(Louis Jordan - Five guys named Moe and a whole lot more)
A double dose of 1940s tonight. First off, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five from the Chesterfield Supper Club Broadcast of July 17, 1945. Jordan was one of the first Jump-Blues outfits to gain national popularity in the early 1940s. They would be a wave of the future as far as Big Bands were concerned. As the War took a lot of sidemen off to the Armed Forces, bands were forced to pare down. And as time wore on, the number of venues a big band could play started to dwindle. So the small outfit was economical and attractive to the club owner who didn't have to shell out so much for a 10-20 piece band, where they could just pay for 5 or 6. Louis Jordan was a popular attraction and a regular on Radio broadcasts. He was a recurring act on the Chesterfield Supper Club.
(The Charioteers - human orchestra. Later, model for Do-Wop)
Our second dose comes by way of The Charioteers. Early on, they were a gospel group, dabbling as a Human Orchestra. In the 1930s and 1940s many acappella vocal groups added the extra bonus of being able to imitate most any wind instrument there was in a band - a whole sub-genre of groups sprang up known as Human Orchestras. As the Charioteers popularity rose they gradually transitioned over to doing more pop/standard material and eventually became one of the models in the evolution of do-wop and vocal R&B. Here they are, also via the Chesterfield Supper Club from July 31, August 12 and September 2, 1945
