And who better to dance with than the clarion trumpeter Ziggy Elman and a variety of studio bands in these M-G-M recordings. Ziggy, of course, was once a member of the powerful Benny Goodman brass section, along with Chris Griffin and Harry James. Post war, he set out on his own, but did not have consistent success as a bandleader, although he did have a recording contract with M-G-M for several years.
This LP brings together singles from 1947 through 1952. Although the dates and personnel vary, the music is all very well played. The fare consists mainly of standards, and it's hard to imagine why the record company thought such items as "Me and My Shadow" (which practically usurps an Ellington arrangement) would achieve commercial success. The best number is certainly the title tune, a Basiesque swinger.
Still and all, this is a highly enjoyable outing from a fine musician, and the sound is good.
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| Detail from 1951 Billboard ad |
Link (Apple lossless - will play in iTunes, current version of Foobar and other programs):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/?e8ynp9axbl6u9k0
I will be dancing around the room myself if you leave a comment.
As much as it may be a mystery that MGM had ever thought to score a commercial success with this record, the thought of any of the labels doing anything like this today is in the realm of pure fantasy! I think there was a certain optimism and sense of sharing the media that was alive in those days, people with the record-making machinery enthusiastic to find musicians to record for the sake of recording, with sure, a hope of making a hit, but not a soul-goal of chart-topping. I think that may be why we all like these recordings so much: they betray an honesty we don't find much anymore.
ReplyDeleteWe're dancin' here in near-northern Canada too! Thanks much to you :)
mrG - It's a little hard to find information on these recordings, but it seems likely that many of the standards were originally made to form the B sides of more contemporary numbers, such as in the ad above. Anyway, they are entirely enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteThank you Buster - Ziggy often overlooked these days ... Baron
ReplyDeletelooking forward to hearing this. Thanks Buster for the effort
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeletethank you
ReplyDeleteThanks, Buster, I really enjoyed your older Ziggy Elman post, so am polishing my dancing shoes now.
ReplyDeleteA big thank you from a big Ziggy Elman fan here in NJ.
ReplyDeleteI gotta thank you for this one. I'm usually not big on big-band instrumentals, but I gave it a try anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd boy, this is one snappy set of arrangements. I really like it. Now I'll plow around in the previous comments to see if there's an easy way to convert these to mp3 (I don't have Itunes).
Thanks, Buster!
Any idea who the arrangers were?
Ziggy Elman -- One of my heroes. Thanks so much for posting this!
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