Charlie Parker called him “Symphonic Sidney”
May 12, 1952, was the start of busy week for Norman Furman, the general manager at Boston’s WHEE radio, 1090 on the AM dial. The owners wanted a new sound, and Furman went to work on that immediately upon his April arrival. On May 12, he had some results.
First, a new deejay started that day. Sabby Lewis, the man who personified Boston jazz in the 1940s, would host a one-hour show, six days a week, in the early evening. (Find more on Lewis here, here and here.) “He will be,” announced the Boston Chronicle, “the first colored band leader disc jockey ever in Boston.” They did not say he was the first African-American deejay in Boston, period. He wasn’t. That was Eddy Petty at WVOM. But hiring Lewis demonstrated that Furman, who introduced all-black programming to WLIB in New York City, intended to bring more of that programming to WHEE.
During the week of May 12, the station changed its call letters to WBMS, for “World’s Best Music Station,” its original call when the station first went on the air in 1947. The Boston newspapers carried the announcement on May 19.
Furman’s third endeavor for May 12 involved his old friend from New York, Sidney Tarnopol, better known to the radio world as Symphony Sid Torin. Sid was touring the northeast with a show called Jazz Unlimited, which was in for a week at the Hi-Hat. Sid was emcee, and the band included J.J. Johnson on trombone, Phil Urso on tenor, Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. To promote the show, Symphony Sid did a stint as a guest deejay on a station in each city, and hosted remote broadcasts from the clubs where they appeared. Sid’s first guest shot on WBMS was on May 12.
Call it an audition if you like, but not long after the Jazz Unlimited tour, Symphony Sid joined the staff of WBMS. This was a hiring of huge importance. Symphony Sid, the “all-night, all-frantic one,” was a leading figure in jazz radio in New York, and nationally known through his broadcasts from Birdland on WJZ. He was not on the radio in 1952, however; he had been blacklisted in New York after being charged with possession of marijuana in 1949. Torin became a significant presence on Boston radio between 1952 and 1957.
Torin had his daily show, Interlude in Jazz, and a Saturday show, Brother Sid’s Gospel Hour. But WBMS was a day-timer—a station that ended its broadcast day at sunset—and these hours limited the size of the audience. As a result, Torin became a two-station deejay, working out of the WBMS studios by day, and starting in November 1952, broadcasting from the Hi-Hat by night over WCOP-AM. It was Sid who dubbed the Hi-Hat at Mass Ave and Columbus “the Jazz Corner of Boston,” a play on his calling Birdland at Broadway and 52nd “the Jazz Corner of the World.” (Fire closed the Hi-Hat in December 1955, and Torin moved his late evening show to WMEX shortly thereafter.)
In late 1954 Ken Malden switched stations, moving his R&B playlist from WVDA-AM to WBMS. With Ken Malden, Sabby Lewis, and Symphony Sid as deejays, WBMS was playing more jazz, and more black music in general, than any other Boston station.
The Furman regime ended in 1957 when the station went up for sale. Sabby Lewis left sometime in the spring. Furman moved to New York station WEVD, and in August Torin joined him there. In September, Bartell Broadcasting completed its purchase of WBMS and changed its call letters to WILD. Ken Malden stayed on as deejay and program director until 1960, when he headed south to Miami’s WGBS.
The heyday of WBMS coincided with the ascent of modern jazz in Boston, and you can still hear bits of the sountrack of those years, through broadcasts of Symphony Sid’s Hi-Hat shows that were eventually released on CD—of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, to name two.
I can’t think of anything better to hear while reading this post than Lester Young playing his own tune, “Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid.”
And then we had John McLellan and we had the Lonely Gal, who may not have played jazz but she had a memorable theme song: “…if you have arms to spare, lips to share, won’t you be a pal — share them with this lonely gal.”
Leo, you had me as soon as you mentioned “lonely gal.” McLellan is covered elsewhere on this blog, but the Lonely Gal is new to me. I’ll have to ping the Usual Suspects to see what else I can learn about her.
I remember both Symphony Sid snd Ken Malden, but knew Ken better then Toruń. Ken was R&B snd broadcast from atop the Hotel Somerset on Comm. Ave.
Ken’s sign off was “ Sometime Cool, Oftentimes Crazy, but at all times Sincerely, Keeper of this Caper, Ken.
Thanks for the memories.
Thanks for passing along Malden’s signoff. I should go back and add it to my Ken Malden post elsewhere on this blog.
Yes, according to Radio Annual, and to various newspapers of that time, WBMS was indeed at the Hotel Shelton. But speaking of hotels, wasn’t Storyville briefly located at the Hotel Buckminster? And WNAC radio moved next door in the early 1940s– I believe they used the Buckminster’s ballroom for various live events.)
You are correct, Donna – Storyville was in the Buckminster for a time. It opened in the Copley Square Hotel for about six weeks in late 1950, reopened at the Buckminster in Feb 1951, and was back at the Copley Square in Sept 1953. It stayed there until May 1960. Then from Sep 1960 to Dec 1961 it was under new management at the Bradford Hotel. So there’s the capsule history. As for the Buckminster, I could write a whole post on its nightlife history. Many comings and goings. Until then, thanks for stopping by!
Wish I could pull it out of my memory bank but I can’t — as a student at Boston University (1955-1957) I had the good luck to earn a nightly free meal and then somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty dollars by assisting the doorman at the Somerset Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue, just below Kenmore Square. I parked cars, and opened cab doors — one night for George Shearing, on his way to work at Storyville.
What I know but can’t recall is that one of the radio stations that Symphony Sid broadcast from had its studio on an upper floor of the Somerset and Sid, I think, would be leaving about the time we went to work, ie, about 5:00 in the afternoon. But did I see him? Would I know his face as I would know his voice?
But I can still hear his theme — “Jump’n with my boy Sid in the city, president of the DJ committee….”
Sid also was the MC at a jazz concert held in the Boston Arena, home then to the BU hockey team and now torn down, I think.
WBMS was in the Kenmore area, but not at the Somerset as far as I know. I believe they were in the Shelton. I’ll have to dig around. I do know about the concert at the Boston Arena, though. That was in August 1957, and it was the last even Sid emceed before he moved back to New York. The Boston Arena wasn’t torn down — Northeastern bought it, rehabbed it, and renamed it Matthews Arena. Now the Huskies play hockey there. –DV
Those live broadcasts were the geatest…it was during these shows that I first heard Illinois Jacquet…that person changed my music taste and Jacquet became my friend right up to his death in 2004…I also presented Jacquet in concert on three occasions…he was the greatest!
Danny Frank is a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Jacquet Foundation (http://www.illinoisjacquetfoundation.org/), a nonprofit established to support young musicians as well as to honor Jacquet’s memory. Jacquet was a crowd favorite at the Hi-Hat, he played there nine times over the years, and I believe it was during a November 1952 Jacquet engagement that Symphony Sid first broadcast his show from the club. Thanks for stopping by, Danny!