{"id":4272,"date":"2021-04-26T22:10:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=4272"},"modified":"2023-08-10T01:13:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T19:13:46","slug":"some-forgotten-bands-with-a-nod-to-linda-keene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=4272","title":{"rendered":"SOME FORGOTTEN BANDS…WITH A NOD TO LINDA KEENE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well it’s the last part of April 2021 and it’s a snow day.\u00a0 \"A<\/a>That shouldn’t happen.\u00a0 Oh well, it will all melt in a few days. And to think I assembled a porch swing the other day and the next day cut my grass.\u00a0 You have to love Canada weather!\u00a0 If you have read my two previous blahgs, 12 MONTHS \u2013 12 RECORDS \u2013 12 SONGS<\/a> & 12 MONTHS \u2013 12 MORE RECORDS \u2013 12 MORE SONGS<\/a>, you would know that I’ve been having fun posting about some of the vinyl LPs I’ve purchased over the past year.\u00a0 I had a lot of fun assembling those two blahgs but I was busy at the same time looking ahead to this blahg.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll mention three other blahgs I wrote last year that helped to inspire this current blahg.\u00a0 My three part Linda Keene series, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 1: THE FLORENCE SUTTLE YEARS<\/a>, TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 2: THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE,<\/a> TRACING LINDA KEENE, PART 3: ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD<\/a>, was very labour intensive.\u00a0 I spent a great deal of time researching Linda Keene and perusing through old newspaper articles to assemble a narrative of Linda Keene’s career.\u00a0 One thing I learned, outside of all of the things I learned about Linda Keene, was that there were many big bands and orchestras in the mid and late 1930s and through the 1940s that we no longer remember.\u00a0 So, I thought I would look at some of those forgotten bands that specifically were associated in some way with Linda Keene.\u00a0 I’ll try to provide some information of these orchestras and some recordings where I can. This blahg will be an assemblage of information and recordings and images from various sources.\u00a0 I’ve done the research and now you get to enjoy reading it.
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\u00a0\u00a0 In part one of my Linda Keene series I detailed how she was born Florence McCrory in December of 1911 and later married Sturgeon Suttle in September of 1931.\u00a0 She performed under her married name of Florence Suttle in the early 1930s and toured with her husband who billed himself as “Frank Suttle.”\u00a0 \u00a0 The first reference I found for the couple performing with any orchestra was from the August 3, 1934 Detroit Times, below, where they were performing at the Oriole Terrace as part of a floor show including Bob Chester and His Music.\u00a0 \"In<\/a><\/span><\/strong>It is not clear if Florence Suttle performed with Bob Chester and His Orchestra but for the purposes of this blahg, Bob Chester’s band will be the first forgotten band we’ll look at.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 With some of the bands I’ve tracked, there is very little information about the orchestra or what might have happened to them.\u00a0 Not so with Bob Chester. There is even a Wikipedia entry for Bob Chester although there isn’t more than really a page of information”
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Bob Chester (March 20, 1908 \u2013 June 14, 1977) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Chester’s stepfather ran General Motors’s Fisher Body Works. He began his career as a sideman under Irving Aaronson, Ben Bernie, and Ben Pollack. He formed his own group in Detroit in 1939, with a Glenn Miller-influenced sound. This band was unsuccessful in local engagements and quickly dissolved. He then put together a new band on the East Coast under the direction of Tommy Dorsey and with arrangements by David Rose. This ensemble fared much better, recording for Bluebird Records.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Chester’s group, billed “The New Sensation of the Nation,” had its own radio show on CBS briefly in the fall of 1939. The twenty-five-minute program aired from the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio late on Thursday nights (actually 12:30 am Friday morning, Eastern Time); the September 21, 1939 edition can be heard on the famous One Day In Radio tapes, archived by Washington D.C. station WJSV.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Chester’s Bluebird records have proved excellent sellers, both for retail dealers and coin phonograph operators such as “From Maine to California”; “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie”; “Madelaine”; and two songs from “Banjo Eyes” – “Not a Care in the World” and “A Nickel to My Name”.\u00a0 His only national hit was “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair” (b\/w “I Walk With Music”; Bluebird 10614), which featured Dolores O’Neill on vocals and went to #18 on the charts in April 1940.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Chester’s orchestra included trumpeters Alec Fila, Nick Travis, Lou Mucci, and Conrad Gozzo, saxophonists Herbie Steward and Peanuts Hucko, drummer Irv Kluger, and trombonist Bill Harris. His female singers included Dolores O’Neill, Kathleen Lane, and Betty Bradley; among his male singers were Gene Howard, Bill Darnell, Joe Harris, Stu Brayton, Hall Stewart, Peter Marshall, Bob Haymes, and Al Stuart.<\/em><\/h4>\n

The orchestra disbanded in the mid-1940s, due in part to the shrinking market for big band sound. After a stint as a disc jockey at WKMH radio, Chester assembled another band for a short time in the early 1950s, but after it failed he retired from music and returned to Detroit to work for the rest of his life in auto manufacturing.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Looking at this output from 1939-1942, Bob Chester recorded more than 110 songs onto 78 rpm records.\u00a0 Many of these have not been reissued on CD.\u00a0 Below is a discography, of sorts, of the recordings Bob Chester and his Orchestra made between 1939 and 1942.\u00a0 If you click on any of the images then you will be able to view a larger image of the listings.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is a fairly significant output for an orchestra that we barely know.\u00a0 For my money, this was a fantastic orchestra with some great recorded songs.\u00a0 Luckily some collectors of original 78rpm records have compiled and posted many of Bob Chester’s early recordings.\u00a0 You can see the list and listen to the recordings here:\u00a0 https:\/\/archive.org\/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Bob+Chester+and+his+Orchestra%22<\/a>.\u00a0 Choosing from the extensive selection is difficult so I’m going to offer up a few different recordings.\u00a0 Here’s their first recording, “Just For A Thrill”:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Just<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/archive.org\/download\/78_just-for-a-thrill_bob-chester-and-his-orchestra-kathleen-lane-lil-armstrong-don-ray_gbia0157082a\/_78_just-for-a-thrill_bob-chester-and-his-orchestra-kathleen-lane-lil-armstrong-don-ray_gbia0157082a_01_3.5_ET_EQ.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Next up is their only national hit, “With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair.”\u00a0 This time someone has posted the recording on Youtube:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n