I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . . . love these Steve Backer CDs. I have several. Great one disc compilations . . . though Dorsey got a three-CD treatment, I think.
Dear Friends. Thank you! I am drawing on Benny for solace in this time of uncertainty. As a very small example, I figure that if this music got us through one of the worst times in our history, it can help again. I got a big kick out of this forum and it re-started my BG collection many months ago. I don't attribute to this to any metaphysical reason, but I am sure glad that I did start turning my attention to BG last year. I often sit and listen in awe to some of these recordings and wonder if people listening "in real life and real time" in the early 1930s felt the same given their uncertainties and also gained some of the same solaces that I have felt. I've been a big fan of Benny's work since at least 1988, so its not some sort of crisis-induced epiphany for me personally, but I certainly do now think that I understand the situation in the early 1930s and Benny's appeal much better than I thought I ever would have. I have expressed my love of the 1930s recordings previously. They have new meaning for me as I look for hope for the future.
What draws me to the music (since 1981) and in particular, Goodman, is it’s exciting forward looking and daring approach. When Goodman started moving his band towards the more progressive, at the time, Henderson and Mandy arrangements, something clicked. We are looking at and hearing this in hindsight and ear! Goodman took a huge chance and became one of the first and biggest music superstars ever, Elvis was the Goodman of his day, not the other way around as I have heard it. This really became the music of hopeful youth. Have you seen the pictures of Goodman holding his clarinet to his chest as he is being charged by some teens? And, Goodman always was innovating and taking chances, first with Wilson and then Hampton. And, the myth that Hammond convinced Goodman to add an electric guitar is dispelled by the air check with Goodman and Leonard Ware several months earlier. And, then all those beautifully intricate Sauter arrangements. As for the music of the era in general it often is thrilling and beautiful at the same time, Baise’s “Easy Does It” with Young’s otherworldly solo or anything by Armstrong or Ellington. Basically, I see your point and agree! Time for some more swing (I listened to the 3rd part of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem Ben Webster presentation today, Loren Schoenberg featured some incredibly rare stuff from the early 1940s Ellington period).
Re-reading "Wrappin' it Up". I did miss it on page xxiii and xxiv. Still can't believe it, but there it is in print.
A good day to listen to my Benny Goodman 45 RPM box sets. I have seven of them. I think they all are sets from the early 1950s that originally were issued as 78 RPM "albums".
I love those 45 sets. I have a couple... but not 8! I have the "big brother" Orthophonic 33 1/3 set and do find it odd. I wonder how RCA marketed it in the 50's with few discernible hits. Was it the remastering of 78s onto that set that made it a seller? Or the numerous Glenn Miller sets that they co-produced that made the big bands fashionable once again? I've always assumed that the 50s was the lull for the bands as their time had just passed and given that the nostalgia of the 70s had not yet set in. I am very glad, BTW, for the 7os nostalgia as that gave me all the Bluebirds and many other Big Band sets that I still very much enjoy. There is no end to my joy of those remastered RCA Bluebirds!
It must have sold fairly well because they seem to be readily available on eBay and aren't too expensive. Some (at this forum) have criticized RCA Victor for issuing their big band material with added reverb to simulate stereo (on mono vinyl), implying that all post war reissues were done that way. My experience is that RCA Victor did it infrequently. The only recordings I have that were produced that way are the Goodman collection under discussion and the album pictured below (which I've often noted is one of my all time favorite album covers). It indeed was a regretful decision by RCA Victor, but they seem to have used it sparingly and abandoned it after a few years. Love the back, as well.
I went through all of the Goodman 1950s or later RCA Victor LPs that I have and I could only find a few examples of "Stereo Effect Reprocessed from Monophonic", which is the Best of/Pure Gold LP (LSP-4005e)/(ANL1-0973), RCA Camden "Swing, Swing, Swing" and "A Legendary Performer" (CPL1-2470), so I think they used it sparingly and it looks like only for "greatest hits" / compilations (I found the same for the Glenn Miller RCA Victors of the same era). Perhaps it was just to appeal to a broader audience who expected that everything should be stereo or to market an "enhanced sound", but certainly, it's not on everything RCA did during and after the 50s. I don't have every single Goodman re-issue, so there may be other examples. I went back and listened to the effect on"Pure Gold" and compared it to "Glenn Miller Plays Selections..." (LSP-1192e) and the effect on Goodman's disc is not nearly as bad as on the Miller disc. As I wrote earlier, the effect on "American Patrol" and others on that disc are egregious. "Sing, Sing, Sing" gets a little bouncy. I forgot I had "The Best of" (LSP-4005e), which has the "effect" until writing this andI heard no difference between it and "Pure Gold".
The Bluebird Sing Sing Sing greatest hits Goodman compilation on CD (Steve Backer 1987) sounds perfectly fine.
Most likely because the reverb effect wasn't added. My reference was to the "Best of/ Pure Gold" LPs with the reverb effect.
I read Swing Swing Swing as Sing Sing Sing and thought it might have been the vinyl version of the CD I have. At least some of the Bluebird CDs issued the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the one I was referring to, had vinyl predecessors. I suspect that either both or neither of the CD and vinyl versions have any added effects. The Clambake Seven LP and CD versions seems to be the same in this regard. I believe the same holds true for the LP version of the "Golden Age of Swing" set. I'm not sure if that was ever issued on CD.
Interestingly, some of the CD direct releases of their predecessors on vinyl that did have the reverb effect do NOT have the effect on the CD re-issue. The LP version of Swing, Swing, Swing on RCA Camden had it, but the CD reissue did not. Same for Pure Gold. The remaster onto the CD is actually quite good.
I have a number of Benny Goodman albums (Vinyl), However I keep coming back to this one because I think his extended version of Sing Sing Sing is one of the best. It is on a DECCA Phase4 Label. Benny Goodman and his orchestra... recorded live in Stockholm.
It is a very good version, and I think it might be the longest (Goodman) version at +14 minutes for parts 1 and 2. Carnegie 40th version is just over 10mins.
I don't have any of the RCA 45 rpm box sets, but did acquire a batch of the same-era Columbia sets to try to untangle discographical uncertainties and errors. At least one of those took a long time to hit my hands. That 45 set you pictured was a circa-1950 issue from RCA of the Trio sides. RCA was still pushing the 45rpm format on its side of the "speed wars," so this was the primary issue. The only 78-rpm release of this package was to disc jockeys: white-label "preview" pressings which cited the 45rpm catalog numbers. This particular package got a push from George T Simon and RCA: there's a 12-inch LP containing an interview by Simon with Goodman about these sides, again meant for radio stations. Used with the music, it makes a nice little 25-minute radio program. Columbia, on its side of the "speed wars" pushed both the LP (10-inch and 12-inch multiple tracks) and LP singles (33 1/3rpm 7-inch), but eventually also issued 45s: Most Goodman Columbia 45rpm boxes stretched from about 1950 to 1953, were numbered in a "G 4-xx" series. They paralleled LPs issued simultaneously. (The last two Goodman G 4- boxes I have are actually EPs: two tracks per side. One of them was the one that eluded me for a long time: G 4-19, "...Presents Arrangements By Eddie Sauter," simultaneously issued on LP GL 523.) Other series-sets of Columbia boxes / gatefolds had a longer span. B-250 is the Carnegie Hall Concert (LP: SL-160), covering 12 45rpm discs. Real chore to roll that one on a manual turntable. A-1040 is the "Jazz Concert #2" (Bill Savory airchecks), omitting the opening and closing themes - 10 discs. B-113 (I don't have this) reissues the "Sextet Session" first put out on 78rpm set C-113 C-170 (78rpm set) Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman reappeared on 10" LP (CL 6033) and 45/EP B 406. 1955's "The Benny Goodman Story" bio-pic prompted a flood of reissues. Just a couple mentions: Carnegie Hall got reissued on three 12-inch LPs... and three EP gatefold sets (B-814 / 5 / 6). This was also when that RCA "Golden Age of Swing" 5-LP album was released (LPT-6703), along with its "little brother" 15-EP set (EPOT 6703.) One auctioneer asked me a while back how many copies of that "limited edition" RCA produced. My not-quite serious answer was "as many as they could sell." I later found that at least initially they planned to cap it at 60,000 copies. I'm pretty sure they went beyond that with unnumbered box copies (versus numbered "album" copies).
Excellent and informative summary. Thanks! Regarding the "limited edition" 45 RPM set, mine is #721. Must have been grabbed early by a Goodman fan. Of all of the Goodman 45 RPM sets I have I find Jazz Concert No.2 (two boxes) the most impressive. But I haven't heard any other versions of this material. The least impressive probably is The Benny Goodman Trio Plays for the Fletcher Henderson Fund. The performances are fine, but it does not sound well recorded. Could always be my particular copy, of course.
This is from Russ Connor’s discography and may explain the sound, I have it on several sources and it doesn’t sound that great on any of them. “Fletcher Henderson, Benny's longtime arranging genius, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in December 1950, then a second seizure six weeks later. His funds were exhausted. Radio station WNEW disc jockey Martin Block solicited Benny's aid in playing a benefit for "Smack," and Benny agreed immediately. Together they rounded up the original Goodman Trio, added other well-known musicians, and on April 1 broadcast on Hender- son's behalf via WNEW. The program was transcribed onto a limited-edition premium-priced LP by Columbia. All proceeds of its sale went to Henderson; the musicians got nothing. A little over a year later Columbia reissued the record on its regular label at retail, a practice viewed dimly by those who, in good faith, had paid a high price for the first issue. Given the date of the broadcast, it was April Fool! for collectors.“
The sound for this broadcast recording does sound different from other things of this vintage, but not "bad" to my ears - it was recorded live in WNEW's studios, so it'd certainly sound different than something from, say, Columbia's Liederkranz Hall studio. I asked Russ Connor about his listings for this release once, and he did intentionally omit listing the Columbia GL 516 - listed the later CL 516 to emphasize it was a reissue. Russ was one of those who'd paid a premium price for a low-numbered M(artin)B(lock)-1000 original-release LP. And he was not happy, to say the least. Unmentioned by Russ, related in a later biography by someone else: reportedly it was Benny Goodman himself who arranged the Columbia retail reissue to garner further funds for Fletcher, who'd suffered further health setbacks.
The overall sound is good . . . maybe even very good. But there are instances of distortion, as I recall. Again, it could be my copy. I actually bought this recording twice. The first (non-EP in a box) had uneven groove wear that destroyed one side of the groove. I then bought the EP version in a gatefold jacket. That one sounded much better. (On my shelf I have the EP version in the non-EP box.) I've considered more than once trying to get another copy, but always decided against it. What I have might be as good as it gets as far as the old 45s go, and I rather spend my Goodman dollar elsewhere.
I’m wanting to buy the BG Carnegie hall 1938 on cd, which is the recommended version to buy? I see the old 87 cd version and a 99 one remastered by Phil Schaap. Any others or which of these should I go for sound quality wise?
I finally got the 1999 disc. I had the 1987 Sony Release. I bought the Jasmine disc (https://www.amazon.com/Benny-Goodma...oodman+Carnegie+jasmine&qid=1588364335&sr=8-2) a few months back. IMHO, until the Seth Winner version comes out, the Jasmine version is the one to get and blows the other two away. The 1999 release sounds worse than my 1950 LP set. The 1987 version is muddy throughout and distorted in places.
thanks for the info. Appreciate it. I was put off by the Jasmine release due to the mention of CEDAR being used. I’m a not a fan of NR being overly applied. Is this not the case with the Jasmine one then?
