1. Entry of the Gladiators - Ted Heath
2. National Emblem March - Ray Anthony
3. Stars and Stripes Forever - Ralph Flanagan
4. March of the Toys - Teddy Powell
5. St Louis Blues March - Tex Beneke
6. Blue Skies March - Ted Heath
7. Doodletown Fifers - Sauter-Finegan
8. Washington Grays - Jimmy Dorsey
9. March of the Bobcats - Bob Crosby's Bobcats
10. Sound Off - Jerry Gray
11. Swing Patrol - Ambrose
12. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers - Jan Savitt
13. El Abanico - Ted Heath
14. Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean - Les Brown
15. When The Saints Go Marchin' In - Jack
Parnell
16. Sound Off March - Ray Anthony
17. Yankee Doodletown - Sauter-Finegan
18. March of the Movies - Squadronaires
19. Basin Street Blues March - Oscar Rabin
20. The Boogie Woogie March - Buddy Morrow
21. Colonel Bogey - Ted Heath
22. The Thundisbreak - Sauter-Finegan
23. Swing Parade - Sidney Bechet
24. Anchors Aweigh - Phil Green
25. Stormy Weather March - Jerry Gray
26. Cossack Patrol - Ted Heath
The album title is something
of a contradiction in terms, because a march
is always in very strict tempo but, for a
tune to swing, it needs to depart from a strict
beat and instead make the tempo bounce subtly.
This compilation lets us hear how successful
different bands are in making a march into
a swing tune.
We know that the Sauter-Finegan
Orchestra managed it memorably in Doodletown
Fifers, thanks to the arranging talents
of Eddie Sauter (who wrote some marvellous
arrangements for Benny Goodman, including
the Clarinet à la King, as well
as providing the string arrangements for Stan
Getz's Focus album) and Bill Finegan
(who worked for Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller).
This track dates from 1952 but still sounds
absolutely fresh. The pair reworked the same
seam for Yankee Doodletown (which,
as Malcolm Laycock's useful sleeve-note points
out) contains some deliberate discords. Laycock
may be wrong in saying that Sauter-Finegan's
The Thundisbreak (an adaptation of
Sousa's The Thunderer) was from "the
band's first album in 1954" as I believe their
first album (inciuding Doodletown Fifers)
was earlier in the 1950s.
Ted Heath and his Music occupy
five of the 26 tracks and manage to swing
gently, with a particularly hustling version
of Colonel Bogey. Other successful
swingers include Ralph Flanagan, Les Brown,
the Squadronaires and Sidney Bechet. A Dixieland
style is used in tracks like Bob Crosby's
March of the Bobcats, which is lifted
by the trademark drumming of Ray Bauduc (whose
role in part-composing the tune is bungled
by crediting him as "Badeauc").
However, some tracks (like
Ambrose's Swing Patrol) don't impart
so much swing, tending towards a two-beat
style which hinders the flow. Others stick
to an even stricter marching rhythm - like
Tex Beneke's version of the St Louis Blues
March and Oscar Rabin's very similar Basin
Street Blues March. Ray Anthony's Sound-Off
March is basically Jerry Gray's Sound
Off without the vocals.
Altogether, this compilation makes for an
interesting chance to compare-and-contrast,
while enjoying some good big-band recordings.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Memoir
CDMOIR 594
