THE YALE UNIVERSITY MUSIC LIBRARY
BENNY GOODMAN
Volume 3: Big Band in Europe
[1] Let's Dance
[2]Bugle Call Rag
[3] On the Sunny Side of the Street
[4] 'Deed I Do
[5] Who Cares?
[6] Blue Skies
[7] I Want a Little Girl
[8] Sometimes I'm Happy
[9] A Fine Romance
[10] Harvard Blues
[11] I'm Coming Virginia
[12] Soon
[13] Medley: I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, I Hadn't Anyone Till You, I've Got You Under My Skin
[14] Pennies from Heaven
[15] Stompin' at the Savoy
[16] Flying Home
[17] This Is My Lucky Day
[18] Roll 'Em
[19] Brussels Blues
[20] When You're Smiling
Benny Goodman, Clarinet
John Frosk, Taft Jordan, E.V. Perry, Billy Hodges, Trumpets
Rex Peer, Willie Dennis, Vernon Brown, Trombones
Ernie Mauro, Al Block, Alto saxophones
Zoot Sims, Seldon Powell, Tenor saxophones
Gene Allen, Baritone saxophone
Sir Roland Hanna, Piano
Billy Bauer, Guitar; Arvell Shaw, Bass Roy Burnes, Drums
Jimmy Rushing, Ethel Ennis, Vocals
QUINTET
Benny Goodman plus rhythm section
OCTET J
Quintet plus:
John Frosk, Trumpet (Taft Jordan replaces Frosk on Flying Home)
Zoot Sims, Tenor saxophone
Gene Allen, Baritone saxophone
NONET
Octet plus Willie Dennis, Trombone
Composers (Editions-all ASCAP):
SONGWRITERS/PUBLISHERS:
Track 1: Stone, Bonime, Baldridge; Track 2: Blake, Morgan; Track 3: Fields, McHugh (Shapiro Bernstein & Co.); Track 4: Hirsch, Rose (Music of the Times Publishing Corp.); Track 6: Berlin (Irving Berlin Music Corp.); Track 7: Mencher, Moll (Shapiro Bernstein & Co.); Track 8: Caesar, Grey, Youmans (Harms, Inc.); Track 9: Fields, Kern (T.B. Harms Co.); Track 10: Basie, Frazier (Bregman, Vocco & Conn, Inc.); Track 11: Cook, Heyward; Track 12: G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin (New World Music Corp.); Track 13a: Arlen, Koehler (Harms, Inc.); Track 13b: Noble (Bourne Co.); Track 14: Burke, Johnston (Anne Rachel Music Corp.); Track 15: Goodman, Razaf, Sampson (Pie Corporation, Robbins Music Corp.); Track 16: Goodman, Hampton, Robin (Jewel Music Publishing Co., Inc., Regent Music Corp.); Track 18: Williams (Robbins Music Corp.); Track 19: Goodman, Rushing (Park Ridge Music Corp.); Track 20: Fisher, Goodwin, Shay
Nineteen fifty-eight was quite a year for Benny Goodman. There had been a resurgence of interest in his big band after ''The Benny Goodman Story" was released in the spring of 1956, and Benny had accepted hotel and tour dates for the first time (with a full band) in quite a while. There had been a stint at the Waldorf-Astoria, followed by more touring, a State Department sponsored trip to the Far East in December, and a return to the WaldorfAstoria in March 1957. Later that spring, Urbie
Green fronted the band on a series of national tours that only rarely featured Benny. In early 1958, Benny put together an all-star band for the first of two "Swing into Spring" television specials; and it was immediately following that broadcast that he formed yet another band, featuring some veterans (Zoot Sims, Taft Jordan, Vernon Brown, Billy _Bauer, and Arvell Shaw) and some very talented newcomers (Roy Burnes and Roland Hanna).
The pairing of Jimmy Rushing with Benny was an inspired one; and credit must be given to D. Russ Connor, the definitive Goodman collector and bio-discographer, for suggesting "Mr. Five by Five" to Benny. The band rehearsed in New York during late April and early May and worked its way to the Brussels World Fair with dates in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, and several other cities. Its members arrived in Brussels on May 24 and began their
engagement at the American Pavilion the next day. They were the guests of the Westinghouse Broadcasting Corporation, who recorded every note played during the band's week-long engagement.
After returning to New York in early June, Benny took a well-deserved rest for a month, returning to work with an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 4. That was followed by a series of recordings and concerts with yet another newly formed band, many of whose recordings will be found on subsequent albums in this series. Now to Brussels!
Things get under way with the "short" version of Benny's theme, Let's Dance. This version is especially fetching since the traditional arpeggio at the end is humorously modified. Benny celebrated his 49th birthday during this engagement and was frequently in high spirits. The familiar trumpet break launches the band into Jimmy Mundy's 1936 arrangement of Bugle Taft Call Rag. The bands main soloists are heard here in fleet solos; trumpeter Taff Jordan, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, trombonists Vernon Brown and Rex Peer, and BG himself.After the last note, you can hear Benny say 'That's the old pepper!" which meant that he thought the band was really swinging.
It's a little-known fact that the great blues singer Jimmy Rushing recorded with the Goodman band before his first recordings with the Basie band, but within days of the Count's arrival for his first New York gig, and a month before their first recording date for Decca Records, "Mr. Five by Five" sang on a BG Victor 78. This was to be their first reunion, He Ain't Got Rhythm and they both seem to inspire each other. On the Sunny Side of the Street has sterling work by both of them.
Since the early '30s, Benny had been sought out by vocalists (Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, the Boswell Sisters, and Russ Columbo, to name just a few) because of his great skills as an accompanist. His work on this and all the other vocal tracts shows that he hasn’t lost any of his abilities. Ethel Ennis, now a distinguished member of the jazz community for a few decades, was making her first “name band” appearance and Goodman featured her generously. Bobby Gutesha’s chart on ‘Deed I Do sets off Ennis to great advantage. Although Benny didn’t play this tune very often, Ben Pollack’s December 1926 recording of it contained the very first commercially issued Benny Goodman solo.
discography. This Gutesha reworking of Who Cares? is played by a nonet, with first trumpeter Johnny Frosk carrying most of the lead. Benny's two solo choruses are fresh, as is the wonderful rhythm section of pianist Roland Hanna, guitarist Billy Bauer, bassist Arvell Shaw, and drummer Roy Burnes.
Irving Berlin's Blue Skies had several incarnations in the BG book over the years, most notably Fletcher Henderson's classic 1935 arrangement and vocalist Art Lund's very popular 1945 Columbia recording. This version is more informal, with just BG, Rushing, and the rhythm section, with the band joining in for the last chorus. I Want a Little Girl is a rarity -this is the only known Goodman performance. Benny's soulful solo elicits a spontaneous affirmation from Rushing.
The variety of instrumental combinations featured in the Goodman small groups heard in Brussels is unique in the Goodman
This version of Vincent Youmans' Sometimes I'm Happy, as arranged by Fletcher Henderson, is notable for the exquisite muted trumpet solo by Taft Jordan. The justly celebrated Bunny Berigan solo on the original recording was rarely approached in subsequent performances, but this is one of the few that come close. The tenor solo is by the redoubtable Seldon Powell. A Fine Romance is a charming duet for Rushing and Ennis. Sid Feller's arrangement is a model of taste and melodiousness.
The Goodman band playing Harvard Blues? That's right, and Zoot Sims joins Rushing in the famous 1942 Basie arrangement. The lyrics were written by George Frazier, one of the earliest and best American writers on jazz. (The Reinhardt referred to was a legendary 19th-century undergraduate, who, legend has it, used to stand outside his window and call his own name. This gave the illusion of a crowded social calendar. Ever since then, his name has been a rallying cry around the Harvard campus. A "Vincent baby" was a young woman who belonged to one of the exclusive social clubs on campus.) Sims and Rushing team up once again for a brisk romp on I'm Coming Virginia. The nonet returns with another beautiful Gutesha chart, this time of Gershwin's Soon. Baritone saxophonist Gene Allen plays very sensitively, making his absence from the music world all the more regrettable. The virtues of sticking to a composer's original melody are represented beautifully by Ethel Ennis in the medley of I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, I Hadn't Anyone Till You, and I've Got You Under My Skin. Gutesha's writing is very effective, and don't miss Zoot's beautiful obbligato on the second title. Both Benny and Jimmy had recorded Pennies from Heaven when it first came out over 20 years earlier -- Rushing with the Basie band, Benny with Billie Holiday. This version, by the octet,
spotlights the two principals plus another little gem from Gene Allen. Benny's tone is especially well captured here.
Edgar Sampson's Stompin' at the Savoy remained in Goodman's repertoire from 1935 right up until the end. This is a rare example of the big band playing a different chart from the original. Taft Jordan and the great but shortlived trombonist Willie Dennis trade solos before Zoot's elegant bridge. Although Flying Home is readily identified as Lionel Hampton's theme song, it was first recorded in 1939 by the Goodman Sextet, which featured Hampton in addition to the innovative guitarist Charlie Christian. This version is a jam session by the octet, with solos by Allen, Jordan, Sims, Hanna, and the leader. Ethel Ennis returns with This Is My Lucky Day, in a rather untypical arrangement by Gil Evans.
One of the few original Goodman charts from the '30s played by the band was Mary Lou Williams' Roll 'Em. Through the years, the original chart was expanded to suit the particular personnel in the band. Here it is a two-part opus. The first part features Hanna, Sims and Powell trading fours, Jordan, and Benny. Part two is ushered in by Hanna again, then Rushing takes over. The vocal portion evolved into a separate number, Brussels Blues, by the end of the week.
When You're Smiling is another tune Benny rarely played. It was recorded for Capitol in 1947 in a trio rendition with Teddy Wilson and Jimmie Crawford, but that version remains a rarity. This George Williams arrangement is played well, and it has a little Zoot in it besides Benny.
The 1958 Brussels engagement bears the distinction of featuring more new music, both arrangements and tunes, than were ever to be played in any other Goodman band (with the possible exception of the 1948-49 bebop band). Both the band and the leader himself t
hrew themselves into the assignment with great relish and verve, and the performances included herein sound better with each hearing.
Loren Schoenberg
January 26, 1989
Loren Schoenberg was engaged by Yale University as a consultant to select the recordings for Musicmasters' series of Benny Goodman releases and to prepare the master tapes in Yale's Benny Goodman Archives for cataloguing.
