Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman
| Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman | ||||
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| Studio album by Bob Wilber | ||||
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| Label (s) | Arbors Records | |||
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CD |
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Title (number) |
17th |
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running time |
1:02:52 |
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Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman is a jazz album by Bob Wilber and the Tuxedo Big Band under the direction of Paul Cheron. The recordings were made from July 7th to 9th, 2000 in Toulouse and were released on May 16, 2000 on the Arbors Records label .
background
Fletcher Henderson was always Benny Goodman's favorite arranger. From 1934 to 1947 he made many arrangements for his big band , and Goodman re-recorded some of these arrangements in later years. On the way there, however, the clarinetist did not have the opportunity to record all of Henderson's arrangements for his band. Many of the unrecorded and so "lost" notes were donated by Goodman to the archives of Yale University or New York's Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts .
Wilber gained access to them in 1984 when he was planning a homage to the King of Swing on his 75th birthday in Waterloo Village, New Jersey, and more than a decade after Goodman's death in 1986, he was planning to record an album to showcase Henderson's unplayed arrangements . He was also looking for a big band that was able to express their remarkable spirit and charm, and who could faithfully interpret Henderson's phrasing .
With the help of the Arbors Jazz label , Wilber was finally able to realize the project. In the late 1990s, clarinetist Bob Wilber worked with the Tuxedo Big Band in Toulouse and their leader Paul Cheron; together they recorded 17 of these arrangements. The band had already recorded two CDs of Jimmie Lunceford's material , Rhythm Is Our Business and Siesta at the Fiesta on their own TBB label, and released a third album there, To Ella and Chick , dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb .
With the exception of Neil Moret's “Song of the Wanderer,” Antonín Dvořák's “Humoresque” and the Dixieland number “Milenburg Joys”, the songs adapted by Fletcher Henderson came from the Great American Songbook . The only non-Henderson arrangement on the CD is the one that Wilber wrote for solo clarinet and rhythm section of Jerome David Kern's improvisationally challenging “Bojangles of Harlem”.
In October 2002, the continuation of the project, More Never Recorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman, Vol. 2 , recorded again by Bob Wilber and the Tuxedo Big Band under the direction of Paul Cheron , was created in Toulouse .
Track list
- Bob Wilber and The Tuxedo Big Band: Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman (Arbors Records ARCD 19229)
- Rose of the Rio Grande (Ross Gorman / Edgar Leslie / Harry Warren ) 3:01
- Blue and Broken Hearted (Grant Clarke / Lou Handman / Edgar Leslie ) 4:05
- Song of the Wanderer (Neil Moret a.k.a. Chas. N. Daniels) 3:19
- Out of Nowhere ( Johnny Green / Edward Heyman ) 3:18
- Humoresque (Antonin Dvorák) 03:36
- Poor Butterfly (John Golden / Raymond Hubbell) 4:02
- Rosalie ( Cole Porter ) 3:03
- All My Life ( Sidney Mitchell / Sam H. Stept ) 4:00
- Thou Swell ( Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers ) 3:02
- She's Funny That Way (I Got a Woman, Crazy for Me) (Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting ) 4:39
- Sunday (Chester Conn / Benny Krueger / Ned Miller / Jule Styne ) 4:35
- Sweet Lorraine (Clifford R. Burwell / Mitchell Parish ) 4:18
- S'posin ' (Paul Denniker / Andy Razaf ) 3:38
- Sugar (Edna Alexander / Sidney Mitchell / Maceo Pinkard ) 3:57
- Sweet and Slow ( Al Dubin / Harry Warren) 3:30
- Milenberg Joys ( Paul Mares / Jelly Roll Morton / Leon Roppolo ) 3:23
- Bojangles of Harlem ( Dorothy Fields / Jerome Kern) 3:26
reception
According to Jack Sohmer ( JazzTimes ), the discovery of a number of Fletcher Henderson arrangements that, for one reason or another, never got on stage has been "the greatest stroke of luck" in recent years. It is gratifying that all players are perfectly at home in the swing language of the 1930s. Even the ad lib solos of Coleman Hawkins- inspired tenor saxophonist Michel Pastre and trumpeter Jacques Sallent retain a degree of convincing authenticity without appearing imitative. With Wilber's always powerful clarinet at the helm, the band swings through 16 Henderson charts, including “Out of Nowhere”, “Thou Swell”, “Sunday”, “Sweet Lorraine”, “S'posin”, “Sugar” and “Milenberg” Joys ”, and all remarkably received with the infectious spirit of the day.
John Bowers ( All About Jazz ) wrote that the tuxedo band remained closely related to the character of the title and sounded like an ensemble from before World War II to the whole world. Even the solos are derived from swing. Wilber, who says Goodman was his "first inspiration for clarinet playing," is a masterful substitute for the King of Swing , who carries over his impressive blows to most notes and to "Bojangles" (the also inspired drumming of Jean-Luc Guiraud contains) builds up. "Those who remember and / or appreciate America's golden age of big band music will find a lavish arsanal of riches in these previously unheard arrangements."
Scott Yanow gave the album 4½ (out of five) stars in Allmusic and wrote. "With Wilber's clarinet solos in Goodman style and the big band, which is very close to Goodman, these long-lost works were fully taken into account." According to the author, the highlights of the album include "Rose of the Rio Grande" , "Song of the Wanderer", "Sunday", "Sugar" and "Milenberg Joys". Yanow also featured the latest track, Bojangles of Harlem, the only track where Wilber only plays with the rhythm section. The album is a perfectly implemented project with a “new” swing.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jack Bowers: Bob Wilber and the Tuxedo Big Band: Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman. All About Jazz, May 6, 2019, accessed October 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
- ↑ Bob Wilber And The Tuxedo Big Band - Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman at Discogs
- ↑ Jack Sohmer: Bob Wilber and the Tuxedo Big Band: Fletcher Henderson's Unrecorded Arrangements for Benny Goodman. January 1, 2001, accessed October 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Retrieved October 1, 2019.