List of Contemporary Bands that Play Music of the Golden Era!

[John in Covina]

I thought that it might be nice to put together a list of bands that we have today that are playing the music just like they did way back when.

If you list a band please give a little info about them, maybe what type of music, do they have any CD's, where they are likely to play and your comments about them.

One of the things I like about these modern bands is the modern recordings will give you a closer to hearing them live type of experience.

 

[John in Covina]

Dean Mora. Dean has a variety of bands and orchestras that they put together to play. The size of the band will vary as to the music they play. Dean is a music historian and when they play live loves to give some background information about the song the writer and recordings of the song. He enjoys including a lot of Los Angeles based music history.

Dean will play in the Southern California area numerous times thru the year. They often play at the Cicada Club and yearly at the Ticket to the Twenties summer event in La Puente.

He has a number of CD's out, they have them where ever they play and i think if you find their website you can get them there. Great band, good recordings, lots of history too.

Here is a link to the website: http://www.morasmodern.com/

 

[LizzieMaine]

Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks. I've never heard them in person, but they're among the few acts today that I'd pay actual cash money to hear.

 

[Yeps]

The Tom Cunningham band plays some really great dance music, instrumental and vocal.

 

[John in Covina]

Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks. I've never heard them in person, but they're among the few acts today that I'd pay actual cash money to hear.

From what I have heard Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks play in NYC a lot.

They are featured on the soundtrack CD of the movie "The Aviator" with 4 songs, as I believe they back up Rufus Wainwright on that CD for the Version of 'I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise' on there. (I like that CD.)

When I have looked, it seems that most of their CD's are out of print and the used ones are priced really high.

I do have one CD titled "Bill Challis' The Goldkette Project" and while I am no expert, I think this CD was really a stunning piece of work.

You can see some videos of them on You-Tube.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There's the Crazy Rhythm Society Orchestra. They're based in Cypress, CA (Orange County). Here they are accompanying Cheryl Chase.

[video=youtube;Ss1RB3pCLOA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1RB3pCLOA&feature=related[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I still think the finest contemporary band playing the music of the Golden Era is Ondrej Havelka and his Melody Makers from the Czech Republic.

[video=youtube;o8C71x1tfQ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8C71x1tfQ0&feature=related[/video]

 

[John in Covina]

Ondrej Havelka and the Melody Makers are awesome. They have a website with CD's and DVD stuff but the DVD are in the Euro regional encoding so most US DVD players don't play them.

There are a number of you-tube videos of live performances and some videos in B&W that are like movies or if MTV type music videos existed in the 1930's/

I think that there is a relationship to the Prague Syncopated Orchestra which you can also see on you-tube.

 

[lolly_loisides]

From what I have heard Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks play in NYC a lot.

They are featured on the soundtrack CD of the movie "The Aviator" with 4 songs, as I believe they back up Rufus Wainwright on that CD for the Version of 'I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise' on there. (I like that CD.)

When I have looked, it seems that most of their CD's are out of print and the used ones are priced really high.

The soundtrack to Ghostworld features quite a few Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks performances.

 

[Tiller]

The Glenn Miller Orchestra is still very much around, even though Miller has been gone since the second World War.

BTW do you ladies and gentlemen consider today's Crooner's members of this list? Or are we only dealing with proper bands?

 

[John in Covina]

There are a number of singers that are doing the old songs but most are doing it a more modern style. You hear more of a Las Vegas than golden era styling.

 

[Old Rogue]

This isn't exactly Golden-era music, but I've always loved the period clothes and cars of this Alan Parsons Project video. There's even a fedora-wearing hero!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALC7kt6iUHY&feature=player_detailpage

 

[dhermann1]

A couple great east coast bands: Drew Nugent and the Midnight Society, out of Philadelphia, and Grandpa Musselman and his Syncopaters, here in NYC.
Of course there's George Gee, whose band had been great for over 20 years now, and Michael Arenella's band has been playing 20's music for some time as well.
A fellow named Tom Abbott, who plays with Arenella, and a few others around town, has his own group, called the Big Bang Big Band, that I've been wanting to catch for some time now.

 

[Kahuna]

Here's a few from opposite ends of the country. From New York, the Cangelosi Cards and from Los Angeles, Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys and the Reynolds Brothers.

 

[Fletch]

It helps to be from NY or LA, but there are quite a few quality revival groups elsewhere. Just counting the full-dress orchestrated units I can think of:

Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orch., out of the Bay Area.
The Broadway Broadcasters, from Victoria, BC, Canada.
Doc Scantlin's Imperial Palms Orch., from Washington, DC. ("Imperial"??)
The Wolverines, from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Michael Lande's Rhythm Club Orch., from Kansas City.
Josh Duffee's Orch., a Jean Goldkette-dedicated group out of Moline, Ill.
The Ballyhoo Foxtrot Orch., of Des Moines, with whom I play.

Notice the names. You need a colorful descriptor to convey your identity, especially for the 20s & 30s, which don't come easily to people's minds today.

My group was just Fletcher DeShays* & His Orchestra, which was typical for 1931 but didn't tell people much in 1999. I added "and his Rhythm DeLuxe," which was a mouthful, but gave the flavor of the era (of course not necessary in the era).

*Not my real name. The band, however, did use my real name.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Ondrej Havelka and the Melody Makers are awesome. They have a website with CD's and DVD stuff but the DVD are in the Euro regional encoding so most US DVD players don't play them.

There are a number of you-tube videos of live performances and some videos in B&W that are like movies or if MTV type music videos existed in the 1930's/

I think that there is a relationship to the Prague Syncopated Orchestra which you can also see on you-tube.

Ondrej Havelka started with the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra until 1994 when he left and formed the present day Melody Makers. Sadly OPSO -- now a small combo-- is a mere shadow of their former selves

 

[Feraud]

Out of Australia and doing some fine American roots music is C.W. Stoneking.

 

[John in Covina]

The Tom Cunningham band plays some really great dance music, instrumental and vocal.

Is this the band?
http://tomcunningham.com/

 

[John in Covina]

One band that I like a lot that plays that old style music is "The Beau Hunks" out of Holland. The info I have is that unfortunately, as a band they have moved apart some time ago so live concerts would need a reunion. The name comes from a Laurel & Hardy film. They have an interesting legacy of music on CD that covers a number of composers and styles. I first became aware of them when a friend told me they heard a CD played on late night radio program from I think a local college station. The CD was of music used as background and mood setting in the Hal Roach comedies. If you have watched the Hal Roach sound era shorts of the Little Rascals / Our Gang and those of Laurel & Hardy you'll probably recognize a lot of what they cover. They spent a lot of time transcribing the music by pooling the music from the above as well as other series such as the Boyfriends. They concentrated on the music of Leroy Shields. They went on to do more Little Rascals music, covered Raymond Scott and on to other projects. On the Planet Mars CD their cover of Powerhouse is like an epiphany and many Scott compositions are recognized as regularly used by Carl Stalling for the Warner Brothers Cartoons.

Their Saxophone CD's are great capturing a sound that is stunning. I have several of them. They also experimented with the use of period and recreations of period microphones along with microphone placement to shape the sound of the CD's. Here in the US some CD's were published by KOCH Music but later they were on Basta Music.

Their Al Galladoro CD is really nice.


Wiki article link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beau_Hunks

Some of the members have gone on to do their own period sound CD's for Basta.

Link to Bast Music: http://www.bastamusic.com/ check out their catalog area.

 

[Fletch]

If the Hunks have broken up (even if only into smaller Hunks), that's too bad. I love their work. My favorites are Fingerbustin', the sax CD featuring Ronald Heitmaijer, and Kodachrome, the Ray Scott orchestral set.

Other groups that come to mind on the other side:

Michael Law's Piccadilly Dance Orch., from London
Kustbandet, from Stockholm
Mart Sander's Swing Swindlers, from Tallinn, Estonia (yes! and why not, considering they were only a country from 1918-1940?)

More later, I suppose.