 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2006-09-24 00:27
Over the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time listening to the Yale Archive Recordings by Benny Goodman. For those not familiar with these, Mr. Goodman left a large collection of his charts, personal papers, and unreleased (live, personal) recordings to Yale University just before his death. After Mr. Goodman's death, Yale released, I believe, 10 volumes of these popular recordings, which are now out of print, but available from second hand sellers in a variety of places including on eBay and through a set of Internet music stores that offer their collections through affiliations with Amazon.com. Many of these CDs can still be obtained at or below the price of a new CD; I have been able to purchase volumes 2-7 fairly easily and at fair prices and with good quality CDs that seemed to be musically, if not cosmetically, perfect; a few of the volumes seem to be unavailable except at what I consider to be exorbitant prices.
Most of the tracks on volumes 2-7 were recorded in the 1950s and 1960s, after Mr. Goodman had disbanded his permanent band and assembled bands for relatively short duration jazz tours in the U.S. and Europe. These various bands and some of the Yale recordings are discussed in Firestone's biography of Goodman (Swing, Swing, Swing).
What I found is that the volumes I could obtain had many tracks on them where Mr. Goodman shows a mature side to his jazz work that is very relaxed and seems much less stylized than on his more famous early big band and quartet recordings. And, there is a real sense on many of the selections that he is having a lot of fun. A number of these volumes feature Zoot Sims, and Mr. Goodman does some really fine improvisational work playing off of the licks of Mr. Sims.
I've always been neutral or just slightly positive on Mr. Goodman's work; while I always have appreciated his famous commercial jazz recordings, I sometimes find that my interest in them is more historical than musical. The Yale recordings, however, present a "mature" Goodman sound that seems at most times to be confident, non-contrived, and really responsive to the other musicians in the group; these tracks sound like somebody who has little left to prove and decides to just have fun and what results is some amazing work that summarizes what he has learned over his lifetime. Or, perhaps this is what Goodman sounded like live in a jazz club (as opposed to in some film or TV clips I have seen; in the late 60s when I became old enough to get into a jazz club for live jazz, it was to see folks like Herbie Hancock or Charles Mingus or Ornette Coleman, not an old relic -- at least from the perspective of an 18 year old -- like Benny Goodman).
These recordings caused me to re-evaluate my conclusions about the work of Benny Goodman and I find that I like it far better in these personal, live recordings from the 50s and 60s than I ever have from the famous cuts from the 30s and 40s. And, I wish that I had been able to see him perform live at the end of his career.
These CDs have some really nice tracks on them. And, they are out of print, so if you are interested you may want to locate some of these before they potentially disappear from the inventories of the second-hand sellers, at least at affordable prices (these tracks are also not currently available on iTunes).
George
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-09-24 01:25
I have volumes 1 - 7 and agree that these are an essential "must have" if you are a Goodman fan.
These CD's were originally released by Musicmasters (Musical Heritage Society) and now are difficult, but not impossible, to find.
BTW - Volume 1, which George did not comment on, contains unreleased Goodman recordings from 1955 to 1986. Highlights include a few 1967 live tracks from the Rainbow Grill (NYC) and a 1986 cut with Goodman's last band playing the famous Fletcher Henderson arrangement of "Blue Room".
...GBK
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2006-09-24 02:11
Based on the availability -- and prices -- of the Goodman Yale volumes, I infer that Volumes 1, 8, and 10 are the most difficult to come by from the second-hand sellers in CD form. I was unwilling to pay the current asking price for Volume 1 which was in excess of $50 when I last checked; Volumes 2-7 seem to sell in second-hand condition at less than a new, current, CD, and as I recall, the most expensive could be acquired for about $12.50 plus a fair shipping charge. For Volumes 2--7, Amazon listed at least several sellers for each, although not all had available stock the days I went shopping.
The big auction site also lists some of these Goodman Yale volumes as being available in both tape cassette and LP formats but not too many people were auctioning this stuff when I checked this afternoon.
There are some historical moments on these CDs worth checking out that surprised me. As I noted in the original post, Zoot Sims (on tenor) is on a lot of these CDs and Goodman and he seem to inspire one another with Benny playing less clinically and with more spontaneity when reacting to Sims' tenor. Some (very young) piano players on various tracks include Roland Hanna and Herbie Hancock (at about the same time he was moving into fusion jazz; no electric pianos here). Mel Lewis is the drummer on a lot of tracks a few years before he went on to found his seminal jazz orchestra with Thad Jones (which had a very distinctly non-Goodman, non-Krupa style). Lots more major jazz players who you would not tend to associate with Benny Goodman appear in various combinations on the numerous tracks.
George
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Author: martind
Date: 2006-09-25 20:45
Hi George,
I recall purchasing a couple of BG's Yale CD's from Music Heritage Society.
I am a member if that makes a difference. I've appreciated BG since my jr high days in the 1940's and have an allbum "Benny Rides Again", Capitol '78 1947 where he begins with a duo and added instruments on each selection. The improv is just great...different from his big band recordings. Love to hear from a N.C. neighbor......I live in Va. Bch.
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2006-09-26 17:28
I also purchased Volume 7 from the Music Heritage Society and have one cassette tape that I don't know where I bought it. But I also checked Amazon the other night. Benny has about 700 listings!
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2006-09-27 00:14
Carol Dutcher wrote:
>
> But I also checked Amazon the other night. Benny has about 700
> listings!
700 listings ... and every one of these live Yale CDs starts with a 30-50 second version of "Let's Dance" ... just like the old radio shows.
One of the more interesting (of dozens of great) stories in Firestone's book about Goodman is how he got his initial national fame based on the radio show that aired at 11 PM on Saturdays nights in New York but was broadcast nationally. As the Goodman toured after the show had been on the radio for a while, he had many disappointing tour dates where few people showed up. Then he hit California and sold out the Avalon Ballroom night after night. The show "Let's Dance" which aired at 11 PM in the East after folks had gone to bed aired at 8 PM (in the days of real time -- not tape delayed -- shows) on the West Coast and all the kids there listened to him on Saturday nights.
Let's Dance ...
[My interest in these live CDs was sparked by viewing some of the clips from films to which GBK and others sometimes post links. Some of the clips of Goodman show him always really enjoying playing and expressing real joy in the work of his bands, although at times his playing seems somewhat "strident" on the 1930s and 40s clips.]
Post Edited (2006-09-27 00:27)
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Author: graham
Date: 2006-09-27 11:37
Did Goodman ever work with Joe Venuti? I ask because the two recordings I have of Zoot Sims are with Goodman (the Copenhagen recording) and with Venuti (some Californian Party jam sessions if I recall correctly). Both are brilliant, particularly the Zoot/Venuti stuff. I would imagine that Goodman/Venuti would be a superb combination, but Venuti did so little it probably never happened.
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