1946 Part One – Things To Come

It seems like an obvious thing to say that the Second World War was A Bad Time, at least it seems obvious to me. Half a decade of some of the most terrible, miserable events of all time – or more than half a decade, the last war-free mix was 1938 and even that included the ominous events of Munich – and even when things were going the right way for the last couple of years, there was the committing and uncovering of war crimes to deal with. It says something unfortunate about our society that this is the one period we focus on the most – put on a history documentary and there’s a 50/50 chance that it will concerned in some way with WWII. Foolishly, when I started on these mixes I thought it would attract a new audience, but people interested in tanks, military tactics and Hitler’s private life are by no means guaranteed to be also interested in social history and culture of the early 40s – in fact, beyond a couple of totemic songs, the sounds of the era seem to have disappeared from culture more than any time since the dawn of the jazz age. It didn’t help of course that the recording industry was blighted by long-running industrial disputes, lack of resources for recording and touring, with many musicians sent off to fight.

History has not finished by any means in 1946 – this is, of course, the start of The Cold War, the year of the “Iron Curtain” speech – but it has at least faded enough into the background for cultural life to resume. There is a sense here of people getting back on track after a derailment, though if you were dropping in here, you might not even have that sense, so little reference is made to recent events.

We aren’t picking up where we left things in the 30s, of course. The big bands have largely split, and those reforming are already largely nostalgia acts. Their singers have fame and record contracts of their own now, and no need to go on tour with a radio in every home. Tastes have also changed in innumerable ways; blues has become rhythm & blues, swing has become be bop, country has become western swing (all of these much more complicated than that of course – these genres are barely formed, these musicians in dialogue – often literally – with one-another.)

You may find this mix surprisingly relaxed, mellow, yet forward-looking, even futuristic, and more of a world tour than usual. This is deliberate – rather than arbitrarily dividing the year up, the lack of news allowed me to experiment with form a little. As it took shape, I realised that it was settling into a groove that I didn’t really want to disturb – it fitted the feeling of liberation, of finally being able to look to the future, and not dwell on Earthly realities, for the moment.

Part two, of course, has its own distinct feel -but we’ll leave that for next time.

Tracklist

Introduction

0:00:00 Miguelito Valdes With Noro Morales’ Orchestra – Rumba Rhapsody (Clip from BBC war reporters visit to the Netherlands) (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:02:56 BBC – Television Is Here Again 0:03:33 Dizzy Gillespie Big Band – Things to Come

January

(Clip from BBC – Television Is Here Again) 0:06:51 Henry Red Allen – Count Me Out (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 0:09:34 Amos Milburn – My Baby’s Booging 0:11:47 Charlie Parker Septet – A Night In Tunisia (Two Versions) 0:15:08 Lennie Tristano Trio – Interlude [aka A Night In Tunisia] (Clip from World News In Review) 0:18:19 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 1 (Clip from War Victims Find Haven In America) 0:21:16 Harry James – You’ll Never Know 0:24:20 Don Byas – Gloria (Philip Larkin – Going) 0:27:18 Coleman Hawkins And Orchestra – You Go To My Head (Alan Lomax – Calypso After Midnight Introduction) 0:31:13 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – Stone Cold Dead In The Market 0:33:50 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Bob Wills Boogie 0:36:52 Nat King Cole Trio – Route 66

February

(Clip from Truman Speaks To Pathe News) 0:39:48 Baron Mingus & His Octet – This Subdues My Passion (Clip from World News In Review) 0:42:41 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Laura (Clip from World News In Review) 0:45:50 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Happy-Go-Lucky Local 0:48:43 Duke Ellington – Bond Promo 4 0:49:52 Kenny Clarke and his 52nd Street Boys – Epistrophy (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:52:59 Manik Verma – Charkhi Vale O 0:55:49 Hermanos Huesca – La Bamba (Clip from BBC – Television Is Here Again) 0:59:00 Boyd Raeburn – Body And Soul 1:01:59 Chanteurs A La Croix De Cuivre – Batata Dia Bwanga 1:04:46 Sister Ernestine Washington – God’s Amazing Grace 1:07:32 Billie Holiday – Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

March

(Winston Churchill – Iron Curtain Speech) 1:09:40 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) –...