Jan Garber - Melody From The Sky: Hits & Memories 1923-51 (2021)

Jan Garber was a violinist and bandleader with his musical roots in the hot jazz-based dance band music of the 1920s and whose orchestra evolved to become one of the many highly successful bands playing “sweet” music on radio and record during the 1930s and into post-war years. So popular was he on radio that he was known as “The Idol Of The Air Lanes”, a phrase which appeared for years on his record labels. His records were also consistently successful, to the extent that he had nearly 60 hits during his career. This 73-track 3-CD set comprises selected A & B sides from this era on the Victor, Columbia, Brunswick, Vocalion, Okeh, Hit, Black & White and Capitol labels, and features all but a couple of his 59 career hits, including the No. 1s “All I Do Is Dream Of You”, “A Beautiful Lady In Blue” and “A Melody From The Sky”. As with many of the orchestras of this time, the titles featured here include the original commercial recordings of future Great American Songbook classics from Broadway, Hollywood or Tin Pan Alley, with his featured vocalists including Webb Hahne, Fritz Heilbron, Lee Bennett, Russell Brown, Liz Tilton, Bob Davis, Tommy Traynor and Tim Reardon. The collection provides a substantial insight into the most popular recordings among his prolific output and the progression of his music across the years, spanning four calendar decades, and an evocative window onto the musical zeitgeist of the era.