Big Band Blows Into Rock Venue

It’s an experiment, said Phil Quinn, vice president and general manager of the San Diego Sports Arena: putting the Harry James Orchestra, which hasn’t had a hit since the late 1940s, into a venue that normally features the most contemporary pop stars.

The orchestra, directed by trumpeter Fred Radke since James died in 1983, will be appearing at the arena on Sunday, along with singers Connie Haines, Dick Castle, and Art Lund. The show is to be a musical salute to James and two other late bandleaders from the Swing Era, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman.

“I wasn’t around in those days, but I gather in the 1930s and ‘40s they played large venues, and with the Big Band resurgence going on, maybe it’s time for them to do so again,” said Quinn, adding that he expects as many as 4,000 people to attend what’s billed as the “Big Band Classic.”

“Even if we don’t make money on it, we’re going to do it again with some other survivors from the Big Band Era,” Quinn said. “A lot of people don’t know these groups are still out there, and once they come here and see, they’ll be back.’

Quinn’s sentiments are shared by theater, performing arts center and arena operators around the country--at least, the ones Joe Graydon has dealt with in the 11 years he’s been putting together touring Big Band packages.

“Big Band is still big box office,” Graydon said by phone from his home in Los Angeles. “There’s an enormous audience out there of people who are still around from the era of the Big Bands. They have a thorough dislike for rock, and this is the only type of show where they can relive the wonderful memories they had from when they were growing up.

“And they support it--boy, do they support it.”

Indeed. Since 1979, Graydon has been putting together an average of four Big Band road shows a year, lasting anywhere from 6 to 13 weeks each and featuring “just about everybody you can think of . . . who’s still around.”

The first tour starred Helen Forrest, Dick Haymes, the Pied Pipers and the Fabulous Forties Orchestra, which Graydon personally assembled for the occasion. The current tour began Jan. 3 at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena and will conclude March 10 at the Loveland Civic Community Theater in Denver.

Average attendance: 1,200 to 2,000, with some shows as high as 4,500--far more than your typical nightclub or Las Vegas casino lounge.

“We’ve been playing mostly theaters and performing arts centers, just like the big contemporary pop acts,” Graydon said.

Graydon, a native of Washington, D.C., is himself a former Big Band singer. He made his professional debut in 1946 on the national “Your Hit Parade” radio show; he subsequently moved to Los Angeles and spent the next three years touring and recording with the Gordon Jenkins and Victor Young orchestras.

His television variety show, “The Joe Graydon Show,” was on the air in Los Angeles for five years and in San Diego for one.

“But when rock ‘n’ roll came and a lot of people were saying it’s a passing fancy, I said, ‘No, it’s a tidal wave, and it’s time for me to turn in my uniform,’ ” he said. “So I did.”

For the next two decades, Graydon made a career out of managing many of the performers with whom he had once sung.

“Helen Forrest, the Pied Pipers, you name them, at one time or another, I probably managed them,” he said. “And, when I saw that most of my clients were doing a nighter here, a nighter there, instead of a tour, I decided to give this end of the business a try.”

Two of the three singers accompanying the Harry James Orchestra on the current Big Band Classic tour are themselves survivors of the Swing Era. (The third singer, Dick Castle, became lead vocalist with the Pied Pipers long after the group’s association with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra).

Art Lund, 73, was one of the more successful male vocalists with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. He recorded two of Goodman’s biggest hits, “Blue Skies” and “My Blue Heaven,” before topping the charts in 1947 on his own with “Mam’selle.”

Connie Haines, 66, was discovered by Harry James in 1938, about the time the bandleader discovered the crooner of the century, Frank Sinatra.

“I was doing a rehearsal for the William Morris Agency up in New York,” Haines recalled, “and Harry happened to walk in. A few minutes later, he asked my mother whether I could join his band-that night.

“Of course, we both said yes, and then in the taxi, on the way over, he changed my name (from Yvonne Marie Jamais). He said, ‘That name of yours is too long for the marquee--there ain’t gonna be no room for me.’ He paused a few moments, looked at me, and then said, ‘You look like a Connie.’ ”

“You know, he tried to change Frank Sinatra’s name, too. But Frank wouldn’t let him: he told Harry, ‘You want the voice, you keep the name.’ ”

Both Haines’ and Sinatra’s stints with the Harry James Orchestra were brief. In 1939, the fledgling orchestra--James had previously played trumpet with Benny Goodman--temporarily disbanded because of financial problems, and the two young singers went over to the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

It was with Dorsey that the Haines-Sinatra vocal duo scored a handful of classic Swing Era hits, including 1941’s “Oh, Look at Me Now.” By 1943, both Haines and Sinatra had left the Dorsey band to pursue solo careers. Haines has been touring and recording ever since.

“I’ve always considered myself a current artist,” Haines said. “I do Big Band arrangements of songs like ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ by the Beatles, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ by James Taylor, and Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline.’

“The arrangement--that’s the key to the Big Band sound. You’ve got five saxes, six trumpets and trombones, and four rhythm instruments like bass, piano, and drums, and then each section plays together, and without much amplification.

“That’s the problem I have with so much of this rock and roll. It’s not the songs, it’s the volume at which they’re played. There’s no reason to play that loud; some of these bands have four mikes for everything, even the drums, and you end up not being able to hear a thing because it’s all so over-amplified.

“With big bands, there’s generally just one mike per section. And the result is a pure, undistorted sound--if five saxes and six trombones are playing, you can hear each one.”

There will be no pop songs Sunday, though. Haines said she will stick to the oldies during the 3 p.m. show at the San Diego Sports Arena.

“This old stuff sure brings back some memories,” she said. “And, at the same time, it’s great that people still want to hear these songs--not just people who grew up with this kind of music, but young kids.

“Everywhere you look, there are classes in ballroom dancing. And the best thing about it is seeing these kids learn the jitterbug and the boogie-woogie to our songs.”