Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 27, 2024: Take the ‘A’ Train: A Tribute to Duke Ellington

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/64083.html

Theme: Take the ‘A’ Train: A Tribute to Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

Duke Ellington, who died in 1974 at age 75, was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in 1899 in Washington, DC. He was a pianist, bandleader and composer, and arguably, the greatest and most influential figure in the history of jazz.

Jackie Washington- Take the ‘A’ Train

Keeping Out of Mischief (Pyramid)

Duke Ellington- East St. Louis Toodle-oo

Ellington in Order, Volume 1 (1927-28) (Legacy)

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy- Diga Diga Do

Rattle Them Bones (Savoy Jazz)

Ken Whiteley, Jackie Washington & Mose Scarlett- Mood Indigo

Sitting on a Rainbow (Borealis)

Eva Cassidy- It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)

American Tune (Blix Street)

Sneezy Waters- Solitude

Sneezy Waters (Sneezy Waters)

Duke Ellington- Stompy Jones

Ellington in Order, Volume 6 (1934-36) (Legacy)

Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington & His Orchestra- Drop Me Off in Harlem

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve)

Taj Mahal- Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross- In a Mellow Tone

The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia/Legacy)

Claudia Schmidt- I’m Beginning to See the Light

Out of the Dark/New Goodbyes, Old Helloes (Flying Fish)

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington- Duke’s Place

The Complete Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington Sessions (Roulette)

Duke Ellington- A Tone Poem to Harlem (The Harlem Suite)

Ellington Uptown (Columbia)

Willie Nelson- Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Stardust (Columbia)

Judy Collins- I Didn’t Know About You

Bread and Roses (Elektra)

Dave Van Ronk- Lucky So and So

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Thelonious Monk- Black and Tan Fantasy

Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington (Riverside)

Susie Arioli Swing Band featuring Jordan Officer- I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)

It’s Wonderful (Susie Arioli Swing Band)

Catherine Russell- I’m Checkin’ Out, Goom’bye

Strictly Romancin’ (World Village)

Duke Ellington & Count Basie- Battle Royal

First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (Columbia)

Next week: Title Characters.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday October 31, 2023: Halloween

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/62553.html

Theme: Halloween and CKCU Funding Drive.

I’ve been involved in community radio, first in Montreal at CKUT, and now in Ottawa at CKCU, for almost 30 years and I truly love the diversity of programming that you only find on community radio stations like CKCU. 

It’s only at community radio stations that people like me have the freedom to curate and host our shows without regard to commercial concerns. CKCU has shows that reflect very rare diversity in genres, artists, songs, and communities – and we’re only able to do that with your support. 

All of us who create programs at CKCU are dedicated volunteers. I know that I work hard to create interesting programs each week on CKCU and I think my programming is unique. But that’s one of the great things about community radio – all of the programs are unique. 

So, please click on this link to show your support for Stranger Songs and CKCU, and help us stay on the air for another year. https://www.canadahelps.org/me/6rEQFU7Z

Bodie Wagner- Halloween

Vintage (Bodie Wagner)

Fourtold- Panther in Michigan

Fourtold (Appleseed)

Fourtold- The Nine Little Goblins

Fourtold (Appleseed)

Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones- Halloween Wedding March

Old Tin (Dittyville Music)

Jack Hardy- The Halloween Parade

The Passing (Prime CD)

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross- Halloween Spooks

The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia/Legacy)

Skinner & T’witch- Halloween

The Fool’s Journey (Skinner & T’witch)

Laurie MacAllister- Are You Happy Now?

The Lies the Poets Tell (Laurie MacAllister)

John & Sheila Ludgate- Halloween Dad

The Kitchen Sessions (John & Sheila Ludgate) 

Loudon Wainwright III- Halloween 2009

10 Songs for the New Depression (Proper)

David Massengill- Come Take a Ride on My Broom

Mogana’s Sleepover and the Witch’s Hand (David Massengill)

David Massengill- The Witch’s Menu

Mogana’s Sleepover and the Witch’s Hand (David Massengill)

Stan Rogers- The Witch of the Westmorland

Between the Breaks…Live! (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)

Donovan- Season of the Witch

Donovan’s Greatest Hits (Epic)

Ella Fitzgerald- Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Verve)

Rockapella- Zombie Jamboree

Modern A Cappella (Rhino)

Vance Gilbert- Zombie Pattycake

Good Good Man (Disismye Music)

Vance Gilbert- The Day Before November

Good Good Man (Disismye Music)

Cab Calloway- The Ghost of Smokey Joe

St. James Infirmary (CTS)

Ray Bierl- Big Joe and Phantom 309

Any Place I Hang My Hat (Greasy String Productions)

The Balladeers- Tiptoe Through the Ghosties

It’s About Time (The Balladeers)

Count Basie- Trick or Treat

Hall of Fame (Verve)

Next week: Addendums to Past Themes.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday May 2, 2023: Stompin’ at the Savoy

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web. 

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/60257.html

Theme: Stompin’ at the Savoy.

The Savoy Ballroom in the Harlem section of New York City was a major music venue from 1926 until 1958, and in the liner notes to Savoy by Taj Mahal, Holger Peterson notes that 13 of the 14 songs on the album would likely have been heard at the Savoy during its long run. And that’s what gave me the idea for this theme. All the songs on this show were performed during that period and might well have been heard at the Savoy at some point.

Taj Mahal- Stompin’ at the Savoy

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Ella Fitzgerald with The Chick Webb Orchestra- A-Tisket, A-Tasket

Swingsation (Verve)

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy- Diga Diga Do

Rattle Them Bones (Savoy Jazz)

Howard Armstrong- Lady Be Good

Louie Bluie (Blue Suit)

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- He Ain’t Got Rhythm

I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)

Taj Mahal- Baby Won’t You Please Come Home

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Catherine Russell & Mike Regenstreif (2007)

Catherine Russell- Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?

Alone Together (Dot Time)

Taj Mahal- Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Barney Bigard & Orchestra- C Jam Blues

The Great Ellington Units (BMG)

Ella Fitzgerald with The Duke Ellington Orchestra- I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve)

Jackie Washington & Mike Regenstreif (2008)

Jackie Washington- Take the “A” Train

Keeping Out of Mischief (Pyramid)

Nina Simone- Mood Indigo

Let It All Out (Liberty)

Taj Mahal- Caldonia

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown- Salt Pork, West Virginia

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown Sings Louis Jordan (Black & Blue)

Asleep at the Wheel- Choo Ch’Boogie

Having a Party: Live (Goldenlane)

Louis Jordan- Let the Good Times Roll

Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five (JSP)

Taj Mahal- Sweet Georgia Brown

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Dave Van Ronk- Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Oscar Brown, Jr.- One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)

The Voice of Cool (Not Now Music)

Count Basie & His Orchestra- Jumpin’ at the Woodside

The Count Basie Story, Vol. 1 (Columbia)

Cab Calloway- Minnie the Moocher

Are You Hep to the Jive? (Columbia/Legacy)

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Stompin’ at the Savoy

Ella and Louis Again (Verve)

Next week: Remembering Harry Belafonte (1927-2023).

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 21, 2022: Songs from “Porgy & Bess” and other Gershwin classics

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Stranger Songs was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56633.html

Theme: Songs from “Porgy & Bess” and other Gershwin classics.

The folk and jazz influenced opera “Porgy & Bess,” composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Du Bose Heyward and Ira Gershwin premiered on Broadway in 1935 and was based on Du Bose Heyward’s novel, Porgy, published in 1925.

Moore & McGregor- Summertime
Dream with Me (Ivernia)

Ella Fitzgerald- I Wants to Stay Here
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Lena Horne- My Man’s Gone Now
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- I Got Plenty O’Nuttin
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Ray Charles- Buzzard Song
Ray Charles & Cleo Laine: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Bess, You is My Woman Now
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Miles Davis- Gone, Gone, Gone
Miles Davis: Porgy & Bess (Columbia/Legacy)

Dave Van Ronk- It Ain’t Necessarily So
Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)
Cleo Laine- What You Want Wid Bess?
Ray Charles & Cleo Laine: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Harry Belafonte- A Woman is Sometime Thing
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald- Oh, Doctor Jesus
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Medley: Here Comes de Honey Man/Crab Man/Oh, Dey’s So Fresh and Fine (Strawberry Woman)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Nina Simone- I Loves You, Porgy
Nina Simone With Strings (Colpix)
Harry Belafonte- Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Phoebe Snow- There’s a Boat That’s Leaving Soon for New York
Second Childhood (Columbia)
Louis Armstrong- Oh Lawd, I’m On My Way
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Other Gershwin classics

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- Our Love is Here to Stay
I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)
Willie Nelson- I Got Rhythm
Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (Legacy)
Billie Holiday- Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve)

Dave Van Ronk- Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet & Lowdown (Justin Time)
Scarlett, Washington & Whiteley- Lady Be Good
Sitting on a Rainbow (Borealis)
The Hot Club of Cowtown- Someone to Watch Over Me
Wishful Thinking (Gold Strike)

Oscar Peterson- Liza (The Clouds’ll Roll Away)
The Jazz Soul of Oscar Peterson (Verve)

Next week: The Folkways Legacy of Sam Gesser.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday February 1, 2022: Songs of W.C. Handy

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Stranger Songs was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/55068.html

Theme: Songs of W.C. Handy. These songs were written or adapted by W.C. Handy (1873-1958). Known as “The Father of the Blues,” Handy was the first composer to publish blues songs.

W.C. Handy (1949)

Ella Fitzgerald- St. Louis Blues
These are the Blues (Verve)

Nat King Cole- Chantez Les Bas
St. Louis Blues (Capitol)
Bessie Smith- The Yellow Dog Blues
Bessie Smith: The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection (Big3)
Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton- Long Gone (From the Bowlin’ Green)
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)
Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra featuring Catherine Russell- Loveless Love (Careless Love)
Good Time Music: Community Music, Vol. 2 (Royal Potato Family)

W.C. Handy’s Beale Street- Way Down South Where the Blues Began
Where the Blues Began (Inside Memphis)

Louis Armstrong- Atlanta Blues (Make Me One Pallet On Your Floor)
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)
Mississippi John Hurt- Joe Turner
Mr. Hurt Goes to Washington (Sunset Blvd.)
Nat King Cole- Friendless Blues
St. Louis Blues (Capitol)
W.C. Handy’s Beale Street- The Jogo Blues
Where the Blues Began (Inside Memphis)

Eartha Kitt with Shorty Rogers & His Giants- Steal Away
St. Louis Blues (RCA)
Pearl Bailey- Shine Like a Morning Star
St. Louis Blues (Roulette)
Eartha Kitt with Shorty Rogers & His Giants- Hist the Window, Noah
St. Louis Blues (RCA)

Shirley Bassey- Beale Street Blues
Born to Sing the Blues (Philips)
Loudon Wainwright III with Sloan Wainwright- Ramblin’ Blues
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story Sound)

Jim Kweskin & The Neo-Passé Jazz Band- Memphis Blues
Jump for Joy (Vanguard)
Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton- Hesitating Blues
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)
W.C. Handy’s Beale Street- Harlem Blues
Where the Blues Began (Inside Memphis)

Louis Armstrong- Aunt Hagar’s Blues
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)
Odetta- Careless Love/St. Louis Blues
Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.)

Billy Novick’s Blue Syncopators- Yellow Dog Blues
Music from The Great Gatsby (Billy Novick)

Next week: Boogie men and boogie women

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night

BOB DYLAN

Shadows in the Night

Columbia

bobdylan.com

I was skeptical last year when the news surfaced that Bob Dylan was recording an album of songs associated with Frank Sinatra. But listening and re-listening to Shadows in the Night over the past few days, I was captivated by Dylan’s 10-song, 35-minute excursion into the Great American Songbook.

Although each of these songs may have been sung by Sinatra at one point – and he’s listed as a co-writer on “I’m a Fool to Want You,” the opening number – and although the album title, Shadows in the Night, may be an allusion to “Strangers in the Night,” a Sinatra hit of the mid-1960s, I really don’t hear the album as a Sinatra tribute.

For one thing, Dylan does none of Sinatra’s major hits. There are no versions of “Strangers in the Night,” “New York, New York,” “It was a Very Good Year,” “One for My Baby,” “My Way,” etc. on this album. I looked through my own (limited) collection of Sinatra albums and not one of these songs is there. So while I am familiar with some of them from versions by other artists as disparate as Louis Armstrong and Rufus Wainwright – I recall 20-year-old Rufus singing a beautiful rendition of Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do” at his maternal grandmother’s funeral in 1994 – I do not have previous Sinatra associations with any of these songs.

For another, Dylan does not attempt to sound like Sinatra – how could he possibly? – and the arrangements, played by Dylan’s touring band with some occasional muted horns added to some songs, sound nothing like Sinatra’s typical big band or orchestral settings. There isn’t even a piano player on the album.

The Sinatra allusion aside, Shadows in the Night is a great title for a deeply intimate album that really should be listened to late at night. The songs are mature reflections sung quietly in Dylan’s ragged, yet compelling voice. He makes these songs his own in ways that are very different from how Sinatra – or other voices like Tony Bennett or Ella Fitzgerald – might have approached them.

The key song, for me anyway, is “Why Try to Change Me Now?” one of the more obscure songs I’d never heard before. Written by Joseph McCarthy Jr. and Cy Coleman, it’s lyrics could credibly have been written by Dylan about himself. “So, let people wonder, let ‘em laugh, let ‘em frown/You know I’ll love you till the moon’s upside down/Don’t you remember I was always your clown?/Why try to change me now?” he sings on top of a quietly lovely guitar-and-pedal-steel-based arrangement.

Among my other favorites are the weary-voiced renditions of “Autumn Leaves” and “That Lucky Old Sun,” both songs I’ve heard by many other artists, and Berlin’s “What I’ll Do,” a beautiful, lonely song.

Many of these are songs of regret – regrets borne of maturity and experience – and Dylan’s voice, ragged from the decades but somehow sweeter than it’s ever been, and as compelling as it’s ever been, draws me deeply into the songs. And I love the way he’s re-imagined the songs for subdued, arrangements built around guitars, pedal steel and bass.

This is not an album that Dylan – who revolutionized the art of songwriting in the 1960s when he was in his 20s – could have made back then. But it is something I’m glad he surprised us with in his 70s.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif