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Rating: Benny Goodman was a magnificent jazz clarinetist, with impudent swing sounds and always engaging classical orchestrations. You don't just read the knowledge and technique in his music, but a desire to experiment, to blend different sounds and harmonies, and develop a very personal and exciting style.
There is never, not even in the most intimate ballads, a trace of suffering, but one perceives great joy and a sparkling compositional style. Posterity has attributed important labels to him, such as "king of swing." Goodman dared, in the '30s, to spread his music in mixed bands, Blacks and whites, and to perform unforgettable combinations of genres such as black music with classical parentheses. Famous for his big bands, he had a recording career that lasted a little more than twenty years.
"Stompin at the Savoy" is a live recording from 1935 (reissued by Bluebird, 1992) that contains what is, for me, one of the most exciting keys to understanding jazz swing ever.
The first time I heard "Sing, Sing, Sing", included in this splendid work, was during the screening of Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry." The New York director used this piece as a background to the hellish settings he proposed in the film. The piece is truly devilish and suggestive, with deep and unsettling percussion, and I believe it perfectly conveys the mood. The jazzy and band-led swing environments of "King Porter Stomp" are no less, with their positive vibrations leaving a mark. Goodman knows how to be romantic and reflective in pieces like "Goodbye", so suited to melancholic and lonely settings for black-and-white films that paint an image belonging only to the past. The swing of "Goody Goody" is vibrant and festive, one of the few pieces with vocals that nevertheless do not betray Goodman's orchestral tendencies. "Stompin at the Savoy" was also reprised by Allen for "Small Time Crooks" and has a magical and sly effect in a brass ensemble that makes the sound warm and friendly.
"This Fooling Things Remind Me of You" is a typical ballad that meets the needs of several genres and gently rocks like the rolling of the sea. "Bugle Call Rag" is almost a parody of militarism and is one of the earliest great examples of sampling. The sound is particularly jazzy and sparkling. With "Goodnight my Love" you cross the boundaries of the soft and light sound that embodies the romantic spirit of those years. "Don’t Be That Way" has an intense tenor sax contribution, accompanying the "free" performances of the good Goodman. "One O'Clock Jump" features saloon-like piano, always of a swinging nature.
A very pleasant album, of good quality. A jump back to the '30s, to their romantic and spontaneous flavor, to the footprints of a music that draws people together, travels, and fills venues, that gets people talking and breaks down all those "social" closed doors that no one would have thought to open, that produces history and culture and which, behind every track, preserves a small anecdote.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Jersey Bounce (03:02)
Memories of You
The Four Coins/Frank Sinatra
Writer(s): Razaf/Blake
Waking skies - at sunrise
Every sunset too
Seems to be - bringing me
Memories of you
Here and there - every where
Scenes that we once knew
And they all - just recall
Memories of you
(Oh) How I wish I could forget those, (those) happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears
Your face beams - in my dreams
(In) Spite of all (that) I do
(And) Everything - seems to bring
Memories of you
04 Stompin' at the Savoy (02:29)
Stompin' At The Savoy
Benny goodman
Lyrics by: Andy Razaf (b. Andreamentena Razafinkeriefo)
Music by: Benny Goodman (Benjamin David G.)
Music by: Chick Webb (William Henry W.)
Music by: Edgar Sampson (E.Melvin S.)
Savoy, the home of sweet romance,
Savoy, it wins you with a glance,
Savoy, gives happy feet a chance to dance.
Your old form just like a clinging vine,
Your lips so warm and sweet as wine,
Your cheek so soft and close to mine, divine.
How my heart is singing,
While the band is swinging,
I'm never tired of romping,
And stomping with you at the Savoy.
What joy - a perfect holiday,
Savoy, where we can glide and sway,
Savoy, let me stomp away with you;
The home of sweet romance,
It wins you at a glance,
Gives happy feet a chance to dance.
Just like a clinging vine,
So soft and sweet as wine,
So soft and close to mine, divine.
How my heart is singing,
While the band is swinging,
I'm never, never, never tired of romping,
And stomping with you at the Savoy.
What joy - a perfect holiday,
Savoy, where we can glide and sway,
Savoy, let me stomp away with you;
tpeach@gte.net
09 Stardust (02:55)
And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by
Sometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely night dreaming of a song
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
Now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song
Beside a garden wall
When stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
A paradise where roses bloom
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain
12 You Turned the Tables on Me (02:45)
YOU TURNED THE TABLES ON ME
Benny Goodman
I used to be the apple of your eye
I had yo with me every day,
But now whenever you are passing by
You're always looking the other way
It's little things like this
That prompt me to say:
You turned the tables on me
And now I'm falling for you;
You turned the tables on me
I can't believe that it's true
I always thought when you brought
The lovely present you bought
Why hadn't you brought me more,
But now if you'd come
I'd welcome anything
From the five and ten cent store,
You used to call me the top
You put me up on a throne
You let me fall with a drop
And now I'm out on my own.
But after thinking it over and over,
I got what was coming to me
Just like the sting of a bee
You turned the tables on me.
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