Stories of Standards: “Travelin’ Light”

Tune in to Jazz with Victor Cooper – weekdays from 6-9 a.m. MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long starting Monday, May 28!

Stories of Standards is sponsored by ListenUp – If you love music, you’ll love ListenUp.

Trummy Young and Jimmy Mundy  composed “Travelin’ Light” in 1942; Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics. First recorded 12 June 1942 by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra with Billie Holiday, it hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade charts on three separate occasions. That first recording was re-released in October 1944 as a “V-Disc” by the U. S. War Department, which distributed copies overseas to military personnel. Artists who have made recordings range from Billie Holiday to Andre Previn, Harry James and Queen Latifah.

Trummy Young (1912-1984) was born in Savannah, Georgia, and had moved from trumpet and drums to trombone by 1930. He played first with Earl Hines, then with the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (where he also sang), Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong from 1952 to 1964, when he moved to Hawaii.

Jimmy Mundy (1907-1983) sold his first arrangements in 1932 to the Claude Hopkins band, then joined Earl Hines’ “Grand Terrace” band later the same year. Originally hired as a saxophonist, he soon worked primarily as an arranger and went on to join Benny Goodman’s band, where his arrangements included “Sing, Sing, Sing” (1936) as well as “And the Angles Sing” (1939). He worked on Broadway musicals until his 1959 move to Paris, where he was musical director for Barclay Records. Having returned to the United States in the 1960s he continued to write through the 1970s.

Johnny Mercer (1909-1976) wrote lyrics for more than 1,000 songs for Broadway and Hollywood, was a talented singer who won a competition staged by Paul Whiteman and cofounded Capitol Records. “Moon River”, a song written for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1962) inspired the Georgia State Legislature to change the name of a waterway running by his home from the Back River to Moon River. Ginger Mercer, Johnny’s widow, created The Johnny Mercer Foundation to support songwriting in the tradition of the Great American Songbook.