Search - Bunny Berigan :: Portrait of Bunny

Dixieland meets big band swing

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 05/21/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A nice collection of classic early recordings by one of my favorite big band players, trumpeter Bunny Berrigan. This disc casts a wide net, gathering Berrigan's highlight performances with early editions of the Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Dorsey Brothers bands, as well as in smaller combos along with jazzmen such as Bud Freeman and Cozy Cole. These tracks share in common a penchant for the neo-Dixieland trad-jazz style that this generation of early '30s swingsters often reveled in... It's fun, spirited material -- they obviously had a gas playing this sort of music -- but since the performances are almost all instrumental, other than an opening tune featuring Connee Boswell on "Me Minus You," we miss out on Berrigan's unique skill at accompanying singers, which I think was one of his greatest strengths. A swell set, but his later work as a bandleader is even better."