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by Seth Rogovoy
LENOX, Mass., July 25, 1996 -- In the first of five such concerts, the Sammy Kaye Orchestra kicked off the National Music Center's Salute to the Big Bands series on Wednesday night. Making the best of a bad situation in which only about 150 people showed up -- including a few dozen volunteers and staff members -- the concert was held in the concession area, which was aptly transformed into a nightclub-style venue, with ample room for dancing and tables and chairs set up in the back for the majority who preferred just to listen.
"Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye" was and still is the band's motto. While the selection of popular tunes, standards, dances and novelties the group played from the '30s and '40s provided the impetus for a fair amount of dancing throughout the evening, in technical terms there was a lot more sway than swing coming from the bandstand. This came as no surprise, as society or "sweet" dance bands like Sammy Kaye's always eschewed the more complex, syncopated rhythms and improvisational soloing of genuine jazz bands led by the likes of Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and Count Basie.
The band was led by Roger Thorpe, a trumpeter who took over the reins from Sammy Kaye in 1986, one year before Kaye died. In addition to Thorpe, who peppered the performance with lots of talk between songs, including anecdotes about Sammy Kaye, the band featured two lead vocalists, who helped out on tunes including "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home," "Please Don't Talk About Us When We're Gone," "Smile, Smile, Smile" and "In the Good Old Summertime." The musicians contributed innocuous arrangements that recaptured a bygone era that most of those in attendance undoubtedly recall first-hand, and as was made explicitly clear to this reviewer by an endless parade of staffers who felt the need to point it out, most of them were enjoying themselves.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 26, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
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