Search - Benny Goodman :: Goodman, Benny

Awful, should never have been released

John Grabowski | USA | 06/04/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"According to Ross Firestone's account of the sessions that produced these tracks, Benny was in a foul mood, the band was tense, and the product required many takes and a lot editing. It shows. The band barely swings in most of the tracks, and Krupa particularly sounds straitjacketed. (Goodman forbade him from doing his big drumrolls at the end of Sing Sing Sing, and the two almost erupted in fireworks reminiscent of the Earl Theater blowup of 1938 that parted Gene from the band.) The best tunes are Bugle Call Rag, Stompin At The Savoy, It's Been So Long, Avalon and Moonglow. (In the last two, Lionel Hampton is particularly effective at loosening everybody up and getting them to play without inhibition.) That's about it. In the rest of the tracks the soloists never lose their nervousness, the balances are all wrong (the brass too loud, the piano and drums almost inaudible) and some of the choices are strange: the restrained and cool Buck Clayton and Stan Getz are two of my favorite musicians, but they don't belong in Benny's loud, hard-driving band. For a real sampling of how this band sounded, get Columbia's 2 CD set of broadcast recordings from 1937-38. They put these sad performances to shame."