Further Definitions - Benny Carter & His Orchestra

Advantages: Some really good tracks
Disadvantages: Some are "so-so"

...equally sophisticated as If You Wee Mine, it is a somewhat different, more melancholy style. The lyrics are slightly corny, it has to be said, though Frankie does well with them. The next song is also by Buck Clayton and his Orchestra and Frankie Laine. It is a version of My Old Flame. I am sorry, but since I heard the spike Jones version of My Old Flame, I really haven't been able to take this song as seriously as it deserves. (Spike Jones mangled the song to include a psychotic killer (sung as a passable impersonation of Peter Lorrie) Although somewhat bizarrely, Frankie Laine remains totally mute during the Buck Clayton version of My Old Flame! The next track is by the Benny Goodman Quartet, featuring Benny Goodman on clarinet, with fantastic swinging backing from the rest of his band, including jazz xylophone. Stompin' at the Savoy... Read review

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Advantages: great big band music
Disadvantages: none

...Dancing, winning him 12 Car Allen Awards. Glenn Miller? Glenn Miller was born in the USA in 1904. He started to learn how to play the trombone and had such a love for music, he joined the Ben Pollack Orchestra, where he started to write his own music. Glenn also played with people like Benny Goodman and Ray Nobel. In 1937, he formed his own band, playing at some hotels, on the radio and did some recordings. He formed his own Orchestra in 1938, this Orchestra became the core to what we know now as the Glenn Miller Orchestra. This is when he won his first Gold Disc for "Chattanooga Choo Choo". During the was Glenn helped the war effort. His last public proformance was in 1942, when he joined the army and was assigned to the Army Specialist Corps, he then transferred to the Army Air Corps. It was here that he organized the Glenn Miller... Read review

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Advantages: A masterclass in arranging and playing
Disadvantages: None

...Gil Evans was at a creative peak when this was recorded in 1960. Having completed a trio of classic albums with Miles Davis (Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain), he was now bringing classical influences into his own work - with amazing results. Often these were in quite small but important details: the delicate use of woodwinds (the barely noticeable bassoon on "La Nevada", the flute on John Benson Brooks' attractive "Where Flamingos Fly"); the inclusion of Harry Partch-style homemade percussion on George Russell's "Stratusphunk"; and more evidently in the choice of material (in this case, Kurt Weill's "Bilbao Song" - arranged so that, perhaps unexpectedly, it's Ron Carter's bass that takes the identifying vocal line from the song's chorus). It's Evans' own piano that introduces the album, on his own composition... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful