‘Battle’ Captures Top Tunes of Big-Band Era

Joe Graydon doesn’t think he’s being nostalgic when he hums Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood,” gives a soft rendition of “Slow Boat to China,” or whistles some other hit tune from the big-band era of the 1930s and 1940s.

As far as Graydon is concerned, he’s very much in the present.

“To me, it’s like big band never left. It’s very current to me,” said the Glendale resident and concert producer. “I feel like I know every note of every arrangement that was a hit in those days.”

Other fans of big band can be thankful Graydon doesn’t keep those notes to himself. Since 1978, Graydon has been producing big-band concerts, with many of the original players, for Columbia Artists Management Inc., the New York-based concert-touring agency.

His latest is the Battle of the Big Bands--Round 2, a sequel to a 1995 concert tour, featuring the Big Band Alumni Orchestra and a selection of other musicians who are still keeping busy 50 years after the music’s heyday.

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The Battle of the Big Bands-Round 2 kicks off a 53-concert tour Friday at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. It moves to the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Jan. 15.

The show, in reality, is not a battle of bands, but rather one band assuming the identities of some of the most-loved big bands ever. It will make stops in Escondido, Cerritos and several other California spots before heading off to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and the East Coast. The tour ends March 9 in Mt. Clemens, Mich.

“You can expect the very biggest hits,” said Graydon, who was a big-band vocalist himself, a regular on “The Lucky Strike Hit Parade” radio show. “People who go to a big-band concert and haven’t heard Glenn Miller’s version of ‘In the Mood’ by the time they leave, go away ticked.”

The alumni band, made up of 13 veteran big-band musicians of an average age of about 65--a few much older--will play the music made popular by the bands of Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Kay Kyser and Gene Krupa.

Former big-band players will conduct the ensemble in different portions of the show. Rex Allen, a featured trombonist for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, will conduct the band through its Glenn Miller repertoire.

Harry Babbitt, a former lead singer with the Kay Kyser band, will lead the Kyser section. Drummer Irv Kluger, who worked with Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and other legends will head the Krupa section.

And conductor and composer Frank DeVol will narrate the Jimmy Dorsey portion of the show. DeVol was married to singer Helen O’Connell, who appeared with the Dorsey band.

Big-band singers Beryl Davis and Bob Grabeau will provide the vocals throughout the evening.

Though he has been producing these retro shows for 18 years, Graydon said he is still surprised by the popularity of the music and of the musicians themselves.

“I never dreamed it would last this long. These shows are sold out all over the country,” said Graydon, who would not give his age but said he is “of the same vintage” as the other big-band performers. “I credit it to the fact that the audience regards this as the best music of all time.”

Graydon’s first Battle of the Bands, again starring the alumni orchestra, was another tribute to four of the old-time greats. Though there were no judges, and in reality no battle, the Glenn Miller Band was deemed the most popular, defeating the Benny Goodman, Harry James and Tommy Dorsey ensembles.

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So in round two, Miller takes on three other challengers to the throne.

Beryl Davis, who performed with Miller’s Air Force Orchestra during World War II, said she is not at all surprised by Miller’s universal, timeless appeal.

“We can be playing ‘In the Mood’ anywhere in the world and it just turns everybody on,” said Davis, daughter of British big-band leader Harry Davis. “There’s a lasting quality to [Miller’s] music. It is sweet, beautifully arranged.”

Davis, a native of England, now calls Palm Springs her home. But she spends little time there, still touring as much as she ever has.

She toured with her father, was a regular with Frank Sinatra on “Your Hit Parade,” performed on several continents with Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming and Connie Haines in the mid-1960s, and entertained extensively aboard the Princess Line cruise ships.

During the last few years she also has been involved with several Graydon productions, which, like Round 2, featured a new show in a new city almost every night.

Unlike many tours of the big-band era, though, the buses on Graydon’s tours are spacious and the band members get to sleep in hotels, rather than travel through the night.

Either way, it’s second nature to Davis.

“I don’t feel somebody would be comfortable with the tours, necessarily, if they didn’t learn from a very early age. But I was born on the road, during one of my father’s tours,” Davis said. “I know how to survive.

In the new show, Davis will pay tribute to Miller with “I’ll Be Seeing You,” the last song she performed for his Air Force band. She also will sing O’Connell’s “Tangerine” and “Green Eyes” in the Jimmy Dorsey segment and “Let Me Off Uptown” and “Boogie Blues” in the Gene Krupa portion of the program.

“There is a wonderful renaissance happening with the big-band business, all over the country, all over the world,” said Davis, who likes to keep her age a mystery. “The audience is so responsive. It’s like giving somebody walking through the desert a glass of water. They are so grateful for us being there.”

The musicians seem to be equally appreciative of the opportunity.

“I love to do the shows. All the musicians do,” said Babbitt, of Newport Beach. “There’s something inside me that makes me want walk on stage with that feeling of a being a younger performer, like I did when I was 25 or 30 years old.”

Babbitt, 79, has been working with Graydon on and off for about 12 years. When he’s not on some nostalgia tour, he often is the headline act at fund-raisers for Newport Beach’s Hoag Hospital, his pet charitable organization, or performing for senior groups in the area.

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Many of the folks in his regular audiences remember Babbitt as lead singer for the Kay Kyser Band from 1938 to 1944. He provided the vocals for “Slow Boat to China,” “I’ve Got Spurs That Jingle, Jangle, Jingle” and “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”

Babbitt’s renditions of these tunes, he said, still can stir an audience.

“We had a lot of hits, maybe not as many as Glenn Miller, but they were good songs,” Babbitt said. “The audience sings along with ‘Three Little Fishies’ and ‘Mairzy Doats’ and the place just rocks.”

Babbitt said the music of Miller, Dorsey, Kyser and Krupa all have their own supporters, but it is the combination of the four that really attracts the crowds.

“I don’t think any one of these bands could do the job of selling out alone, but when you put four of them together, you get the people,” he said. “There is an emotional feeling for the people who listen to the music of that period. It is part of somebody’s life that has slipped by and now they are trying to get it back.”

DETAILS

Battle of the Big Bands--Round 2.

* WHERE: Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday.

* HOW MUCH: $17.50-$27.50.

* CALL: (805) 583-8700 (tickets) or (805) 449-ARTS (information).

* WHERE: Alex Theatre, 215 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday.

* HOW MUCH: $22.50-$27.50.

* CALL: (800) 233-3123 (tickets) or (818) 243-2539 (information).