Singing cowboy star Eddie Dean rode high, wide, and handsome on the movie screens in the 1940s. The Texas-born wrangler galloped through 55 films, starring in 20 of them and was voted one of the most popular Western stars of his time. He was the first to have his own series of Western movies filmed in color. The singing cowpuncher with the rich baritone voice was known as "The Golden Cowboy" and enjoyed a recording, stage, and club popularity long after his movie career ended. Dean also helped to compose a pair of hit songs that have since become staples in the Country-Western music world. His talents and gifted abilities were many, some claiming it was due to the fact that he was born a seventh son, of a seventh son, of a seventh son. Eddie Dean's long-awaited life story has now been told, detailing his struggles to "pay his dues" in the business to coming out on top as one of the most beloved and illustrious Western stars in America. Stephen Fratallone is an award-winner writer, author and former publisher of Jazz Connection, an on-line magazine about jazz and Big Band music. He has co-authored three published books on Big Band Era musicians: Hey! The Band's Too Loud by Del Courtney, Band Singer by Garry Stevens, and From Harlem to Hollywood by Van Alexander.
The music of the Big Bands helped to define an era in music. From the mid-1930s throughout the 1940s swing was the thing. The music helped to create a diversion from the painful realities of the Great Depression and a world at war. It was compelling music with catchy arrangements to dance and dream to at ballrooms all across America. The music was both sweet and hot. Each band had a distinct sound and personality that was immediately recognizable. It was their calling card. Whenever the music was played on records in jukeboxes or were broadcast live on radio from far distant ballrooms, listeners could immediately identify what band was playing. Young people followed bands so closely they knew so well the personnel of their favorite bands in much the same way as baseball fans knew the starting line-up and batting averages of players on their favorite team. Each orchestra's sound and personality was certainly brought about by the instrumentalists and singers and by the arrangers who wrote the scores, but at the heart of each of the bands was its bandleader. Author Stephen Fratallone provides readers with glimpses into the heart and soul of some of the most popular bandleaders from the Big Band Era in his latest book for BearManor Media, Connections in Swing, Volume One: The Bandleaders. As an outcome of his love for the music of the Big Bands, he developed relationships with bandleaders throughout his writing career, and shared the lives of these great musicians in this book. In this compilation of the bandleaders interviewed for Jazz Connection Magazine, Fratallone gives readers an enjoyable and informative look - a "connection in swing" - into the lives of some of the musical greats that helped create and develop one of the greatest genres in American music.
The music of the Big Bands helped to define an era in music. From the mid-1930s throughout the 1940s swing was the thing. The music helped to create a diversion from the painful realities of the Great Depression and a world at war. It was compelling music with catchy arrangements to dance and dream to at ballrooms all across America. The music was both sweet and hot. Each band had a distinct sound and personality that was immediately recognizable. It was their calling card. Whenever the music was played on records in jukeboxes or were broadcast live on radio from far distant ballrooms, listeners could immediately identify what band was playing. Young people followed bands so closely they knew so well the personnel of their favorite bands in much the same way as baseball fans knew the starting line-up and batting averages of players on their favorite team. Each orchestra's sound and personality was certainly brought about by the instrumentalists and singers and by the arrangers who wrote the scores, but at the heart of each of the bands was its bandleader. Author Stephen Fratallone provides readers with glimpses into the heart and soul of some of the most popular bandleaders from the Big Band Era in his latest book for BearManor Media, Connections in Swing, Volume One: The Bandleaders. As an outcome of his love for the music of the Big Bands, he developed relationships with bandleaders throughout his writing career, and shared the lives of these great musicians in this book. In this compilation of the bandleaders interviewed for Jazz Connection Magazine, Fratallone gives readers an enjoyable and informative look - a "connection in swing" - into the lives of some of the musical greats that helped create and develop one of the greatest genres in American music.
This is the story of Garry STevens. As a band singer, Stevens recorded a number of chart-topping tunes. As a pioneer performerin the early days of television, Stevens became a popular fisture in the Albany-Schenectady, New York area for nine years. Whether he was performing on the bandstand during the heyday of the Big Band Era or in front of a camera during television's Golden Age, Stevens was there in the trenches making it happen.
What a great story - a must for all music afficionados - this is legendary stuff. What a gift." - Mark Snow (prolific screen and TV composer of The X-files, The Rookies, Hart to Hart) "Van Alexander knows more about the Big Band era than any man alive - and he's written it all in his autobiography." - James Bacon, veteran Hollywood columnist "What a delight it is to have the recollections of one who was there, and was central to the development of the Swing Era, and so much of what followed..." - Garry Giddens - author, columnist, artistic director of the American jazz orchestra "Van Alexander vividly recalls and recaps all the great stories depicting his extrordinary career that began for him in Harlem at the legendary Savoy Ballroom. His anecdotes and association with many musical giants in Hollwood from Les Brown and Billy May, to Stan Getz and "Sweets" Edison. Meet them all in this wonderful book." - Richard Grudens - author of Stardust, The Bible of the Big Bands, and well known jazz musicologist. Van's life story is truly a bit of musical history, and it resurrected many fond memories for me. He was there at the beginning of the Swing Era, and recalls many great stories covering his early days at the Savoy Ballroom with Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald, up to and including his TV and picture credits and his collaboration with Michael Feinstein. I found his book 'unputdownable.'" - Quincy Jones
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