Benny Goodman
Stompin' At The Savoy

THE REVIEW

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.