Fabulous Dorseys, a 1947 biopic has some great music, while the story and acting are a bit marginal -- though many of them were the musicians themselves. From that, it appears that Will Smith, LL Cool J, Jennifer Lopez and others didn't invent the leap to the screen. <smile>  My Dad loved this music that he grew up with and he knew the life stories of most of the musicians. Again, not that different than the teen magazines of my youth or the entertainment magazine shows of today, though I still maintain that things have gotten much more intrusive and personal over the years, but that is a blog for another day. <smile> Interestingly, today is 10 years anda day since my dad passed away -- this musical moment today seems like a message.

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey had independent and combined bands over their lives, mostly working separately. At one point Jimmy played alto sax and clarinet in the Red Nichols band, The Five Pennies, among band mates Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa and Jack Teagarden. That would be a point in time I'd love to travel to just to hear all of these folks in one band on one stage <smile>.  (As an aside, I strongly recommend the movies The Five Pennies (1959) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954), which are wonderful movies -- both are in my collection <grin>.)  Frank Sinatra sang with the Tommy Dorsey band in his early career, as did Bing Crosby. The Dorsey brothers were well connected, being part of the swing and jazz band craze from the ground up. Yet, when the focus changed to the singers and not the bands, their bands became less in vogue, though they did do some early television together in the '50s.

The music I heard today, reminded me of so many times listening to LPs with my Dad and playing the piano while he played the sax. I was very young, so it wasn't anything earth shattering, but it was fun. I've chosen two songs to share here today both about lost love. The first is a beautiful slower tempo song with a great voice behind the lyrics and the second shows the orchestral and singer aspects of a show. Enjoy!

I'll never smile again -- Tommy Dorsey Band ft. Frank Sinatra

Marie -- Tommy Dorsey Band (from movie The Fabulous Dorseys)