Benny Goodman Orchestra on SWR JAZZHAUS

courtesy of Naxos of America

Those that have been following this site for some time are probably aware of my interest (facilitated by Naxos of America) in the SWR JAZZHAUS albums of recordings of jazz performances taken from radio broadcasts in Germany. (SWR is the South-Western Broadcasting network in that country, previously known as SWF for Südwestfunk.) Indeed, since the onset of the COVID pandemic, my spirits have been lifted by two releases in the Jazz Heroes series, the “heroes” being Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Pettiford.

This past November I learned that SWR JAZZHAUS also had a Big Bands Live series, which had released an SWF Jazz-Session program from October 15, 1959 performed by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Probably because of distribution problems, the CD version only appears to be available from overseas sources, such as Presto Music; but, as of this past January 7, the album has been available for download from an Amazon.com Web page. Furthermore, the full-album download includes the PDF of the accompanying booklet (eight pages, two of which are in German).

The program consists of two sets, each of which would fit comfortably on a single CD. The first consists of nine tracks, the first of which is a very brief, but obligatory, account of Goodman’s “theme song,” “Let’s Dance,” composed by Gregory Stone and Joseph Bonime. (For those unfamiliar with this tune, it is a jazzed-up version of one of the waltz themes in Carla Maria von Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance.” Given that Hector Berlioz had orchestrated Weber’s original piano version, a jazz account of that source strikes me as fair game!) The remaining seven tracks would fill a second CD. The last of them is a medley of seven tunes from the Goodman Band repertoire, including favorites, such as Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” (With a Swing).”

This session also featured Anita O’Day as guest vocalist. Indeed, one might even say that Goodman’s own clarinet work tended to take second place to O’Day’s vocal interpretations. As a result, Goodman comes across as graciously modest in his performances as a soloist, paying more attention to leading an ensemble to support O’Day.

Mind you, that ensemble had some familiar members that, these days, tend to be better known for their combo work. The most notable of those would be Red Norvo on vibraphone and Flip Philips on tenor saxophone. Indeed, Goodman’s “orchestra” is actually more of a “large combo” of ten instrumentalists (including Goodman himself). In the context of my own preference for the combos on the Jazz Heroes album, I found this account of Goodman more engaging than what I expect from “big band” performances.