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(More customer reviews)I first heard the truly amazing "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" cover from this 2 CD set on Pittsburgh's WDUQ FM Saturday night weekly show "Rhythms Sweet and Hot," which, BTW, can also be heard over the internet by going to the WDUQ website. I listened to it very closely as it was introduced by one of the two DJs with a comment to his partner that was roughly "this next piece you'll have to admit is as HOT as anything we've ever played on this program." Well that's a mighty big claim, indeed, since the program has been running for several years now. But, at the end of the piece, both his partner, and yours truly, sitting dembfounded at home, had to admit he was right!! What made the cut, and most of the others on the 2 CD set so hot, was that the recordings are all, or almost all, taken from live performances before very enthusiastic audiences, -- one sometimes forgets that Goodman was about as close to an Elvis or Beatles in fan adoration that his time produced -- and the Goodman players, mostly his great Hampton, Wilson, Krupa, and Goodman quartet, with Dave Tough, Charlie Christian, Mel Powell, Red Norvo, Cootie Williams, and a few other great players making appearances on a few tracks apiece.
[Evidently Dave Tough replaced Gene Krupa only because Gene and Benny got into some kind of tiff. Evidently, they worked it out since Krupa returned after a few years. Tough was an excellent drummer as well, of course, but Krupa, was, and is, and always shall be, the one and only Krupa, IMHO.]
Both CDs are really excellent, which no doubt explains why this compilation, which originally only sold for $10, -- probably because there is still some noise on many of the tracks and the original recoding equipment was probably truly primitive, -- now fetches many times that price if and where you can find it at all! The reason for the appreciation in value also has to do with the fact that many, if not most, of the tracks, including "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise," are available nowhere else.
In short then, if you are a big Benny Goodman fan, or even just a lover of great jazz playing in general, this is a set you really should have. It really puts the lie to the sometimes still voiced, and totally mistaken, idea that Goodman, like say Paul Whiteman before him, was just a technically talented white musician trying to cash in by stealing African-American music and watering it down for more conservative white musical tastes. In fact, both Krupa and Goodman show in these live tracks that they can fully hold their own with some of the greatest black jazz musicians that have ever played, like Teddy Wilson, Charlie Christian, and Lionel Hampton, the three musicians, who along with Krupa, Benny was wise enough to hire on as permanent members, since he considered them "simply the best" musicians he had ever heard, and he was only interested in, and certainly willing to pay top dollar to get, whomever he considered the very best, total regardless of "race" or any other irrelevant, non-musical considerations, -- which latter policy, in his day, still created some controversies and inconveniences when touring, since the black members of the band, and we're talking universally recognized musical geniuses here!, were still frequently and shamefully discriminated against, often not even allowed to stay at the same hotel, or use the restroom of the very club they were playing etc..
Click Here to see more reviews about: A Tour de Force - Small Groups Live 1937-1972
2 CD set of ultra rare Benny Goodman live small group recordings (many never available on any other reissue). Disc one is 64.12 minutes long and features performances from 1937 to 1945 with Krupa, Wilson, Hampton, Tough, Charlie Christian, Cootie Williams, Auld, Stacy, Mildred Bailey and others. Disc two is 57.47 minutes long and features from 1945 to 1972 with Norvo, Mel Powell, Slam Stewart, and many others. A treasure trove of delights for all Goodman fanatics.
Click here for more information about A Tour de Force - Small Groups Live 1937-1972
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