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Benny Goodman - RCA Small Group Master Takes

Track listing:
Volume 1
  1. After You've Gone 2:48
  2. Body And Soul 3:30
  3. Who? 3:14
  4. Someday, Sweetheart 2:49
  5. China Boy 2:33
  6. More Than You Know 3:15
  7. All My Life 3:14
  8. Oh, Lady Be Good 3:02
  9. Nobody's Sweetheart 2:47
  10. Too Good To Be True 3:31
  11. Moonglow 3:25
  12. Dinah 2:42
  13. Exactly Like You 3:19
  14. Vibraphone Blues 3:23
  15. Sweet Sue, Just You 3:19
  16. My Melancholy Baby 3:26
  17. Stompin' At The Savoy 2:50
  18. Whispering 3:23
  19. Tiger Rag 3:24
  20. Ida! Sweet As Apple Cider 3:48
  21. Tea For Two 3:08
  22. Runnin' Wild 2:39
  23. Avalon 2:47
  24. Handfull Of Keys 2:23
  25. The Man I Love 3:27
Volume 2
  1. Smiles 3:03
  2. Liza 3:26
  3. Where or When 3:26
  4. Silhouetted in the Moonlight 2:59
  5. Vieni, Vieni, Vieni 2:53
  6. I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas) 2:46
  7. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, Part 1 3:28
  8. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, Part 2 3:26
  9. Sweet Lorraine 3:53
  10. The Blues in your Flat 2:36
  11. The Blues in my Flat 3:27
  12. Sugar 3:36
  13. Dizzy Spells 3:20
  14. Opus 1/2 3:25
  15. I Must Have That Man 3:26
  16. Sweet Georgia Brown 3:08
  17. 'S Wonderful 3:27
  18. Pick-a-Rib, Part 1 2:57
  19. Pick-a-Rib, Part 2 2:58
  20. I Cried for You 3:24
  21. I Know that you Know 3:05
  22. Opus 3/4 2:54

Notes

Jul 13, 1935 - Apr 6, 1939

In so many ways these small-group recordings by bandleader and clarinetist extraordinaire Benny Goodman from 1935-1939 are his most satisfying. Here, along with pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, Goodman got to the essence of his trademark brand of hot swing. The first four sides here are with that trio and they are simply glorious. As the years passed, Goodman added and subtracted members, who included vocalists Helen Humes and Martha Tilton, Lionel Hampton, drummer Dave Tough, bassist John Kirby, and others, but the effect was largely the same -- though perhaps not as intense as with the original trio and quartet with Hampton. The sides collected here, all 47 of them, are uniform in their freshness, stunning chart originality, and musical execution. While the package is not big on liner notes, all the necessary personnel information is included session by session, and the sound of the 24-bit digital master is superior to the RCA version of the same set -- and the price is better on this import.