Rare Footage of Dorsey Bros Band Live

ttf_Bellend · Post by **ttf_Bellend** » Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:29 am

Hi ,

I hope this link works as I've never seen this one and the band and Tommy are in great form, looks like it might be a new years eve gig???

https://www.facebook.com/TommyJimmyDorseyBandAlumni/videos

Enjoy

BellEnd

ttf_Geezerhorn · Post by **ttf_Geezerhorn** » Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:45 am

Quote from: Bellend on Jan 04, 2017, 09:29AMHi ,

I hope this link works as I've never seen this one and the band and Tommy are in great form, looks like it might be a new years eve gig???

https://www.facebook.com/TommyJimmyDorseyBandAlumni/videos

Enjoy

BellEnd

Oh, it works - and WOW!

...Geezer

ttf_BGuttman · Post by **ttf_BGuttman** » Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:46 am

Looks like it's from the reunification band of the 1950s. Notice the 4th trombone playing an F-attachment.

Tommy and Jimmy are in great form.

Thanks for this.

ttf_sabutin · Post by **ttf_sabutin** » Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:04 pm

Wonderful!!!

Tommy playing live. With power!!! Most of the live stuff available, he's holding back. Not this time!!! To hell with perfection!!!

Good to hear. He is so...god-ified...70+ years after he was at work. There's the down and dirty PA Irish drinker/fighter in all of his swinging glory.

What energy!!!

S.

P.S. My guess is that the trombonist immediately to TD's right is my friend, the late, great Sonny Russo. I never saw him that young, but that's probably him.

As Sonny used to say after every performance: "How ABOUT them trombones!!!"

When Sonny first joined the band as a teenager, he made the mistake of picking up Tommy's trombone at a rehearsal and playing it when TD was out of the room. According to Sonny, when TD came back he picked up the trombone and somehow knew that someone had played it. He flipped out, demanding to know who it was and when Sonny confessed, TD went after him, chased him down a couple of flights of stairs and finally lost him in the street. The next day Sonny came back and I guess everything had been smoothed out by then.

TD had...personality!!!

ttf_Bellend · Post by **ttf_Bellend** » Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:05 pm

Glad the link works and you enjoyed it.

Couldn't agree more with Sam, so great to see and hear T.D. like this in 'the raw'

BellEnd

ttf_Bellend · Post by **ttf_Bellend** » Thu Jan 05, 2017 2:20 pm

Just came across this on Facebook from the people who originally posted the clip

We had an AMAZING response to our posting of the 10 minute video 'klip' of The Dorsey Brothers fabulous New Years Eve 1953 big band performance on a special edition of The Honeymooners! I am searching for the entire show that the video was taken from, and will post it as soon as it is located!
Meanwhile 43, 000 hits of the 10 minute video have been documented....this has led us to the belief that people would love it if there were an active movement to bring the big bands, which there are now thousands of, back in to prominence!
We are trying to do that! In October 2017 we plan on hosting
"Big Band Bash" here in Las Vegas....for any of you wishing to participate, and/or receive more news, please drop us an e-mail at [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]
We would love to hear from you!

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Thu Jan 05, 2017 6:04 pm

Fantastic! Thanks for that. Looks like Lee Castaldo (Castle) in the trumpet section on the far left. Great band.

ttf_Stretch Longarm · Post by **ttf_Stretch Longarm** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:14 pm

I saw jackie Gleason in the audience...

ttf_Exzaclee · Post by **ttf_Exzaclee** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:53 pm

Isn't that the clip from the honeymooners NYE celebration that Dease posted on FB?

TD is absolutely killing it, and the band must be a tiny bit sauced because they are swinging their asses off.

TDs sound at volume - whoa. I like stuff like this because you can hear a little closer to what guys actually sounded like (through comparison to the rest of the band anyway.)

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Tue Jan 10, 2017 6:41 pm

Cool clip.

According to FB comments this was recorded on 12-26-53 for a New Year's edition of "The Jackie Gleason Show". ("The Honeymooners" was still just a sketch on his variety show then rather than a show of its own.)

ttf_Exzaclee · Post by **ttf_Exzaclee** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 6:51 am

Quote from: robcat2075 on Jan 10, 2017, 06:41PMCool clip.

According to FB comments this was recorded on 12-26-53 for a New Year's edition of "The Jackie Gleason Show". ("The Honeymooners" was still just a sketch on his variety show then rather than a show of its own.)

thanks... I'm too young to make a distinction between the two

ttf_bonenick · Post by **ttf_bonenick** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:09 am

Quote from: sabutin on Jan 04, 2017, 12:04PMWonderful!!!

Tommy playing live. With power!!! ====.

What energy!!!
I am not a Tommy's expert, but I have to agree +1. Wonderful sound, so focused.

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:42 am

Artie Shaw on Tommy Dorsey...

ttf_sabutin · Post by **ttf_sabutin** » Thu Jan 12, 2017 2:24 pm

Quote from: robcat2075 on Jan 12, 2017, 10:42AMArtie Shaw on Tommy Dorsey...

What!!!???

Artie Shaw wasn't in show business?

Please!!!

S.

ttf_Burgerbob · Post by **ttf_Burgerbob** » Thu Jan 12, 2017 4:03 pm

Trumpet section! Whoa!

ttf_Posaunus · Post by **ttf_Posaunus** » Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:24 pm

Quote from: Bellend on Jan 04, 2017, 09:29AMHi ,
I hope this link works as I've never seen this one and the band and Tommy are in great form, looks like it might be a new years eve gig???
https://www.facebook.com/TommyJimmyDorseyBandAlumni/videos
Enjoy
BellEnd

Unfortunately, my computer won't allow me to view this:
"Error code: SSL_ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED_ALERT"

ttf_Bellend · Post by **ttf_Bellend** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:00 am

Trying going on to Facebook and putting this in the search box "Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey Band Alumni"

The video is hosted on this page.

Good Luck

BellEnd

ttf_Chris Fidler · Post by **ttf_Chris Fidler** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:48 am

I enjoyed this video muchly........ Thanks Andy

ttf_Posaunus · Post by **ttf_Posaunus** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 12:08 pm

Ah - finally got it to play.

Great video - and wonderful playing by Tommy, Jimmy, and the entire band. It would have been a treat to hear them live. I didn't quite realize how fine a player Tommy was, even though I grew up trying to "play like Dorsey!"

Happy New Year!

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:04 pm

I am sure that Johnny Frosk is one of the trumpet players. Johnny was a New York studio stalwart in the 50's 60's and 70's, originally from Winnipeg Canada. Dorsey was always threatening to have Johnny deported back to Canada during one of their many arguments. He lasted with Dorsey for quite a long time.

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:28 pm

Love this clip - the trumpet player 2 in from Tommy is Daryl "Flea" Campbell. I believe he is playing lead on this cut of Marie. Not sure about Puddlewump, but it sure looks like it! Sweetheart of a man who could cut you right in two with his wit.

Flea rejoined the Dorsey band much later in life, under Buddy Morrow's direction.

ttf_sabutin · Post by **ttf_sabutin** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:46 am

Quote from: Lush slide on Jan 22, 2017, 09:04PMI am sure that Johnny Frosk is one of the trumpet players. Johnny was a New York studio stalwart in the 50's 60's and 70's, originally from Winnipeg Canada. Dorsey was always threatening to have Johnny deported back to Canada during one of their many arguments. He lasted with Dorsey for quite a long time.

Which one do you think is Frosk? Like Sonny, I never saw him when he was young. I used to play with him as often as possible. It was like taking a vibrato lesson. A wonderful player!!!

S.

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:08 pm

Just a guess. The short trumpet player, 3rd in from Tommy. I met Johnny Frosk years later briefly, in Winnipeg at a musicians union event. I

knew he was on Tommy's band around the time of this clip and he was on the band for quite some time.

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:32 pm

I think that the big trombone player in the middle of the bone section is Tak Takvorian, who was with Tommy for several years around this time frame.

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 11:31 am

I think that short trumpeter may be Pauly Cohen who played with Dorsey around this time. He went on to Basie and studio work. Sam would know for sure. But the way he holds the horn and even flips his arrangement between tunes looks like vintage Pauly.

Greg

ttf_chipolah · Post by **ttf_chipolah** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 12:53 pm

Yes... Flea Campbell, Johnny Frosk, Lee Castle and Pauly Cohen in the Trumpet section. (I'm fairly sure) Tak Takvorian on Trombone. I don't recognize anyone else from the video. The band was really swinging. Later, when Sam Donahue had the band in the early 1960's, he was a perfectionist like Tommy and he had the band at that standard!!! His Trumpet section was Ray Davis, John Bennett, Dick Sherman and Bob McCoy. Trombones were Larry O'Brien, Jack Rice and Chip Hoehler. (Sam Donahue played valve trombone sometimes with the T-bone solis, sometimes 5th trumpet and... Tenor falsetto lead with the saxes.)

ttf_chipolah · Post by **ttf_chipolah** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 12:53 pm

Yes... Flea Campbell, Johnny Frosk, Lee Castle and Pauly Cohen in the Trumpet section. (I'm fairly sure) Tak Takvorian on Trombone. I don't recognize anyone else from the video. The band was really swinging. Later, when Sam Donahue had the band in the early 1960's, he was a perfectionist like Tommy and he had the band at that standard!!! His Trumpet section was Ray Davis, John Bennett, Dick Sherman and Bob McCoy. Trombones were Larry O'Brien, Jack Rice and Chip Hoehler. (Sam Donahue played valve trombone sometimes with the T-bone solis, sometimes 5th trumpet and... Tenor falsetto lead with the saxes.)