With
RCA Victor
having already issued their complete
swing
-era
Benny Goodman
archive on LP, cassette, and CD numerous times, it doesn't appear that
Naxos
'
Goodman
project is going to be as ambitious, for the first volume putters and skips around through eight sessions from the band's early years. Nevertheless, this is not a bad choice if you're looking for a single-disc selection of
's earliest
Victor
big band
sides, from his first sessions as the leader of a struggling
band trying to stay afloat until a little over a year after his breakthrough at
the Palomar Ballroom
in Los Angeles. There are plenty of famous swingers like
"Stompin' at the Savoy,"
"Swingtime in the Rockies,"
"King Porter Stomp,"
and the original rendition of
"Christopher Columbus,"
which is slower and more lumbering than the best-known versions and shorn of its "sing sing sing" first section. There are also a handful of vocals by
Helen Ward
and to close, the young
Ella Fitzgerald
doing a guest turn with the band on
"Goodnight, My Love."
And of course, perfectionist
is always in impeccable form on his clarinet. The sound on the CD is a little wan and washed out in comparison with a few of the original 78s, not quite up to
' high
jazz
standards. But even less-than-optimum
sound is preferable to the abominations that came out of
RCA
in the CD era (
's earlier
reissues on LP are better). ~ Richard S. Ginell