CD1
1. Let’s Dance
2. Mission To Moscow
3. Meet The Band
4. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
5. Why You?
6. Titter Pipes
7. Avalon
8. Body And Soul
9. Rose Room
10. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
11. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
12. Stealin’ Apples
13. Feathers
14. On The Alamo
15. Midgets
16. One O’Clock Jump
17. Bye Bye Blackbird
Benny Goodman - Clarinet on all tracks plus:
Tracks 1-6, 12-13 & 16-17
Joe Newman, Joe Wilder, Jimmy Maxwell, John Frosk – Trumpets
Wayne Andre, Willie Dennis, Jimmy Knepper - Trombones
Phil Woods, Jerry Dodgion - Alto saxes
Zoot Sims, Tommy Newsom - Tenor saxes
Gene Allen - Baritone sax
John Bunch - Piano
Turk Van Lake - Guitar
Bill Crow - Bass
Mel Lewis - Drums
Victor Feldman - Vibes
Teddy Wilson - Piano (track 3)
Tracks 7-10 – Quintet
Teddy Wilson – Piano
Turk Van Lake - Guitar
Bill Crow - Bass
Mel Lewis - Drums
Track 11 - Septet
Joe Newman - Trumpet
Victor Feldman - Vibes
John Bunch - Piano
Turk Van Lake – Guitar
Bill Crow - Bass
Mel Lewis – Drums
Tracks 14-15 - Octet
Zoot Sims - Tenor sax
Joe Newman - Trumpet
Victor Feldman – Vibes
John Bunch - Piano
Turk Van Lake - Guitar
Bill Crow - Bass
Mel Lewis – Drums
CD2
1. Swift As The Wind #1
2. Fontainebleau
3. Meadowland
4. Goodbye
5. I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face
6. Swift As The Wind #2
7. King Porter Stomp
8. Meet The Band
9. Let There Be Love
10. Bugle Call Rag
11. Meet The Band #3
12. Mission To Moscow #2
13. Clarinet à La King
14. King Porter Stomp #2
15. Avalon #2
16. Body And Soul #2
17. China Boy
18. Medley: Poor Butterfly/I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
19. The Sheik Of Araby
20. Gershwin Medley: The Man I Love/Embraceable You/Somebody Loves Me
Benny Goodman - Clarinet on all tracks plus:
Tracks 1-4 & 6-14 Same personnel as CD1 1-6; 12-13 & 16-17
Joya Sherrill – Vocals (track 9)
Track 5 - Sextet
Victor Feldman – Vibes
John Bunch - Piano
Turk Van Lake – Guitar
Bill Crow – Bass
Mel Lewis - Drums
Tracks 15-19 - Trio
Teddy Wilson – Piano
Gene Krupa - drums
Track 20 - Trio
Mel Powell - Piano
Roy Burns – Drums
Benny Goodman was a man of many contradictions. He was a superb clarinet player although he was never considered to be a great swinger. He and his band
ushered in the swing era, and he was also at the forefront of integrating black musicians into what were formerly all-white bands. Perhaps not surprisingly
he was a stern task-master and very frugal in paying the band musicians. Finally he had a big ego and was very reluctant to allow band members to gain
individual recognition when it might take away from his lustre. The bassist and jazz writer Bill Crow, who played in the band Goodman took to Russia,
offers the following story (condensed version) about this trip in his book From Birdland To Broadway: Scenes From A Jazz Life: “Benny had
commissioned new music from several well-known jazz composers, but by the time we reached Moscow, we weren’t playing much of it. John Carisi wrote one new
chart that Benny liked called The Bulgar and Other Balkan Type Inventions. One night in Moscow when Benny pointed to Phil (Woods) during The Bulgar, Phil stood up and played an absolutely spectacular solo filled with swinging, dancing, and fireworks. When he was finished the whole
band joined the audience in a roar of approval. Benny never gave Phil a chance to do that again. In that spot the next night, he called his old arrangement
of Bugle Call Rag and we never played the Carisi chart again. The concerts were recorded but Benny didn’t include The Bulgar on the album Benny Goodman in Moscow.” So the album title The Complete Benny Goodman In Moscow is really not complete at all but, nevertheless, it is
a pleasurable romp given the first-rate musicians that were in the band.
CD1
When Benny Goodman and the band undertook this trip to Russia in May/June 1962, Nikita Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party and
relations between the US and Russia were caught up in Cold War rhetoric. The US State Department hoped that a Goodman tour might help to thaw relations and
show a positive side of the US to the Russian people. Whether Goodman was the correct choice when other jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong were, in
fact, more popular is another question. Since most Russians would not have been all that familiar with Goodman’s music, the band would not be saddled with
the old Goodman band book. After the perfunctory opening number Let’s Dance, the band swings into Mel Powell’s Mission To Moscow with its
catchy Balkan dance rhythms and Goodman’s clarinet riding over the tight sax section ensemble passages. Pianist John Bunch wrote a lively jump number Why You? that fitted right into a more modern big-band setting and gave tenor-man Zoot Sims some space to shine. As the album segues into quintet,
sextet, and octet tracks, Goodman hogs most of the solos, except where Teddy Wilson participates on the quintet medley. Here he is as sparking as ever and
gives full measure on the time allotted. Goodman still has the speed to stay in the game, but flounders on the upper registers when he is obligated to
perform there. That is especially noticeable on The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise. But never mind, Mel Lewis’ brush work is exemplary and
drives the tune forward. The final track on CD1 is a big-band version of Bye Bye Blackbird using a chart from John Bunch. This is a complete
rip-off from the Miles Davis version included in the album ’Round Midnight, even to the inclusion of the Red Garland chord changes from the bridge
back to the melody. Nevertheless it is well done and a good closer.
CD2
The offerings on this CD are a bit of a mash-up in that they come from several sources. Tracks 1 through 10 are from the Moscow concerts but tracks 5-10
were not part of the original LPs. Track 11 is the same band but recorded in Tbilisi, Georgia. The other cuts are taken from a couple of US television show
soundtracks, have inferior sound quality, and are slightly out of sync. So cutting to the chase, the first five tracks are interesting and well done, and
the balance of the CD for the most part is just dross. Tadd Dameron, who was probably one of the most influential composers and arrangers of the bebop era,
wrote the first two tracks, Swift As The Wind and Fontainebleau. Both of these were way beyond Goodman’s traditional band book, but given
the make-up of the band on the tour, fitted in to the players’ capability of reading and playing complex arrangements. Even Goodman was caught up by the
freshness of the arrangements, as he played as well as he had on any of the other more conventional offerings. Meadowland, also known as Song Of The Plains, was used as a marching song by the Red Army Choir. Arranger Joe Lipman turned it into a high-velocity swinger with some wicked
drum breaks from Mel Lewis and fine tenor solo from Zoot Sims. The Russian audience seems particularly pleased with this interpretation.
Benny Goodman in his prime had terrific breath control and there was a certain lyricism in his playing. This outing is far from that period and should be
considered in the context in which it was performed.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
American Jazz Classics 99081
