Bob Crosby, etc. 

Bob Crosby, etc.

I was right: Bob Crosby was an extremely competent musician. He was about exactly the age of my late father, and he died in 1993. I just got a CD of his orchestra and smaller group, "The Bob Cats," from their very early years, roughly 1937 to 1942.

The funny thing is: Crosby was apparently a bandleader, period. He had earlier been a singer, but he was basically hired by the band, who knew that they could play, for his personality and youthful good looks. They included four (later five?) players trained in New Orleans, and they were always itching to play authentic Dixieland jazz, even though they were more or less booked for the same gigs that a straight "swing" orchestra like Tommy Dorsey would play. The players had been in drummer Ben Pollack's group; in the early years they acquired at least one player from Artie Shaw's band, and when they lost two players to Tommy Dorsey (with whom Bob Crosby had sung), it "created a sensation in the American music profession."

Wonderful stuff.

While I'm at it: I've been giving more of a listen to Harry Connick, Jr.,

30. Again, not much to say except it is very good, interesting stuff. Just him singing and playing piano, and he gives unusual, often beautiful arrangements to a surprising variety of tunes.

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