Stompin' At The Savoy

STOMPIN' AT THE SAVOY - This set of original Benny Goodman recordings covers the time from the very outset of the band that was to make dance band and jazz history to the beginning of it's second year of life. A dance band it certainly was, as the young people who propelled it to fame that summer night in the Palomar Ballroom, Los Angeles proved, and there can be no denying it was a jazz organization, playing arrangements by musicians who knew their craft thoroughly, such as Spud Murphy, Jimmy Mundy, and above all, Fletcher Henderson. These arrangers left generous passages in their scores - themselves arranged to allow for a 'hot' sound from the band as a whole - for brilliant soloists other than the leader himself. Thus we find short but interesting, even exciting solos from Bunny Berigan, the little-known and undeservedly unrecognized Nate Kazebier, trumpets, and Joe Harris, the young trombonist from the erstwhile capital of ragtime, Sedalia, Missouri, who drew inspiration in his playing and singing from the great Jack Teagarden, but who died in a car crash in 1952; there are parts for Jess Stacy, the pianist from Cape Girardeau, also in Missouri, and backing the whole band, the combined talents of the leader's brother Harry Goodman on bass and Gene Krupa on drums.