Search - Eddy Duchin :: Best of Big Bands

Beautiful music, soothing sensual old recordings

Tom B | Westport, CT USA | 04/03/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Eddy Duchin was one of the most brilliant pianists and bandleaders of his day, which goes back to the 1930's. This wonderful collection of old recordings soothes, pleases and makes me tap my fingers -- and a couple of times while playing it at dinner it inspired my wife to lead me from the dining room table to dance to the songs. And we're not even very old!These musical gems from a simpler era of our history are an emotional time machine, a little magic carpet ride to a kind of romance that people in their forties and beyond will remember and younger folks will tune in on quickly, so deft is the art of these players and singers. Some big band recordings are brass-centered jitterbug music; this is dreamy, lush, plush and sensual, and yet rhythmic and danceable.This is one of my favorite records and gets a lot of play -- and I have over two thousand records. Five stars for sure. Treat yourself to a trip to another era -- put on this record and imagine you're dancing in the Starlight Room or listening to the band on your AM radio. This record is a winner."

Best of Big Bands

Dr. Krzysztof Z. Polakowski | ROCHESTER, NY United States | 12/26/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Old recordings with poor sound quality, despite a new method of restoring sound recording by CEDAR. Eddy Duchin was famous as a pianist with unique, personal style. There is not much of him on this recording, which is a disappointment.Good source of his piano artistry are old piano rolls (late twenties and early thirties), which could be released in the form of digitally re-mastered recordings (as it happened with the original Gershwin's recordings)."

Some good stuff but not enough..poorish sound quality

Greg Brady | Capital City | 04/11/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I'll agree with the good Doctor as to the sound quality. Granted, these are vintage recordings but there's a large degree of hiss on these. The liners don't specify whether they are sufficiently "late" recordings that these were done off of tape masters or whether they had to be created from available acetates/78s and the like. These have been treated with CEDAR Noise Processing, which in my experience is not as good as those I've heard processed with NoNoise instead, though I don't believe the industry is using either system to a large degree anymore.



As to the content, guest vocalists for these tracks are Lew Sherwood on "Snuggled On Your Shoulder","Can't We Talk it Over?","I've Told Every Little Star","Night and Day" and "After You, Who?"...Frank Munn for "The Song is You"...Dick Robertson for "My Cousin in Milwaukee"...Patricia Norman for "Ol' Man Mose" (the liners note that the chorus of "he kicked the buck-buck-bucket!" caused a minor scandal at the time from those who misheard the lyric. As a modern day listener unaware of that, hearing it now it indeed does sound a times like an "f") and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"...Mary Martin for "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love"..June Robbins for "Our Love Affair" (dueting with Johnny Drake) and "Jenny"...and Stanley Worth for "September Song". The liner notes have a decent amount of information, though session and recording date information is omitted (year of release on many songs is mentioned in the midst of the bio).



I'll also agree with the doc that if you're getting this hoping to hear lots of piano features from Duchin it seems to be fairly downplayed in these recordings. As a bigger fan of "hot" sounds than "sweet", the highlights for me here are "Ol' Man Mose" (which must have been quite irreverent for the day as Norman sings gleefully of Mose's passing a la Louis Armstrong's "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" and the saucy "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and "Jenny", with spirited backing vocals from the Duchin band, about a woman of easy virtue. (The latter features this great line: "But at 17 to Vassar it was quite a blow/That in 27 languages she couldn't say no")



Probably the low point for me is "My Cousin in Milwaukee" which features a rather un-hep vocal from Dick Robertson about a female cousin who's rather homely but gets plenty of male attention thanks to her vocal proficiency. Robertson goes on to tell you of his own singing "if you think I'm a wow/Thank my cousin in Milwaukee/ because she taught me how". Robertson's missed a few lessons..his singing here's about as relaxed as a freshly starched shirt.



BOTTOM LINE:

Unless you're buying it for nostalgia's sake, modern ears don't hear a whole lot here to suit post 2000 sensibilities. Most of the singing tends too much toward opera rather than jazz to hold my interest. The sound quality also docks it. If you're looking for Duchin, this might NOT be a good introduction.



2 1/2 stars (sound quality docks it)"