Bands Music

This was the hot, sweet, but sophisticated, party music of the Swing Era. No one was more popular among Black youth who needed music to party than Lunsford. No one out performed them in their stage show. They were decisive to the shape of big band music with their arrangers setting the pace for many other swing bands for decades after Lunsfords death in the mid 1940s.


When I saw the series that was purported to tell the story of Jazz on PBS a couple years ago, I thought I had missed an episode because there was not a full program about Lunsford, or continual mention of the great band and its decisive influence on Jazz. Then I went to my friend who is one of the planet's major jazz lovers and who videotapes anything broadcast with jazz or good music and asked him about the missing episode. He said there wasn't one. I couldn't believe it, just couldn't.

Jimmie Lunsford's orchestra was one of the great Jazz Bands along with Basie, Ellington, and Chick Webb. In many ways, they were the popular royalty of swing, because they presented a higher level of entertainment and were probably more popular among African Americans than Ellington, and were longer lasting than Basie.

Listen to this music. It's smooth, cool, fun, nothing but danceable. The vocals are clean and cool and when the band sings it isn't the usual hoarse half-shout---which I still ador whenever a swing band shouts back--but an organized choir. This is music that must have been what the coolest of the cool guys and gals of the time listened to and above all partied to at the height of the depression.

While they may not have had the kind of impact on Jazz as an art as Ellington's excellent arrangements and compositions or the way Basie's rhythmn section made four beat swing unconquerable and provided a platform for the greatness of Lester Young and, Lunceford had a deeper influence on the white swing bands on post-swing "big band" music. The tight but swinging sound of the Lunsford orchestra, the way the horn sections alternated, the way the voicings were so clear and un mistakeable became the pattern for most of the popular swing bands. The great arrangers within the Lunsford Orchestra like Eddie Durham (Basie actually made a deal with Lunsford to borrow Durham for two years!!), Sy Oliver, and Gerald Wilson were hired by all the big white Swing bands of the 1940s like Glenn Miller who is forever identified with Eddie Durham's arrangement of "In the Mood." Oliver and Wilson outlasted the Swing era either as arrangers and leaders of recording and movie score orchestras into the 1970s.

It wasn't just dance and party music, smooth performanced, choreographed stage shows, Lunsford even had and pulled off great arrangements of light classical pieces.

Unfortunately, while Hampton, Ellington, and Basie lived on and kept their flames going, Jimmie Lunsford died in an auto accident in the forties. So, a lot people don't realize he belongs there with Basie and Ellington in the pantheon of Swing.

This cd has highlights from Cab's 1030-39 period, when his band was playing "hot" dance music, and swinging really hard. Calloway on this "L'art Vocal" series, is represented here as a vocalist(they also have the series on Lena Horn & an exellent Fats Waller series), who fronted one of the best big bands of the period. His vocals are wonderful and slightly over the top. As far as his singing ballads goes, he was hep and cool, not at all like the rhythmless Jolson, as another less educated reviewer wrote. Calloways's vocals on ballads could be dramatic yet hep as always a good example of his sounding great on a ballad is his singing on "The Lady With The Fan"(an essential Calloway performance), and "Moonglow", while those may not be on this set, you can acquire those on his more complete Calssics Chrono series which has almost all of his reocrdings. In any case this is a fine sampler of his mid period recordings, however you will also want to explore the peiod before this with Cab calloway and the Missourians(his hottest band od all!). Then you will want his R&B sides from the 40's. but this is a start... and a good one at that, as it features many uptempo hot numbers and an occasional ballad, which features Cab as a crooner, who has more in common with Bing Crosby then Al Joson.

Having purchased the terrific 'Are You Hep to the Jive?' CD which covers the period 1939-47, I then faced the task of finding a decent anthology of Cab's work for 1930-9. Having tried other discs and been disappointed, I have included that this is the best for this earlier period. The trouble with Cab anthologies is that, while he recorded some great songs, he also recorded a lot of cheesy stuff, and usually both categories are mixed together. Cab was at his best when he was being outrageous, singing his 'Hi-de-Ho' wailers and so on. But when he tried to sing ballads, he'd sing in this corny Al Jolson-style, which may have been popular at the time, but rather embarassing now.

On the whole, this CD focuses on Cab's good stuff. The opening 'St Louis Blues' is a definitive example of Cab's early style where he almost seems to hold on to a note forever. We also get the rare opportunity of hearing the original 1931 version of 'Minnie the Moocher', perhaps not as good as the 1942 version but its nice to have both in your collection. In fact we're treated to no less than five songs featuring Minnie and Smokey Joe, namely 'Minnie the Moocher' itself, 'Lady with the Fan', 'Zaz Zuh Zaz', 'Kickin' the Gong Around' and 'The Ghost of Smokey Joe'. Only 'Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day' and 'Mr Paganini, Swing for Minnie' are missing, so until a CD is issued to include the entire Moocher series, I guess this is the closest we'll get.

If there was one song I wouldn't have included on this disc, it would be 'Miss Otis Regrets', a fine song by other people but, for Cab, it's more in that cheesy category referred to previously. But, despite the odd questionable selection, we do get to hear some of Cab's finest including the scat standard 'Nagasaki' and 'Jumpin' Jive', Cab's big hit from the movie 'Stormy Weather'.

I recommend 'Are You Hep to the Jive?' to hear Cab's best work for 1939-47. For pre-1939 recordings, I would recommend this album, as well as Columbia/Legacy's two "Best of the Big Bands" discs.

This CD offers some of Jeanette Macdonald and Nelson Eddy's most beloved songs from their movies. Their natural chemistry is apparent in songs like "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" and their individual talents are shown in the solos that they sing. These two legendary performers draw the audience into their songs and each is a special memory of the movie that it came from. Macdonald and Eddy were made to sing together. It is surprising that they were not sweethearts off screen after hearing their voices and seeing their movies. Their passion and tenderness towards each other is something out of a fairy tale. This CD has all the fun, romance, and innocence that was epitomized in their movies. It is a true treasure and a favorite in my music library.

Eddie Condon's great contribution to traditional jazz was his ability to gather together the right jazzmen for the job. This album has it all--the great traditional jazz numbers--the "feeling" -- and the great jazzmen, such as Max Kaminsky, Bud Freeman, Bobby Hackett, Jack Teagarden and George Wettling. If only for the rendition of "Embraceable You" this album is worth the money. You can play it over and over again--and wish Eddie were still here.

Eddie Condon's great contribution to traditional jazz was his ability to gather together the right jazzmen for the job. This album has it all--the great traditional jazz numbers--the "feeling" -- and the great jazzmen, such as Max Kaminsky, Bud Freeman, Bobby Hackett, Jack Teagarden and George Wettling. If only for the rendition of "Embraceable You" this album is worth the money. You can play it over and over again--and wish Eddie were still here.