Fabulous Forties
Flashback to the Fabulous Forties with Joseph Rubin and His Orchestra and vocalist Jay Spencer! Hear your favorite 1940s hits “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” and “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” along with a Cavalcade of Bands tribute to 26 of the greatest big bands including Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Duke Ellington, and Artie Shaw.
For the first time in decades, the concert will feature the original arrangements of Freddy Martin and His Orchestra. Freddy Martin was renowned for his smooth tenor saxophone playing and his swinging arrangements of classics like Flight of the Bumblebee (Bumble Boogie), Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody and, of course his theme Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert in B-Flat re-titled “Tonight We Love.”
An Ohio native, Freddy Martin was raised in a Springfield orphanage and returned to his birthplace of Cleveland for high school. Guy Lombardo mentored Martin, setting him on the path to musical success. Martin had a 50-year career including a twenty-five year engagement at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. Among those who got their start with Martin’s band were Tommy Dorsey, Russ Morgan and vocalist Merv Griffin.
Don’t miss this musical excursion through the decade when swing was king!
CONCERT SONG LIST
Length: Two hours with a fifteen minute intermission (can be altered by request)
Armed Forces Medley
Bumble Boogie (1946) Rimsky-Korsakov Arranged by Jack Fina
Chattanooga Choo Choo (1941) Mack Gordon and Harry Warren
Cumana (1947) Hillman, Spina and Allen
Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me) Sam Stept, Lew Brown and Charles Tobias
Fiddle Faddle (1949) Leroy Anderson
Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor (1941) Edvard Grieg Arranged by Ray Austin
The Hut-Sut Song (1941) (A Swedish Serenade) Killion-McMichael-Owens
I’ll Be Seeing You (1938) Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal
I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts (1949) Fred Heatherton
Laura from the 20th Century-Fox picture Laura (1944) Johnny Mercer and David Raksin
Managua, Nicaragua (1947) Albert Gamse and Irving Fields
Night and Day(1932) from The Gay Divorce Cole Porter
Piano Concerto in B Flat (Tonight We Love) (1941) Tchaikovsky Arranged by Ray Austin
Scatter-Brain (1939) Burke, Keene, Bean, Masters
Second Hungarian Rhapsody (1944) Franz Liszt
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (1933) from Roberta Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach
Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 (Full Moon And Empty Arms) (1945) Arr. By Freddy Martin
Warsaw Concerto from the Republic film Suicide Squadron (1943) Richard Addinsell
Cavalcade of Bands – Featuring the themes of the Paul Whiteman, Vincent Lopez, Ted Lewis, Duke Ellington, Fred Waring, Guy Lombardo, Ben Bernie, Henry Busse, Wayne King, Eddie Duchin, Russ Morgan, Hal Kemp, Clyde McCoy, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Kay Kyser, Sammy Kaye, Harry James, Gene Krupa, Spike Jones, Carmen Cavallero, Stan Kenton, and Les Brown Orchestras
PAST PERFORMANCES
THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2022 7:30 PM
HOMETOWN HERITAGE CONCERT SERIES KENT, OHIO
FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2022 7:30 PM
PALACE THEATRE CANTON, OHIO
SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2022 2:00 PM
CLEVELAND HISTORY CENTER - WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY CLEVELAND, OHIO