The other night I was listening to (one of) my new favorite Internet streaming stations (KCEA 89.1 FM) when I heard a song that was hauntingly familiar. Just before it ended, I realized it was a big band arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero (a song that I’ve had great love for ever since I first saw the stage show Blast!). Agog, I quickly ran some Google searches to locate the song. I started with “big band adaptation of ravel”. The third hit (Swing, Swing, Swing: The Life & Times of Benny Goodman from books.google.com) contained the following quote: “Fletcher’s ambitious, extremely imaginative adaptation of Ravel’s Bolero”. So I moved on to a search for “Fletcher Henderson bolero” which confirmed that it was Benny Goodman’s orchestra playing the track I heard (which, given Henderson and Goodman’s many collaborations should hardly have been surprising). Lastly, I searched YouTube to locate a recording of the song for all to marvel at. Enjoy! 😀