MUSIC CLIP - OSCAR PETERSON, “MOONGLOW”

Welcome to Afterglow, [a show of vocal jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook], I’m your host, Mark Chilla.

Summer travel season has officially begun, so… this week on the show, we’re exploring the Great American Songbook of the jet set. Coming up this hour, we’ll explore songs about traveling, sung by your favorites, including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Tony Bennett. We’ll travel by plane with songs like “Come Fly With Me,” by train with songs like “I Thought About You,” and travel to some “Far Away Places” including Rio De Janeiro.

It’s Let’s Get Away From It All, coming up next on Afterglow

MUSIC - TOMMY DORSEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA, “LET’S GET AWAY FROM IT ALL”

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra live on the NBC Radio Network on June 12, 1941 with the Matt Dennis and Tom Adair song “Let’s Get Away From It All.” That performance took place on the rooftop garden of the Hotel Astor in New York City. That version featured many of Dorsey’s regular vocalists, including Jo Stafford and her vocal group The Pied Pipers, along with Dorsey’s two featured soloists Connie Haines and a young Frank Sinatra. Sinatra would return to that song again over 15 years later as a solo artist.

MUSIC CLIP - J.J. JOHNSON AND KAI WINDING, “LET’S GET AWAY FROM IT ALL”

Mark Chilla here on Afterglow. On this show, we’re taking a trip with the Great American Songbook, exploring songs all about getting away from it all. Coming up, we’ll hear songs about traveling by boat, by train, and by plane… in fact, let’s start up in the air with a few plane songs.

The heyday of the American Songbook coincided with the advent of commercial air travel, where taking a trip to a far away land was never easier and never faster. So, it’s not too much of a surprise that flying high in the sky to exotic lands became a frequent song topic from the 1920s through the 1960s. It was even the concept behind Frank Sinatra and Billy May’s 1957 album Come Fly With Me, which I’ll sample from a few times this hour.

In addition to some established standards about world travels, Sinatra also included some newer traveling songs written by his friends and frequent songwriting partners Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. Let’s hear one now. This is the title track from that album, Frank Sinatra with “Come Fly With Me,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA, “COME FLY WITH ME”

MUSIC - JERI SOUTHERN, “LET’S FLY AWAY”

Two songs about flying away, written about 25 years apart. Just now, the Cole Porter song “Let’s Fly Away,” written for the 1930 Broadway musical The New Yorkers. That was sung by Jeri Southern in 1959, arranged there by Billy May. Before that, another Billy May arrangement… that was Frank Sinatra in 1957 with “Come Fly With Me,” a song written for the Capitol LP of the same name by songwriters Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. 

The album Come Fly With Me was a concept album, featuring songs all about traveling around the world, often to far off exotic places. Let’s hear another track from that album now all about this subject. The song was written just the previous year, 1956, by Harold Adamson and Victor Young Around The World In 80 Days. That film, of course, was an adaptation of the much older Jules Verne story about wager to circumnavigate the globe.

Let’s hear that song now. This is Frank Sinatra with the song “Around The World,” on Afterglow

MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA, “AROUND THE WORLD”

MUSIC - MAVIS RIVERS, “FAR AWAY PLACES”

Mavis Rivers in a recording for Capitol Records in 1960 with “Far Away Places,” written by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer in 1948. Before that, Frank Sinatra in a Capitol recording from 1957 with “Around The World,” written by Harold Adamson and Victor Young for the film adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days. Young won an Academy Award for his music for that film.

The film Around The World In 80 Days includes some famous travel via a hot air balloon. Not exactly the most popular way to travel long distances! Air travel usually means plane travel, and many songs have been written about flying. Here’s one from 1962 by Brazilian songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim. It’s called “Samba do Aviao,” or “Airplane Samba.” In its original Portuguese, it’s actually a song that stems from Jobim’s fear of flying, although he was awed by the airplanes soaring out of the airport in Rio De Janeiro (and was especially fond of returning home to Rio). 

Here’s an English translation of that song now, sung by Tony Bennett from his 1965 album If I Ruled the World: Songs for the Jet Set. This is “Samba do Aviao,” on Afterglow

MUSIC - TONY BENNETT, “SAMBA DO AVIAO (SONG OF THE JET)”

MUSIC - LUCY REED, “FLYING DOWN TO RIO”

Two songs about traveling by plane to Rio De Janeiro. Just now, we heard Lucy Reed in 1955 with the  Vincent Youmans, Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu song “Flying Down To Rio,” from the 1933 RKO film of the same name (the first film for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers). Before that, Tony Bennett in 1965 with “Samba Do Aviao” or “Song Of The Jet,” written by Rio resident Antonio Carlos Jobim.

We’ve traveled by plane and by balloon so far this hour, as we’ve explored songs about travel. Let’s take a trip on a boat. You know that old saying, “it’s about the journey, not the destination”? That’s basically the gist of this song. It’s a song about wanting to take a long boat ride across the ocean, just for the opportunity to spend some quality alone time with a lover.

Here is Kay Kyser and his Orchestra in 1948 with vocalists Harry Babbitt and Gloria Wood, and the Frank Loesser song “On A Slow Boat To China,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - KAY KYSER, “ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA”

Kay Kyser and His Orchestra in 1948, featuring vocals by Harry Babbitt and Gloria Wood, performing the Frank Loesser tune “On A Slow Boat To China.”

MUSIC CLIP - SONNY ROLLINS, “ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA”

We’ll take some more trips around the world when we return, as we continue exploring songs all about travel. Stay with us.

I’m Mark Chilla, and you’re listening to Afterglow

MUSIC CLIP - CHARLIE BYRD, “SAMBA DO AVIAO”

MUSIC CLIP - DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA, “TAKE THE ‘A’ TRAIN”

Welcome back to Afterglow, I’m Mark Chilla. We’ve been exploring songs about travel this hour, and so far we’ve explored mostly songs about flying, as well as one song about taking a trip on a boat. What about travel by train? Train songs play a huge role in all sorts of American musical genres, from folk, to country, to blues. Let’s hear two jazz standards about train travel now.

First up, here is an Academy Award winning song from Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer, sung by Judy Garland in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls. This is songwriter Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers in 1945 with their hit version of “On The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe,” on Afterglow

MUSIC - JOHNNY MERCER, “ON THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE”

MUSIC - ELLA FITZGERALD, “I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU”

Two train songs from the Great American Songbook. Just now, Ella Fitzgerald in 1957 with the Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer song “I Thought About You.” Before that, Mr. Johnny Mercer himself, performing another song he co-wrote with Harry Warren, “On The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.” That recording with the vocal group The Pied Pipers comes from 1945.

“I Thought About You,” unlike most of the travel songs we’ve heard this hour, is a sad travel song, all about sitting on a train, and with each passing town, being preoccupied with the thought of a lost love. That’s the kind of song I want to focus on now—songs where travel isn’t necessarily a happy getaway.

Here’s one such song now, yet another one with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. This is Billie Holiday live in 1946 with “Trav'lin' Light,” on Afterglow

MUSIC - BILLIE HOLIDAY, “TRAV'LIN' LIGHT”

MUSIC - LOREZ ALEXANDRIA, “TRAVELING DOWN A LONELY ROAD”

Chicago-based singer Lorez Alexandria in 1963 with “Traveling Down A Lonely Road,” an English translation of the love theme from the 1954 Federico Fellini film La Strada, music by Nino Rota. Before that, Billie Holiday live at a Jazz At The Philharmonic Concert in 1946 with Jimmy Mundy, Trummy Young, and Johnny Mercer’s “Trav'lin' Light,” a song Holiday introduced a few years earlier with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra.

Here’s another traveling song, although one that you may not know. It was written by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck with his wife Iola, and performed here live by the pianist along with singer Carmen McRae. This is Brubeck and McRae at Basin Street East in 1961 with “Travelin’ Blues,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - DAVE BRUBECK AND CARMEN MCRAE, “TRAVELIN’ BLUES”

MUSIC - CHRIS CONNOR, “FLYING HOME”

Singer Chris Connor in 1959 with a vocal version of the Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton song “Flying Home.” Before that, Dave Brubeck and Carmen McRae from their 1961 album Take Five Live, and Brubeck’s original song “Travelin’ Blues.”

We’re flying towards the end of our show about travel songs, which is why I decided to play “Flying Home.” But I have one more song for you now. It again comes from the 1958 Frank Sinatra and Billy May album Come Fly With Me. On a number of Sinatra’s Capitol concept albums, he got his friends Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn to write original songs to help bookend the album, and Come Fly With Me is no exception. After a whole album of songs about jet-setting across the globe, Come Fly With Me ends with this original song all about settling back home. 

To close off this hour, here is Frank Sinatra with “It’s Nice To Go Traveling,” on Afterglow.

MUSIC - FRANK SINATRA, “IT’S NICE TO GO TRAVELING”

Frank Sinatra and arranger Billy May with “It’s Nice To Go Traveling,” the closing track off of his 1958 album Come Fly With Me, written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn.

And thanks for tuning in to this jet-setting edition of Afterglow.

MUSIC CLIP - ILLINOIS JACQUET AND HIS ALL STARS, “FLYING HOME, PART 1”

Afterglow is part of the educational mission of Indiana University and produced by WFIU Public Radio in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. The executive producer is John Bailey.

Playlists for this and other Afterglow programs are available on our website. That’s at indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow.

I’m Mark Chilla, and join me next week for our mix of Vocal Jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, here on Afterglow