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This is actually a 2 CD set - make sure if you order it you are getting two CDs and notes! You will be rewarded with a terrific purchase, one of the greatest of all the Swing bands at the height of its glory days.
In January 1937 a new trumpet player, just 21, joined up with the Goodman Band. At that point in time the band and master arranger Fletcher Henderson had been working together for two years, and in truth the music needed something new and vital - the new trumpet player Harry James was just the ticket! He brought enormous excitement and glamour and then some, and in a remarkable way James translates his style and energy to the whole ensemble. Redoubtable jazz critic Otis Ferguson traveled for a while with the band - his description of the brass section with James is one of the greatest eulogies of any jazz musicians. After a paragraph of hurrahs, Ferguson summed up their playing as follows,
"(It) Represents a combination of technical severity with unaffected joy in performance that has never been achieved in the music of any people."
This two CD set captures the recordings made by the band from January 14, 1937, through December 23, 1938. The sources were excellent original metal parts and test pressings preserved in the BMG Music/RCA Records vaults, and the transfers, made in 1996, are all newly done to digital using a Cedar machine to help reduce some of the extraneous noise.
Highpoint of this set, and possibly the highlight of all Swing music, "Sing, Sing, Sing", rockets away into jazz history with a series of solos by Goodman, Musso on tenor sax, and James playing a remarkable horn solo free of any harmonic restrictions, and all this then carried away to a shattering climax under Krupa's mad drum solo. Jimmy Mundy 'arranged' all this, but in truth it's a bit of a group effort! Not surprising, given the title, this number initially was a vocal for Helen Ward, but Gene Krupa began taking over and eventually the piece morphed into the absolute monster it became.
In March of 1938 Gene Krupa left the band, and along with new drummer Dave Tough the band picked up Bud Freeman; both had played with Goodman in Chicago. Their arrival ushered in new freer arrangments by Edgar Sampson, which would, after the band settled in, produce some nice music, though nothing quite like the previous year. A few months later Tough is in full flight, and leads a rousing conclusion in "Bumble Bee Stomp". The second CD finishes up with the December 1938 sessions, and mark the end of Harry James' association with the Goodman band. The first few cuts on the second side are out of chronological order, so check the notes.
Currently Amazon allows you to sample the first of the two CDs - that should give a good idea of what's here. Most of the arrangements on the second side are good without being outstanding, but the best ones on the first CD are sensational, and here, too, some alternative takes are offered. There are full notes listing times and who plays in each selection, usually blocked off in sessions. Fine notes by Loren Schoenberg make this a winning purchase.
It's not difficult listening to this ultra rich collection of great soloists - all you would need to make it perfect is a mild Sunday strech of highway along the California coast and a '36 Buick Roadmaster Convertible, the first year for that legendary marque.
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