Goodman at Carnegie--the "definitive" version (long)
Mitchell Kaufman
Records DRCD11174, 2 CDs, issued 2001)
Comparisons:
Benny Goodman At Carnegie Hall - 1938 - Complete (Columbia/Legacy C2K 65143,
2 CDs, issued 1999)
Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall (Columbia G2K 40244, 2 CDs, issued c.
1985)
Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert (Columbia SL-160, 3
LPs, issued 1950)
The Label
Definitive Records, a product of an outfit called Disconforme
(www.disconforme.com) in, of all places, Andorra, is familiar to most jazz
collectors. Chronological or label-specific compilations devoted to a
particular artist, concentrating on the period from the late '30s to the
early '50s are their specialty. Virtually all of the material they issue
appears to be out of copyright and originates from a variety of unidentified
sources.
My previous experience with the label has been up and down. The two
Armstrong Decca sets range from very good indeed to poor but listenable;
their Charlie Christian compilations are quite acceptable if not vivid and
at least collect the artist's work in a logical format; the Basie RCA set is
abysmal: some of it sounds like it was sourced from LPs, and poorly-mastered
ones to boot; the Basie Decca set, on the other hand, sounds exceptionally
good, but, shall we say, familiar. Other Definitive and Jazz Factory (same
outfit) issues I'm currently auditioning include four-disc sets devoted to
Mildred Bailey's Columbia master takes (strangely similar to a recent Mosaic
project save for the omission of alternates), a two-disc set devoted to
Dizzy Gillespie's mid-to-late-'40s big band sides, a two-disc set of Billy
Eckstine's "Savoy" (actually National) recordings, and single discs of
Goodman's Capitol small groups and the Parker With Strings master takes. The
packaging and discographical information are generally first-rate; the notes
are poorly translated and mostly useless. The discs are attractively priced,
often cheaper than their American counterparts, where available.
The Event
I won't spend too much time on the concert itself. Everybody knows it's one
of the landmark events in jazz history; whatever one thinks of Goodman or
his band, it helped establish jazz as a serious art form (though someone
like Ellington had already accomplished more in that regard than Goodman
probably did in his entire career; that Goodman was aware of Ellington's
significance is indicated by the inclusion in the Carnegie Hall program of
"Blue Reverie" with Duke's soloists, including Cootie Williams, Johnny
Hodges, and Harry Carney. Goodman was obviously also hip to Basie [surely
not without encouragement from John Hammond], and the "jam session" on
Honeysuckle Rose featured Buck Clayton, Lester Young, Walter Page, Freddie
Green, and Basie himself [plus the Ellington sidemen again, minus Cootie]).
The Goodman band itself was in typical if not exceptional form after a
ragged start. The trio and quartet were impeccable as usual. Certain
soloists like Jess Stacy, Gene Krupa and Ziggy Elman probably gave something
approaching their best (and certainly, thanks to the circumstances, most
memorable) performances that night. Down Beat, in its February, 1938 review,
headlined that Goodman had "laid a golden egg," but the neither the judgment
of history or the documentary evidence has borne them out.
Previous Issues
I haven't attempted an exhaustive survey of every available incarnation of
this concert-there have been many since it was first released by Columbia on
LP in 1950. All issues apparently can be traced back to a common source: a
single-mike pickup fed to a disc recorder (but not broadcast). The basic
quality of the original recording is clearly quite good: it's vivid, has a
great deal of presence, and captures the ambient sound of Carnegie Hall
surprisingly well for a recording made in 1938. The main problems with the
recording are occasionally poor balance (the piano and, amazingly, Goodman's
clarinet [in fact, the reeds in general] are recessed vis-à-vis the brass
and drums) and a high level of surface noise.
Some of the previous issues are obviously closer to the original source than
others, and most have been sonically manipulated after the fact. Until
Columbia's "official" CD reissue of 1999, all of the commonly-available
issues omitted the second number on the program (Sometimes I'm Happy), the
first encore (If Dreams Come True), and a major chunk of the jam session,
including solos by Carney and Green and a third chorus by Clayton.
The 1999 reissue, produced by Phil Schaap, restored these items, and also
some "ephemera:" longer duration of applause, pauses between selections for
changes in personnel and for tuning up, and a single announcement by Goodman
from the stage stating that there would be no encores after Loch Lomond.
(That the modestly-gifted Liltin' Martha Tilton got a bigger audience
response than Lester Young or Cootie Williams is one of the ironies of the
concert-perhaps of the age itself, where the likes of Tex Beneke regularly
won the Metronome polls.)
Schaap also included several spoken introductions to the numbers recorded in
1950 by Goodman for radio airplay. Most of these appear as an appendix on
disc two, but one is placed obtrusively at the beginning of the first disc,
right before the concert begins. (Schaap also contends that Life Goes to a
Party was intended as a bridge between the Twenty Years of Jazz segment and
the small groups section, and that the original printed program is in error
in grouping this number with the Twenty Years of Jazz. I disagree: while it
may seem self-indulgent in retrospect for Goodman to have concluded the jazz
history section with a contemporary number identified with his own band, it
makes perfect chronological and logical sense-his swing style was then
considered an example of, for lack of a better term, "modern jazz.")
Sonically, all the previous issues listed above have been disappointing,
though for different reasons. The original LPs were not bad for their day,
but their day was a very long time ago. Auditioned now, they sound thick and
veiled. While the ambient sound of the hall cannot help but come across,
finer details are lost in the murk; the highs are severely attenuated. The
first Columbia CD issue, published in the mid-'80s, seems to have been
sourced from the tapes created for the LP (as was the case with so many
early CD transfers); other than the generic advantages of the digital format
(no additional surface noise from the format itself, fewer side breaks),
this represented no discernible improvement over the LPs. The sound was
still severely lacking and the concert was presented incomplete. Further,
for no apparent reason, the program was divided improperly, with the last
number of the first half of the concert ("I Got Rhythm") pushed onto the
second disc.
The sound of the 1999 reissue is a bit more complicated. Schaap claims to
have located the original acetates recorded at the concert, though he's a
bit vague about the detective work that resulted in this discovery. While
the booklet blurb claims that Columbia did everything humanly possible to
improve the sound quality of the recording short of damaging the music,
Schaap himself is somewhat more explicit. He defends the choice of leaving
the surface noise in, because, he says, there is no way to attenuate it
without adversely affecting the sound in other ways. All the sonic-related
notes in the booklet seem mildly apologetic-unfortunately, with good reason:
the surface noise is extremely prominent; furthermore, it's a particularly
noxious form of surface noise-an almost constant high-level crackling or
static. Schaap claims that the upside here is that we get to hear Krupa's
drum set and the details of the hall sound. While it's true that the high
frequencies are far more extended here than in any of the aforementioned
previous issues, the noise is so distracting that the set borders on the
unlistenable. Furthermore, the basic sound is thin and lacking in weight,
though admittedly these may be characteristics of the original recording.
(It is also worth noting in this connection Gunther Schuller's observation
in The Swing Era that Goodman's band tended not to have a solid foundation
due to the weak bassist [Harry Goodman at this time] and the lack of a
baritone sax; the contrast with Ellington's band in this regard is
illuminating.)
The 1999 reissue is a good idea gone bad: anal-retentiveness carried to its
reductio absurdum (no cracks about this review, please!). Schaap seems to
regard the original discs as some kind of holy icon, not to be touched by
human hands. He also admits that in order to include the "ephemera" listed
above, he was limited to use of what he claims to be the original source
material. Occasionally these pauses in the action last up to a minute or
more. While it's true that they give you a better idea of what actually
happened that night, their documentary value far outweighs their
entertainment value. One gets the feeling that if Schaap had somehow located
a recording of the audience milling around during the intermission, he would
've included that, too. And finally, there's that crackling, which dominates
everything. This set has undeniable value as archival material, but I for
one haven't listened to it since it was issued-not until the comparisons for
this review.
The Definitive Records issue
First, let's get formalities out of the way: the Definitive discs include
extended applause vis-à-vis issues prior to 1999, and occasional very brief
pauses between selections, but omit the long set-up pauses included in the '
99 set as well as Goodman's sole stage announcement. They also omit the 1950
Goodman introductions, which were not part of the original concert anyway.
They include every note of music, including Sometimes I'm Happy, the uncut
jam session, and the first encore. Like the '99, they present the concert
properly formatted.
The sound is extraordinary from the first note to the last. It is extended
in the highs, not unlike the '99 set, but marginally fuller, with a touch
more low end. The crackling is absent. In its place is typical 78 surface
noise of the era, which is more on the order of hissing, crunching, and
occasional clicking. These are by no means silent surfaces-in fact they are
sometimes quite noisy--but the most obtrusive sonic flaw of the '99 discs is
virtually gone.
What exactly is going on here? Definitive's jacket blurb claims the use of
Sonic Solutions NoNoise, but this is listed on every one of their sets and I
have yet to hear any evidence of it. I am fairly certain that Definitive did
not dub the '99 discs and de-noise them: it's not so much that surface noise
has been reduced, but rather it's a different kind of noise-and there's
plenty of it. These discs do not sound as if any noise reduction technology
has been applied at all. If it was, it was applied with an extremely light
hand.
The source material sounds different. The audible side-joins are identical,
and the sonic character of some of the sides varies in the same way. (An
example would be the final minute of One O'clock Jump, where on all issues
the surface noise dips audibly after the last side-change and the high
frequency response seems reduced.) But certain flaws in the source material
exist that would identify it as different: scratches that are present on one
transfer but not the other, distortion in the climaxes on one but not the
other. Both the '99 Columbia and the Definitive issue obviously share common
ancestry, but at some point they diverged and at some point after that they
were pressed, handled, played, or stored differently. The advantage is
almost completely on the side of the Definitive discs.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, I'm less interested in where the Definitive discs
originated than I am in the results. Definitive has published an edition of
the Goodman Carnegie Hall concert that is note-complete, is faithful to the
formatting of the original event, and is sonically superior to the 1999
Columbia issue (and by implication all previous issues cited) on just about
every meaningful point. Further, it omits the most obsessive-compulsive of
the ephemera included on the '99 set, while expanding on older reissues in a
reasonable and most listenable way. Only the reading material is appreciably
worse, and that's nothing to write home about on the Columbia set anyway.
In the unlikely event that you don't already own this music, this is the way
to acquire it. If you do own one of the other aforementioned versions, I'm
afraid I've got bad news: you'll have to buy it all over again.
This reissue beautifully addresses virtually all of the shortcomings of the
most recent official release. How they did it I don't know for sure, though
I've indulged in some speculation above. Whether there's another prior
reissue out there that equals or surpasses this one I don't know-I haven't
heard them all. If anyone knows anything about the background of this or any
possible similar issue, I'd be most interested to find out.
What I do know is that this is by far the best this concert has ever sounded
in my experience; I don't use the word "revelation" lightly, but this comes
pretty close.
MK
Joseph Scott
Goodman was well aware of Basie's and Ellington's bands at that time,
and he much preferred Basie's, which was in keeping with his general
taste as of the '30s: he thought swing should be pretty
straightforward riff stuff, a la the styles of Fletcher Henderson,
Jimmy Mundy, etc. (Goodman was one to change his mind though, and he
later went through a phase of playing adventurous Eddie Sauter
arrangements, much more like Ellington, before returning to '30s-like
swing in the mid-'40s, and then switching to bop in the late '40s, and
then switching back to swing again in the '50s.)
Joseph Scott
Mitchell Kaufman
> Goodman was well aware of Basie's and Ellington's bands at that time,
> and he much preferred Basie's, which was in keeping with his general
> taste as of the '30s: he thought swing should be pretty
> straightforward riff stuff, a la the styles of Fletcher Henderson,
> Jimmy Mundy, etc.
Yeah, Goodman clearly had a weakness for Basie, his soloists (he seemed to
like working with Prez especially), and his more relaxed style. After Krupa
left, Goodman hired Davey Tough, a much more laid-back drummer, and recast
the band along looser lines. To my ears, it didn't really work--it ended up
sounding like a poorly-rehearsed version of Goodman's earlier band. Now the
*second* band...that's a whole different story...
He also must've liked Ellington, seeing as how he hired his trumpet star
away (Cootie). OTOH, maybe he *didn't* like Ellington so much! ;-)
The Fargo concert, great though it is, demonstrates just how devastating the
loss of Cootie Williams was to Ellington.
(Goodman was one to change his mind though, and he
> later went through a phase of playing adventurous Eddie Sauter
> arrangements, much more like Ellington, before returning to '30s-like
> swing in the mid-'40s, and then switching to bop in the late '40s, and
> then switching back to swing again in the '50s.)
There's a nice Collectables disc comprised of those two Columbia LPs
originally issued in the '50s where mostly Goodman's early-'40s band plays
Henderson and Sauter arrangements. The Henderson is O.K. (he really recorded
most of the best Henderson arrangements earlier for Victor), but the Sauter
is terrific. The arrangements were apparently very difficult to play, but
they do swing mightily, albeit not in the same way as the Henderson charts.
Actually, when you play the two side-by-side, the Henderson set seems pallid
in comparison.
A lot of those Sauter arrangements w/Goodman were written for Peggy Lee, and
the Columbia/Legacy two-disc set of these is essential (though as usual, I'm
not wild about the sound, which is a little lacking in high end).
When all is said and done, I suppose Goodman's heart was with swing. The
other styles were mostly dalliances (including a not insubstantial classical
career).
Let me now add my periodic rant about how shamefully RCA/BMG and Columbia
have treated the '30s-'40s Goodman catalog (with the exception of the
excellent three-disc small groups set on RCA). They're both way overdue for
newly-transferred box sets, preferably complete.
MK
joe medjuck
heard the Definitive release of the Ellington Musicraft recordings? I'm
interested in them but if the sound quality is bad I may get two discs
from the "Classics" label that cover this period. BTW How much was the
Goodman disc and where did you find it?
Joe Medjuck
Mitchell Kaufman
Haven't heard the Ellington, and in fact wasn't aware it existed. Sounds
interesting.
The Goodman was $20.99 at HMV Fifth Avenue in NYC; J&R probably has it
cheaper, but I wasn't up to the hike. (One can also supposedly order rather
inexpensively directly from Disconforme, but I've never gotten the shopping
cart to work.) As for Classics, I had a very bad experience with them early
on; their Lunceford and Webb discs were awful (many of the cuts sounding as
if they'd been dubbed from those old echo-laden Decca LPs). I assume their
more recent stuff is better than that. (They've issued so much material, the
recent edition of the Penguin Guide seems as if it devotes about half its
space to Classics reissues.)
Upon re-hearing with headphones, I've decided that it's possible that
Definitive may have applied noise reduction to the Goodman concert, but that
it was done very, very discreetly, and in such a way so as not to effect the
high frequencies containing musical content. There also seems to be some
mildly out-of-phase stereo difference signal added digitally at certain
points, which is also extremely subtle; it serves to make the surface noise
less obtrusive, and also gives the sound greater weight and spread. (Don't
worry...it's nothing like the re-processed stereo crap of the '60s--in fact,
I hear similar methods being applied all the time on major label reissues
like those on RCA [including the Goodman small groups set and the mid-'40s
sides on the Ellington Centennial set].)
Somebody at Definitive seems to have a very good ear (though he obviously
had it stuffed with cotton during the preparation of the Basie RCA set).
MK
Greg M.
I thought your post was one of the best I've ever read on this ng. I
was also bothered by the crackling noise on the '99 set, have also not
listened to it again since the first time, and will definitely invest
in the Definitive issue thanks to your very careful analysis. Many
thanks.
Greg M.
"Mitchell Kaufman" <forg...@iaint.disclosinit> wrote in message news:<a59pe2$689$1...@slb0.atl.mindspring.net>...