"Good evening, lovers of fine music. Welcome to the no-doubt world-famous Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, and another concert dedicated to the perpetuation of the three B's - barrelhouse, boogie-woogie, and the blues."

Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2011 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited.

Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was molded in the essence that it would be verbally satirical, but when the music started, it produced one of the best swing music on the air. To add more humor to the show, the announcer was Milton Cross, the long-lasting announcer to the sallow-faced Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Milton would pile on long-haired grandeur upon the commonest distributor of rhythm and blues.

The show served as the launching pad for the venerable Dinah Shore and included appearances by artists such as Eddie Condon. Milton Cross once said that "she starts a fire by rubbing two notes together," which explains the nickname "the one-woman torchlight parade." With star-studded power like this, Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street guarantees a swingin' good