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THE BIG BAND ERA

 From Worldometer:

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093    4732        1185       246          82
July    22     1205    7128        1293      1120         572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835         130
Sept     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82
Oct      8        957    6420         730       967        160
          12       316     3757           203       710          83
          13       843     5006           354      723       165
          14       970     6075           716       694       123
          19       442     4392           321       594         21
          20       952     6169           662       714       164
          21     1225     6849            571       703         85
          22       973     6470           503       683       102
          23       903     6526          566       656        48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039      7023          530       519         45
          28     1030      7116          487       509         58
          29     1047      7172          565       568         53
          30      988      7513          529       550         66
Nov     4      1199       8192          276       511         74
            5      1201      9067          622       704         46

Summary:   
  • The World experienced it's worst one-day deaths ever.
  • The USA suffered 108,389 new cases of COVID-19, the highest ever.
  • Here is the world death map, the darker the worse in terms of 14-day COVID-19 cases per 100,000 as of 4 November 2020:

We still don't know who will be the next president of the USA.  However, most knowledgeable people feel that Joe Biden will be the one to get to 270 electoral votes, and higher.  Interestingly enough, it was the Fox News Channel that early on gave Arizona to Biden, as reflected at this moment in the tally to the left.
  • Nevada, with 6 electoral votes:  Biden is the current favorite because most of the remaining ballots are absentee and in Clark County, but the final tally will not be available until tomorrow.  Note, this addition would give Biden 270, if Arizona goes to Biden.
  • Arizona (11):  will be close, but Biden should prevail.  The announcement will be made today.
  • Georgia (16):  will be very close.  We should know today.  This is where those Senate seats are in contention.
  • North Carolina (15 ):  Trump should win.
  • Pennsylvania (20):  chances are that when all the votes are finally tallied, Biden should be slightly ahead of Trump.  With around 10% of the votes to go, most of them will be mail-in from the Philadelphia area.  However, the final figures might come next week.
If Biden wins Nevada and Arizona, he will reach 270 electoral votes.

The House will remain in Democratic control, but with a lower majority.  Nancy Pelosi will remain as Speaker of the House.

The U.S. Senate composition should end up at 50 or 51 Republicans and 48 Democrats, with one Georgia senatorial race going to a run-off, Raphael Warnock (D) vs Kelly Loeffler (R), and the second a possibility.  At this point David Perdue (R) has just around 50%, John Ossoff (D) 47.7% and Shane Hazel (L) 2.3%.  With two percent of the votes still to be counted, there is a chance that Perdue could fall just below 50%, meaning that he and Ossoff will become the second run-off pair.  This election date is 5 January 2021.  

Thus, if Biden becomes the next president, Vice President Kamala Harris will be the tie-breaking vote in the Senate if both Warnock and Ossoff win.  Governor Gavin Newsome will appoint a Democrat to Harris' senate seat, and the favorite right now is Karen Bass.  On the follow-up election for this position, she should prevail over any Republican.

Just as I'm going to press, I thought I heard that Mike Esper, secretary of Defense, resigned.  If this is not true, I'll return to delete this section.  But if true, who will be next?  

Again checked, and Ester remains in position, but his presence is iffy.

The Big Band Era produced the following finalists for my favorite song #55:
Before 1910 social dance in American was dominated by the waltz and polka.  But jazz began to grow, leading to the jitterbug, Lindy Hop and foxtrot.  Of all the people, Ferde Grofe (Grand Canyon Suite) was an arranger for some of these early orchestras, including for Paul Whiteman in 1919.  The music was some combination of symphonic/New Orleans jazz, Tin Pan Alley ragtime and vaudeville.  

Duke Ellington became prominent in the Harlem Cotton Club a century ago.  By the 30's swing music arrived, and from the middle of that period big bands rose.  Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, Dick Haymes and Helen Forest with Harry James and Artie Shaw, Doris Day with Les Brown and Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman.  They toured the country in one-night stands, and segregation was a problem.

World War II enhanced their prominence, with some of the leaders like Glenn Miller losing his life in service.  There was a musician's strike from 1942 to 1944, but soon thereafter into the late 40's big bands dominated.  Ranker rates Count Basie as #1 of this period and Duke Ellington at #4.  
I featured Tommy Dorsey yesterday, and will focus on Glenn Miller tomorrow.  Harry James just missed the cut.  He married Betty Grable and gave Frank Sinatra his first job.  

So for today, I start with Benny Goodman, a clarinetist, known as the King of Swing.  His concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938 has been hailed as the single most important jazz concert in history.  Courageously, he led an integrated group.

He was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from Russia.  At 14 he joined the Bix Beiderbecke orchestra and made a recording with the Ben Pollack in 1926.  In New York two years later, he played alongside Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.  His first group included Miller, and they co-composed tunes.  

His Moonglow became #1. From 1937 through World War II his orchestra was part of many of the entertainment films like The Big Broadcast of 1937 and Stage Door Canteen in 1943.  Later in life from the late 40's he turned classical and in the 70's collaborated with George Benson.  He passed away in 1986 at the age of 76.  He too lost his music in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.  The 1956 Benny Goodman Story stars Steve Allen and Donna Reed.  In the movie was Sammy Davis, father of Sammy Davis, Jr.

Ray Anthony played for the Glenn Miller band from 1940-41, and you can see Ray in the 1941 Sun Valley Serenade, after which he joined the Navy during WWII.  This is the entire movie.  Rotten Tomatoes audiences gave it an 84% rating.  That's pretty good for those days.  I bring this up with so much detail because the final paragraph for him later says he is still alive.  1941 was 79 years ago.

Returning from the war, he formed his own group and in the early 1950's became more popular for The Bunny Hop, Hokey Pokey and the them for Dragnet.  He featured Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly.  In 1955 he married Mamie Van Doren, and played himself in Daddy Longlegs, with Fred Astaire and Lesly Caron.  In this period he was Jimmy Dorsey in the film The Five Pennies.  In the 1980's he was still active with his Big Band '80's, and his group included, Buddy Rich, Harry James, Les Brown and Alvino Rey.  He was a close friend of Hugh Hefner.  Do you think maybe Ray Anthony lived a good life?

Apparently, at the age of 98 he is still alive.  Here he is playing his trumpet at 95.  In August of this year he put his home up for sale in Sherman Oaks near Los Angeles.  He bought it in 1952 for $40,000.  He is asking for $5.475 million.

Artie Shaw experimented and innovated, but his hiring of Billie Holiday as the first black female singer soured him with the public.  Like Benny Goodman, they were Jewish and had broader views on race.  He disbanded his band and went to war.  After he returned, he went into writing books.  He still kept forming bands now and then, and spent a long period just living in Europe.

He was a difficult man, and was married eight times, dallying with Betty Grable, Judy Garland and Lena Horne.  Among his wives were Lana Turner (1940), Ava Gardner (1945-6) and Evelyn Keyes (1957-85).

Artie Shaw had big hits in 1938 with Begin the Beguine (and if you didn't know, beguine is a West Indian dance close to a foxtrot), Stardust and Frenesi.  Here are some other versions:
Stardust was composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish.  There are 1500 recordings.  With such universality, how can I not pick Stardust as #55?

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