Swing Music

"Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, 1937-38" brings together 24 swingin' tracks from one of the great American bands. Superb instrumental and vocal performances perfectly complement each other, transporting the listener back in time to these magical years.

The songs on this CD are at times romantic, sexy, playful, exuberant, or mellow, but always classy. Some of may favorite tracks include "I'm Always in the Mood for You" and "In an Old English Village." Also fun is "Hi-De-Ho Romeo," with its irreverent, yet affectionate reference to William Shakespeare. This is classic American music to be treasured by all.

While the first CD by this ensamble focused on the first three sessions by this enthusiatic ensamble, this CD focuses on the last three sessions. The first session equals the music from the first two sessions on the "1935-1937" CD, with 2 great trumpeters (Charles Anderson is great on both "The Sad" and the terrific "Blues Of Avalon", while both he and another split "Ain't Misbehavin'") and Baker Millian as strong as ever, the 1938 material (esp the April session) are of a much lower quality. Evidently there must have been more frequent personell changes, for the band has lost its drive (not to mention the horrible intonation on the April 1938 session, but listen to the piano,its totally out of tune) on the latter sessions (though the later session from 1938 has some tasty plunger trumpet and an acrid toned clarinet on "East Commerce Stomp"), even the recording quality is inferior to the 1935-6 material (partly Bluebird's fault,there were using what sounds to be a smaller room than before, however, owning several of the 78's I feel there was too much filtering on Classic's part on this CD's material as well). Be that as it may, the first 8 recordings are a pleasure to listen to, and the reading of "The Weep" (aka a killer diller uptempo version of the normally slow "Willow Weep For Me")is worth the price of admission alone.

Before there was Louis Prima, there was that OTHER clown prince of jazz, Joseph "Wingy" Manone.

Neither is remembered as a great trumpet technician, but both Manone and Prima, New Orleans natives of Italian heritage, played the horn well enough; both had monumentally ebullient personalities, and both had learned much from Louis Armstrong.

But Manone, compared with Prima, was more of a jazzman, as the selections on this CD indicate, and his sidemen, such as Leon "Chu" Berry, were more notable jazz performers than the ones who were working with Prima at about this same time.

This CD is full of fine but lesser-known Manone recordings. "Manone Blues" is a delightful uptemo driving blues with the band responding in a most traditional way to Wingy's vocal calls.

Manone shows a high degree of showmanship and Classics has done a decent job of compling the 78's, most of which have not been reissued in the US.

"Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, 1937-38" brings together 24 swingin' tracks from one of the great American bands. Superb instrumental and vocal performances perfectly complement each other, transporting the listener back in time to these magical years.

The songs on this CD are at times romantic, sexy, playful, exuberant, or mellow, but always classy. Some of may favorite tracks include "I'm Always in the Mood for You" and "In an Old English Village." Also fun is "Hi-De-Ho Romeo," with its irreverent, yet affectionate reference to William Shakespeare. This is classic American music to be treasured by all.

While the first CD by this ensamble focused on the first three sessions by this enthusiatic ensamble, this CD focuses on the last three sessions. The first session equals the music from the first two sessions on the "1935-1937" CD, with 2 great trumpeters (Charles Anderson is great on both "The Sad" and the terrific "Blues Of Avalon", while both he and another split "Ain't Misbehavin'") and Baker Millian as strong as ever, the 1938 material (esp the April session) are of a much lower quality. Evidently there must have been more frequent personell changes, for the band has lost its drive (not to mention the horrible intonation on the April 1938 session, but listen to the piano,its totally out of tune) on the latter sessions (though the later session from 1938 has some tasty plunger trumpet and an acrid toned clarinet on "East Commerce Stomp"), even the recording quality is inferior to the 1935-6 material (partly Bluebird's fault,there were using what sounds to be a smaller room than before, however, owning several of the 78's I feel there was too much filtering on Classic's part on this CD's material as well). Be that as it may, the first 8 recordings are a pleasure to listen to, and the reading of "The Weep" (aka a killer diller uptempo version of the normally slow "Willow Weep For Me")is worth the price of admission alone.