HEAR Lester Young - Phantom Dancer radio show 107. 3 2SER Tues 13 April 12:04pm TUNE IN
With Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Lester Young, jazz tenor saxophonist called ‘The Prez’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist from live 1940s-50s broadcasts. Young was one of the most influential saxophinists, playing “a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike”. Alcohol killed him.
More12:04 pm - 2:00 pm | |
2SER 107.3 Sydney | |
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Hi, I’m Greg Poppleton. When I was 3, I saw Louis Armstrong on TV and have been hooked on 1920s – 1930s jazz and swing ever since. I’m Australia’s only authentic 1920s-30s singer with band. Recent performance highlights: 2020 Sydney Festival, resident band Great Art Deco Ball, resident 1920s band Gin Mill Social.
We play clubs, restaurants, balls, hotels and festivals. And we love playing private functions, too – your wedding, birthday, house party and corporate event.
I bring the era to life so your event will be a dazzling Hollywood experience. Think vintage glamour, prohibition and speakeasies. I appear in the movies Moulin Rouge! and Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Tin Pan Alley Vol.2 is Greg Poppleton’s latest album of 1920s- 30s hits sung in English, German and Spanish.
Review by Dave Doyle, Syncopated Times (U.S) full review here “Some sequels are unwarranted and altogether unwelcome: A second coronavirus outbreak. World War II. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But there was one return I was happy to hear of recently—Greg Poppleton’s second disc of Tin Pan Alley classics, delivered in his very own vintage Australian style.
Greg—an actor and singer hailing from Sydney—eschews the evergreen hot jazz and big band styles for something a little older still, evoking the vibrato-rich, vaudeville voices of Al Bowlly, Al Jolson, and their ilk.
Vol. 2 also offers up an impressively broad palette of songs, for one singer and just a handful of musicians. “Sugar” is one for lying in the sun and sipping iced tea to (until your furlough is revoked and you’re back to work), while “San Antonio Rose” and “Carolina in the Morning” are definitely numbers you could get up and boogie (or perhaps Charleston) to.
Greg Poppleton has found his niche, and he’s sticking to it—and you won’t hear me complain about that.”
For more albums including Tin Pan Alley Vol.1...
Go to the shopPoppleton’s vocals capture the essence of the swing years with uncanny accuracy.
John Gilbert
eJazzNews (U.S)
It would take an extremely jaded heart not to smile and tap your feet, much less dance around the room, to Greg Poppleton.
Budd Kopman
All About Jazz (U.S) (Link)
Last year at the Melbourne Jazz Festival and the Thredbo Jazz Festival I saw some great acts. I made Greg Poppleton an offer on the spot.
John Quigley
Director Waiheke International Jazz Festival (Link)
Greg’s pleasing, vintage voice... impressive portamento slides on "The Charleston"... refreshes well-worn standards again and again on “Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue” and “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.”
Dave Doyle Jr
The Syncopated Times (U.S) (Link)
Lester Young, jazz tenor saxophonist called ‘The Prez’, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist from live 1940s-50s broadcasts. Young was one of the most influential saxophinists, playing “a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike”. Alcohol killed him.
Ruth Etting was a US singer/actress of the 1920s and 1930s. She never had voice lessons and had over 60 hit recordings. She worked on stage, radio and film. She was known as ‘America’s Radio Sweetheart’ and was also involved in a famous case of domestic violence with her mobster first husband. Read her story, Phantom Dancer play list, see videos and listen to the show here
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature. Read the story and play list, see videos, hear the radio show here
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