Our Jazz Radio Show Info Page
The sordid history of our jazz music radio show, est. 1985. Lends credence to the theory that FCC radio deregulation survival may be linked to narcissistically twisted disorders.

History Of Jazz Part 1
Early hot jazz bands, the hotel dance bands and the history of jazz music leading up to the Big Band era.

History Of Jazz Part II
The role of economics, early recording technology, and radio relative to jazz history and the Big Band era.

The Recording Ban Of 1942
Scans of a 1942 Down Beat magazine article detailing a dramatic event in jazz history during the Big Band era; the James Petrillo / AFM recording ban.

Webb Cuts Basie At The Savoy
Another of the many jazz magazine articles on the site detailing big events in jazz history. This piece recounts the Count Basie vs. Chick Webb big band music Battle Of Swing held at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in January of 1938.

Ms. Tilton was born in Texas and lived for a short time in Kansas. When she was 7 her family relocated to Los Angeles where her father was a banker. She began singing for free on a small radio station in Los Angeles while attending Fairfax High School. An agent heard her, signed her and began booking her on larger radio stations.

Tilton dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to join Hal Grayson's band. She was part of a vocal group, Three Hits and a Miss, when she was asked to audition for the Goodman band. Mr. Goodman left the room during her second song, so she left too, disappointed that he was not impressed. She later learned that he had liked her, and was hired for $125 a week in 1937.

Dubbed “liltin” Martha Tilton during her tenure with Goodman, Ms. Tilton had girl next-door looks and a personality to match. Coupled with her straight forward and no frills vocals, Tilton was received warmly by both the media and the all-important public during the Swing era. She recorded a number of fine sides for Goodman and toured with him regularly from 1937 to 1939.

Although her most popular recording with Goodman was “And The Angels Sing” her first session with the bandleader produced a recording of “Bob White” (What ‘Cha Gonna Swing Tonight) that has a little more zip to it. However, her short vocal on a Goodman Quartet recording of “Bie Mir Bist Du Schoen” was her greatest Goodman jazz record. Although many jazz discographies do not list the session, the recording was waxed in December of 1937 in two parts, taking up 2 sides of a 78-RPM record. Trumpeter Ziggy Elman was added to the Quartet on side 2 along with Tilton’s vocal.

During Tilton's time as vocalist with Goodman, the band made history when it performed the first-ever swing concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. In so doing Martha Tilton became the first non-classical vocalist to perform at Carnegie, known mainly at the time as a classical music venue.

Tilton joined Artie Shaw’s big band in 1940 recording two less than memorable sides and then recorded with Bob Crosby’s Orchestra in 1941.

Tilton made guest appearances on numerous radio programs in the '40s and was vocalist for a time with the Billy Mills orchestra on "Fibber McGee and Molly." She also was the host of her own radio show for NBC, "Liltin' Martha Tilton Time," for a year.

During the World War II years, Tilton participated in two USO tours with Jack Benny — to the South Pacific in 1944 and the next year to Germany to entertain Allied troops right after the war ended in 1945.

She also had major success from 1942-49 as one of the first artists to record for Capitol Records. Among her biggest hits as a solo artist were "I'll Walk Alone," a wartime ballad which peaked at #4 on the charts in 1944; "I Should Care" and "A Stranger in Town," both of which peaked at #10 in 1945; and three in 1947: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," from Finian's Rainbow, which reached #8; "That's My Desire," which hit #10; and "I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder," which peaked at #9.

After she left Capitol, Tilton recorded for various other labels, including Coral and Tops. Among her later albums was We Sing the Old Songs (1957, Tops), a mix of older songs and recent standards with Curt Massey, who later became well-known for singing the theme song to the CBS-TV series Petticoat Junction.

Martha Tilton made her movie debut the same year she made her first recording with Goodman in 1937. The film was "Sing While You're Able" and she had memorable performances in other movies such as "Sunny" (1941), "Swing Hostess" (1944), "Crime, Inc." (1945) and "The Benny Goodman Story" (1955). Her singing voice was also used in many films dubbed over other actresses including Barbara Stanwyck, Martha O'Driscoll, and Anne Gwynne.

Tilton who later appeared in a daily half-hour TV show with the aforementioned Curt Massey that ran almost seven years in Los Angeles, continued to work through the mid-1960s.

In the mid-1980s, Tilton came out of retirement to be the featured vocalist on a Benny Goodman tribute band's tour of Australia.

Chuck Cecil, longtime host of the Los Angeles-area radio show "The Swingin' Years," told The LA Times in December of 2006, "To me, she was so unique because she didn't reinterpret the song that the composers gave her; she sang it straight, without her own styling or imprint on it…"

In his review of "The Liltin' Miss Tilton," a two-CD set from Capitol Records in 2000, critic Don Heckman wrote: "There are those who would say that Martha Tilton wasn't a jazz singer at all. But Swing era fans won't have any doubts, remembering her for a rocking version of 'Loch Lomond' at Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert."

Early in her career Miss Tilton was introduced by Benny Goodman as “a pretty gal from Hollywood that’s really going places.” She missed the cue. After a moment, Mr. Goodman ad-libbed, “She’s not going places, she’s already gone.”

Martha Tilton died December 8th 2006 in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Ray Charles Biography
Known as "The Genius" Ray Charles recorded a wide variety of music but got his start playing big band music and jazz. He passed away 6-10-04.

Barney Kessel Biography
The jazz guitar great died May 6th, 2004 and left behind a vast body of recorded jazz work.

Benny Carter Biography
Benny Carter was one of the greatest arrangers and jazz musicians the genre has ever known. This extensive biography spans the entire lengthy career of the jazz legend.

Billy May Biography
The trumpeter, bandleader, composer and arranger died Jan. 22, 2004. May wrote many Swing era classics for Glenn Miller and Charlie Barnet and later for Sinatra and Nat Cole.

Count Basie Biography
Our biography of Count Basie traces the career of "the kid from Red Bank" through Kansas City and into the later stages of his life as a bandleader.

Jay McShann Biography
Pianist Jay McShann led one of the top swing bands to come out of Kansas City during the Swing era. He gave Charlie Parker his start in the early 1940s and performed almost up to his death at 90 on 12-7-2006

Illinois Jacquet Biography
Tenor man Illinois Jacquet got his big start with Lionel Hampton during the Swing era. He went on to star at Jazz At The Philharmonic concerts and lead his own bands into the 1990s.