Les Brown had a musical career as a big-band leader for 70 years. He started playing the saxophone at age 7 and was playing in a dance band with his trombone-playing father at age 10. In 1926, he enrolled in the Conway Military Band School and received a band scholarship to the New York Military Academy before enrolling in Duke University in 1932. While at Duke, he lead the school’s dance band called the Blue Devils. After graduating from Duke in 1936, he took the band on a national tour. By 1938, most of those band members became the core of Les Brown’s band of reknown, as it came to be called. Today’s edition features the Les Brown theme song.
Mozart Time March
Composer: Hiroki Takahashi (1979- )
Performer: Yamaha Symphonic Band
Album: Welcome to Hiroki's WorldLeap Frog (1945 recording)
Composer: Leo Corday (1902-1985) & Joe Garland (1903-1977)
Performer: Les Brown & His Orchestra
Album: Swing Time, Vol. 3Caldonia
Composer: Louis "Fleecie Moore" Jordan
Performer: Woody Herman & His Orchestra
Album: Swing Time, Vol. 3Symphonic Dance, Op. 45, No. 3
Composer: Sergei Rachmanioff (1873-1943)
Performer: U.S. Army Band
Album: Dances Around the WorldIf You Knew Susie
Composer: Buddy DeSylva (1895-1950) & Joseph Meyer (1894-1987)
Performer: Enoch Light & Light Brigade
Album: Big Hits of the 20sSometimes I'm Happy
Composer: Vincent Youmans (music, 1898-1946) & Irving Caesar (lyrics, 1895-1996)
Performer: Enoch Light & Light Brigade
Album: Big Hits of the 20sFields Overture
Composer: Hiroki Takahashi (1979- )
Performer: Osaka Philharmonic Winds
Album: Welcome to Hiroki's WorldEmperor Waltz
Composer: Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899)
Performer: U.S. Army Band
Album: Dances Around the WorldMarch Slav
Composer: Peter I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Performer: U.S. Coast Guard Band
Album: Russian Connection- God of Justice (Serbian national anthem)
Composer: Davorin Jenko (1835-1914)
Performer: Band of the Republican Guard
Album: European National Anthems
