time. By John Barry in his orchestra and we play that one full Allen who's in Winchester at all so we played it for Jackie in Ascot look at the time is 4 minutes off to 10 high time we had this month's classic cruise where we hit 2 great songs from the best singers of the Great American Songbook we're going to kick off with Billy Eckstine and his version of Don't Get Around Much Anymore. And it. Big. Dog. Would. Be good. Ridings to suffer the most. But non. 0 luck. Was we. Would love to. Look old Some were. Told. Get there's food. Will. Allow. Us. These are not just fun times there's Margaret Whiting but not for me that was with Frank Deval and his orchestra and before that we had Billy axe start and Don't Get Around Much Anymore that was this month's a classic crooners if you love that kind of music my guest certainly did He was out there enjoying that. Keep listening because we're going to be speaking to Chris Walker about his brand new book called The melody lingers on all about the Great American Songbook and this time next week at 10 o'clock we'll have the light program would play a couple of like chickens for you to enjoy Also if you learn that kind of music then what do you listen to David Miller that this Sunday evening from 5 o'clock for more great music from the fifty's food to the eighty's there's going to be another Mistry theme Chuen to identify in the 1st hour from the world of television film or radio and then after 6 o'clock David is looking for your suggestions on this week's theme of the syngas who have or have had other careers. You know what I can think of is is the postman the singing postman remember that one of the boy if you go a lot that you don't like to think of at the moment but I will keep thinking that I should give you a few clothes and maybe you can give David Miller a call and what he may play it for be great to be play that will win it because if you like this one of the song but it was a hit in its day I know how to Jenny and Nikki says hi a David and I know it's a bit late requesting a song for Robert who's indoor King but hope he can fit it in before 11 o'clock please could you play the Big Bopper seeing Chantilly lace and a pretty face Annette robot know that I look forward to seeing him on Tuesday and hope he enjoys the song for me partner Jenny. And. The. Yeah the Big Bopper who was only 28 years old when he died in a plane crash and Chantilly lace and we play that one for Jenny and Nikki who wanted for Robert and the can for to sing him on Tuesday and hope that he enjoys the song from partner Jenny high to Pamela in limited his low David seems a very long time since I last emailed you but I have been listening to your program which I thank you for so much a great comfort Listen to this beautiful music Well thank you Pamela lovely to have you there listening and um hi to Tim who's in London says a great show David please could you play Flanagan Allen and underneath the Archies . about you to member when we 1st sang it yes Chez re used to sit on a seat with the Thames Embankment behind us you had a newspaper read at the drivers that's part time i still got that I could remember the day. It's 9926 read those headlines again I guess want. It early 18 year old the medical books woman the spoon town residents cricket ashes for England after 14. Irishwoman bottle should sponsor lead in the nose cone list Churchills a popular budget 5 percent tax on holding a lot of jolly Chapman not tricked on 2nd time in history of plenty flown by 3 spent his one death a mongrel amount to make just what 5 hospitals b.b.c. OS 9 shillings instead of $76.00 for one his license hopes of return to any of theirs and investors bookmakers in a bad way on that would be the day. Well things were little different now on that Yeah funny get in Ellen underneath the arches for Tim in Shepherd's Bush and hi to Robert who says hi a David is that you've got it please could you play for me the theme tune to the 961 film whistle down the wind are so Hayley Mills on television this week get Wasn't she all that antiques programme driving a Rolls Royce I think I caught a bit of it myself and it reminded me of a taking part in the film as an innocent child who befriends a fugitive on the run played by a bearded Alan Bates and it was filmed on the side of Pendle Hill in Langley just. Lived across the border in Yorkshire I'm now showing my age you are nothing wrong with that and it will hit is for you this is the prelude to whistle down the wind composed by Malcolm Arnold. Michael Ball I'm also then going to be speaking to a Chris walk about his book and he has a new cd as well hi to Mandy in church Cookham who says Good evening David I hope all is well with you and Hazel it is thank you firstly a big thank you for putting my mom in touch with Brenda they had a good chat on the phone also David please could you say happy birthday to mom Brenda from church Cookham for this fine to the 24th of November she's going to be 83 years young she had some bad news at the hospital this chews day they said she couldn't have 2 new showed replacement says they didn't think she should survive surgery so she's going to have to wait 8 to 10 weeks before she can get an appointment to go to the pain clinic so. If you could mention her name and maybe play you a similar black June it will cheer up she's in bed now and she's got lots of family and friends coming in this week to wish her a happy birthday and to eat cakes Fantastico she'll soon forget about the operation she had no pain at all especially new me plenty of cake Thank you David I've been thinking of all the old people who live on the road it must be hard for them so we are lucky to have you on the radio to bring them all good cheer and no you're just a phone call or email away for Mandy in church Cookham Well Mandy love you to get your email lovely Brenda your mom who were no sits in bed singalong to all the records and happy birthday for Friday 83 years young and for you Cilla Black and your. Film I would you'll see. To it. Every. I. Was where. I was. So my reach out to you. With your hand resting. Our. A world full Brenda in fake I'm going to be 83 on Friday would love to love from Mandy be speaking in a moment or 2 to my guest Chris Walken but to time for another track from our featured album all the night which is together again for Michael. Paul and Alfie Bowen you may have seen the t.v. Special on t.v. a Few weeks ago where they sang tracks from the album did their best to be funny you probably stick to singing I do think watching them that they were trying to be a bit like more common wise and funnily enough on the album they sing their signature tune bring me sunshine. Which. Brings me. Yeah Michael Bull their version of bring me some Chinle find that on the brand new album it's cool together again it's all featured album of the night which means we'll have another track from them in a round about one hour's time now my guest this evening is no friend and colleague who for many. He has presented his at jazz show from this very studio he's also a top net isn't sex oftenest whose group the pedigree jazz band play all over the country and he's just written a book with his wife Janet about the Great American Songbook called the melody lingers on he's Chris Walker places a joins is right now hi Chris good to see you again great to be here yeah it's funny because you know we've known each other many many years I never actually asked you how you started the music business. What started as a hobby I mean I've played music ever since I went to school I used to be in the school record abandon and. About $955.00 I think it was a film came out called The Benny Goodman Story and while he was playing it was a clarinet of course but it looked very much like a recorder and I just changed from one to the other and struggled from then on was yeah he was barely Goodman was you got you want Oh absolutely yeah and still is my main inspiration I mean he just was the King Yes I was concerned yeah so were your parents musical my dad Yes Actually my my father was a banjo player and my grandfather was a banjo player and he actually entertained troops in the in the trenches in the 1st world war and all these diaries never thing actually in the Imperial War Museum at the moment so yes I'm sort of 3rd generation Yeah so did you could take to it straight away. I took to music straightaway at the age of 11 with the recorder I have to show the clarinet I thought it was going to be very easy and it wasn't he's a you actually have to be fairly determined that you you're going to do it yeah yeah yeah my wife played for she plays in a band the clown actually does difficulty just fine when he's getting a note out of a reed Well yes you know yeah and I can remember I would go back a long long time now but I can remember throwing it on the bed in my home asked a year it's the last thing I do or you know she kind of self-taught Well I started off taking some lessons from a guy in the area of central band which was based in Oxford which was near where we were living at the time. And then he wanted me to play long notes and I want to play the. So he didn't stay very long and I taught myself for a bit and then you come across a brick wall and you go to other people and take more lessons and now it was a bit of a funny upbringing really but mostly on university of life I've just learned through playing gigs Yeah and from your book that's what most of the jazz players do is and I think so it seems to be the way it is now you've played in loads of bands over the years you've had many bands if you like your latest band this is the pedigree jazz band that's wrong how did that come about well it was it was it comes this seem to be an awful lot of true tribute acts around at the moment and I was talking to a pal of mine actually on board the ships and I was saying that no one really plays the sort of jazz that we got interested in back in the fifty's which was what we call the trad jazz but with people like Chris Barber and I could build continued all their records were played on the radio you know and they reached the hit parade and various things like that so we thought would be fun I didn't want to dress up in a striped waistcoat in a bowler hat particularly but to do a salute to that whole era so the pedigree jazz band really is does a show called a salute to try to do this and that's that's what it was and we were very lucky to get some sponsorship from Marston's the Brewers because they make pedigree better so we call it the pedigree jazz band yeah and then the nice thing is is that I guess trad jazz is a good way of people to get into jazz because it's kind of the most excessive below you part of jazz is no it's tuneful it's foot tapping it's there's nothing ugly about it it doesn't bring on fights so yeah and of course that you know we were lucky enough to interview on this program Chris Barber the late ACA bilk as well and they really were at the forefront when I was have tried jazz as it were Yeah yeah yeah and Kenny Ball as well well what with Kenny Ball of on some of the ships because I get that some of the lectures on ships in the past over the few years we've been able to take bands on and to jazz themes and things and Kenny Ball was absolutely wonderful and he made one of his favorite stories was that he was being interviewed actually by a cruise director. And they said to Kenny boy because he did sell millions of records to new and Kenny said yeah Midnight in Moscow Green Leaves of Summer all those tunes he said but the thing that a lot of people don't realize is that we were also responsible for the sale of over $35000.00 record players and the guy said Oh really how was that he said well lack of built sold his 1st start. His own story told him there is here a track from from the latest album soon to tragic as this one we're going to plays the original Dixieland one step and it's really it's a special this one is that because it's the same teen re year is that right yeah it was actually February I think it's probably the $26.00 knowing teen seventeen's 100 years ago that the original Dixieland jazz band made a record with 2 sided thing with livery stable blows on the big side and original Dixieland one step on the a side and it became I believe only the 2nd commercial recording to ever sell a 1000000 copies so it's quite an important and here we are 100 years later still playing the music I'm going to play right now. Was. Was. Kris welcome and the pedigree jazz band of the original Dixieland one step from their latest album saluted trad jazz for a my guest is that Chris walk when you hear that you can't just stop because you can't stop your foot from tapping a Kenyan so it works and let's talk about the Bo new book called The melody lingers on or about the great American songbook which is a terrific read I've been reading it all this week and as you know a massive fan of The Great American Songbook and I'm sure you are probably year from in the lyrics of the were written and the Dunham elders that were written there not to no one seems to be doing at least on some who for those who don't know what do we mean by the Great American Songbook basically the songs that were written for the musicals of Broadway usually roughly between the years 1920 and 19 fifties when rock'n'roll come to shows preceding rock n roll really yeah they were great to songwriters like George Gershwin Irving Berlin Cole Porter all those who Jerome Kern How old are you and wrote some great to numbers and I just what we do talks about them for for the cruise ships and I'm a lot of passengers had Have you written a book Reset Well why not you know we've. The research we know the stories about the people behind them yeah and so the book has actually contains stories of several composers several of the singers and several of the band leaders so you know you want to know what happened to Glen Miller really yes it's all in the book yes because that has been a lot of people wondering what did happen but you actually found out very fairly certain things certain 99 percent said what happened to him and then you go to would you wife Janet Yes yes what Janet is my research as she she really does most of the reading. When we give the talks on ships of course we company it with recordings of the various people so it's an illustrated talk. And so Janet does most of the research about a lot of stories I put the music together convert it rewrite a little bit and it's a joint effort Yeah and it really was a golden age of music because there were so many great writers at the time producing the most amazing songs but also great singers as well as saying that you know we just came together didn't actually have a golden age really yeah but it is being rediscovered him pick not Robbie Williams and. Rod Stewart and yet lots of others are sort of rediscovering the songs and reassuring them now so hopefully a little attract a younger audience a little move on to think it was just luck that it all came together and they want to toss things that are golden ages on them and if you talk about dancing for example you know they're there with the pick with people like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Yeah Rogers Pedraja Yeah I mean in the jazz and swing thing you had people like Benny Goodman and I'll be sure it's never going to happen again just the concentration and the work that we put into it they did they just became great yeah and we will we'll produce clarinet players and then those but nothing of that sort of. Ilk and I don't think that's my opinion and I mean Tony Bennett called it Americans Americans when a song period. Did Yes yes which I don't which I think he was right I think he was yeah yeah I mean the reading thing your book I think one of the artists that probably Well from reading that and you can tell me whether I'm right or wrong that I think you really really do appreciate and love the work of do keling to oh yes what he wrote to her sense of pieces of music and of course he wrote he he wrote for his own band. People like Glenn Miller would arrange things which more or less any band could play. But you calling to wrote parts for particular people and to the Ellington band had to have Johnny hunches on alto sax and Henry County on baritone sax not just any sax player and that was the big thing about healing to miss that he wrote for his own musicians Yeah and the one thing about all the people you write about whether they're single is or whether they're jazz musicians or songwriters apart from public Cole Porter they all came from pretty poor background so yes yes yes you know what he came for money yes that's right yeah he was he was of spoiled brats you. Don't get all the rest really came up the hard way you know maybe that's what gave them the impetus to strive to great things. Again talk about Benny Goodman but him and his dad was working in an avatar really and then you could go out and play in bands and earn more than a night and his dad would make in a week and I think that so was the power behind making him want to improve yeah and get better Absolutely you much of what he one person you don't mention is being Crosby on the program people who buy the but will probably wonder why that was. I just haven't got round to being close but yeah if you are saying no answer at least not because you know the fan Absolutely and he and Louis Armstrong you know were great buddies and they got on very well and I loved her and some of the big Crosby recordings Yeah yeah you do write about Louis Armstrong in the book I do I do and again a very very tough life he had you know yeah yeah yeah Louie had a. A big. What was his his view was that he would like to be so. Supported or under the wing of someone really powerful and and of course his agent Joe Glaser had worked for Al Capone as a manager of a speakeasy back in the twenty's so you know Louis was left more or less to just plays music and all the management was taken care of outside but also I mean they take most of the money as well they did well I think I think they did but Louis did all right yeah but it was all of them though the you know they weren't making much money to begin with where they all know it was tough was that what it was it Benny Goodman who you were go to back to say they were doing so many shows Oh yeah it's almost like they're working 24 hours you're sure new ones don't well that's right yeah that's right but that's right because when we got today for the fact famous $938.00 Carnegie Hall concert it was able to be recorded on only one microphone because they played so much together that they developed their own internal balance now these days if you put a 16 piece band together you'd want to at least a $24.00 channel mixer and all of that to achieve that sound but they just did it naturally because they were doing so much work yeah yeah and of course they do you played a big part in their courageous because when they performed in various hotels or whatever board rooms it was broadcast on the local radio station listening which was right it was a big lift for them I guess the good thing with us was broadcast right across America they did a show called Let's dance on it I think it started at 10 o'clock New York time but it got progressively earlier as you went across the time you got to California it was Think 4 hours earlier than that yeah of course the young kids could hear that then and when the band appeared in California that's really when the swing era started because they were they were getting the band which they wanted to hear let's hear another track from your album they don't mention being Cosby as I say in the book but you do you do play him. And this is the. Version of Mitchell's version of cold pool which is true enough. The pedigree jazz band and true love written by Cole Porter My guest is Chris Walken who's built the melody lingers on his all about the Great American Songbook there's a whole chapter on Cole Porter and that track was taken from Chris will cut the pedigree jazz band's new album called Salute to tragic As for which is out right now as is the book if you had to pick a favorite songwriter and a favorite singer from that it would have been hard to hear you throw me into that one. Probably being Crosby. Which one I think anything by being here would be my favorite and songwriters who do you like. Berlin great songwriter a great friend of Ella Fitzgerald I think she was probably the greatest singer of the best range and I was talking to someone the other day who has perfect pitch and who said anything by Ella Fitzgerald never given any problems at all every note she ever sang was spotless but on yeah yeah so that would be my era anyway yeah and so many great writer because you know you do is each chapter is sort of divided up because you got the songwriters which is how darlin Yeah fantastic Jerome Kern here but we're very don't know that much about your and Clint a bit earlier on but wrote some great songs where Johnny Mercer who I think was born this day was me. Yes I think so yes I think you know I think it was so that's quite nice and and Cole Porter we just played who was as you say bit of a brat in his time wasn't he yeah yeah yeah he was one of the very few that wrote the words and the music a lot of those people had other people writing the lyrics or they wrote you know I had to go through and brothers would be rather Ira broke the words and George wrote the music. Called Porter's one and Irving Berlin another one that actually wrote both words and music and that's a bit of a rarity Absolutely and I was a little bit surprised that in the singer's section you include Michael Jackson yes Elvis Presley and last year. Was the what was the thinking behind that is that because you was a fan of the you know no popular talks on look on the cruise ships that we give and they've contributed to the American songbook in its broadest sense and I don't go much beyond Michael Jackson to be honest with you. I'm quite happy with anything prior Yes. You got a lovely forward written by The Great to be fair which must be nice to get him to write the forward in your book you. Yes. It is a lecture on the subject on the cruise ships which must be fun yeah it's Ok You know I want over the world bits working for a living absolutely. And I was looking to talk about the amount to gigs that you did yeah I was looking on the website and I think you're booked up to December 28th you were telling me you even taken bookings now for 29th out of here this year this week for 2019 and yet you never stop do you go over the one of the guards Why would you stop you just love doing it yeah sure it doesn't feel like a job you know it's not well sometimes it does when you're when you're unloading the gear late at night and struggling to get back to your hotel and things like that but no the actual performing is a joy to use to it's particularly good band at the moment so yeah yeah and obviously your love of playing is never waned as war has no no no no no and I mean for all of various things I've done in my life when I die on my grave so much just want to play Yeah and Benny Goodman you say I think he'd practice for hours every single dogs you know he would he needed to after one as years well know that there's a story we tell in the book but that was only appeared at the networks and he was asked to invited to stay with Lord and Lady coupled at the end of the gig and Brian Lemon who was playing piano for him told me afterwards that he asked him about British etiquette and he said the Lord and Lady coupled have invited me to coffee to more and more and they obviously want to show me off to their friends and the Certainly other and Brian said well you'll enjoy that many What's wrong with that new said well it's right in the middle of my 4 hours practice and Brian said to me so well you're over 70 Do you still need to practice 4 hours every day and he said I've done 4 hours practice every day since I was given my 1st clarinet at the age of 9 and he said I just wouldn't feel right without it must have to change on the coffee but I think he went to take in the. Dedication for you is that yeah and I think you know I think you say he actually practiced just before his death his world Yeah I mean he had a heart. Attack and died and his housekeeper found him but what the thing that was noted was that his rehearsal Pad was open at the last page so clearly he'd done his 4 hours. Well Chris best of luck with the book and the album really wants to to catch a band and go to your website can get details about that and about the albums and also about the book as well so yeah it was just give us the website address I've got a website for my talks which is simply just Chris Walker talks all lowercase in one word so if you look up that on there there's my contact details so me an email or you can ring me up or write to me or whatever and we have copies of the book and we're happy to send them in and sell them to be honest with you and the president well the town switching to the coast of working would include postage and packing us fantastic Well Chris has been a pleasure to see you again thank you very much how we're going to finish with Georgia On My Mind by Hoagy Carmichael and again it's a lovely chapter about Hoagy in the book Yes Well I think probably he would be one of my favorite composers because he wrote Stardust George on my mind and some great songs and he performed them as well yeah yeah yeah so there's one on that you're going to play here actually features a trumpet player around each a slave who is a not only a great trumpet player but he plays this particular thing is he's his so long and he plays in on a instrument called a flugel horn which is a sort of slightly larger version of a trumpet but has a much more mellow sound and he does a beautiful job of it lovely Chris you take care good to say thank you. I.