This week’s Hot New Local Single comes to us from the prolific Ned Kantar, who has been a main stay in the Twin Cities Music Scene for fifty years.
It’s an arrangement of “Indiana” performed by the Budapest Scoring Big Band.
The song was published in January, 1917 by Tin-Pan Alley songwriter James Hanley in collaboration with lyricist Ballard McDonald. It has been a jazz standard since it was first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917 and artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Jim Nabors, and Bobby Darin have committed the song to wax. Improvising musicians have always been fond of the chords for “Indiana” and there are a number of contrafacts, i.e., melodies based on the original chords. The most famous of these is “Donna Lee,” composed by Charlie Parker or Miles Davis or even perhaps drummer Tiny Kahn, depending on who you believe.
For this chart, Kantar says he added his own chord embellishments and opted for a flugelhorn solo as opposed to trumpet. There’s something about the opening chorus and the drum fills that make me think of tap dancing and glitzy Broadway numbers. There are good solo spots for tenor sax, flugelhorn, and trombone, and a chorus in which the pianist and the guitarist trade fours.
By the way, if you enjoy Ned Kantar’s big band writing, don’t forget to check out Big Band Scene, hosted by Larry Neumann Sunday nights at 6 on Jazz88.
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