Trio - Quartet - Quintet - Benny Goodman

 

The Man I Love

Benny Goodman

Trio - Quartet - Quintet

RCA Victor LPM 1226

1956

From the back cover: In a very real sense it is astonishing that the Benny Goodman Trio – and the the Quartet – ever got as popular as it did. For the Trio became a reality, first on RCA Victor records and then in person at the Joesph Urban Room of the Congress Hotel in Chicago, when small-band jazz was at an ebb. Even in 1935 the trend was toward the bigger and more flamboyant; a good big band could make it all the way, but a good little one had an awfully tough time.

The smashing success of the Goodman Trio can be accredited to the marvelous artistry and enormous acceptance of Goodman himself, and to the superb taste of the American public. Right in the midst of the sensational flowering of swing, just when the Goodman band was swinging back triumphantly across the country towards everlasting fame and glory, a new note was introduced in the persons of the Benny Goodman Trio. All at once fourteen men would stop playing, Helen Ward would cease singing, and three men – Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa – would slide forward into the spotlight. These three would hold forth in their own inimitable way, playing a style of chamber jazz that was both unique and endlessly inventive. They changed moods often, swinging lightly, melodically on tunes like Body And Soul and Oh, Lady Be Good, while setting sparks to such an old chestnut as Tiger Rag. Here was splendid teamwork, and the crowds never stopped cheering.

Almost everyone knows that the Goodman Trio actually began at a party given by Mildred Bailey in 1935. The Trio became a Quartet when the Goodman band was in Hollywood making "The Big Broadcast of 1937," for that was when Benny discovered Lionel Hampton working in a Los Angeles saloon called the Paradise Café. One of the most electrifying personalities of our time, Hampton's addition to the Trio gave it a whole new dimension. Even before he joined the Goodman organization in person, the Quartet had cut several sides for RCA Victor, of which Dinah is one.

Hampton himself is an old Derbyite from Louisville, Kentucky, who galloped through such towns as Birmingham and Chicago before ending up in Los Angeles doing something titled Skeleton In The Closet with Louis Armstrong for the film, "Pennies Form Heaven." He's a nimble if not expert pianist, a rattling fine drummer, an engaging singer, and a simply terrific vibraharpist. Krupa, like Goodman, is a Chicagoan, who went with Red Nichols and Irving Aaronman, before joining Goodman. Teddy Wilson, that superbly creative pianist, walked softly around Austin, Texas, and Toledo, Ohio before dropping in to Chicago to play first with Erskine Tate, then Jimmy No-one and Benny Carter, before going with Goodman. Krupa's position on drums is taken over by the late Dave Tough of Sweet Georgia Brown and Opus 1/2, and there are many astute observers who will tell you that Davey was the best dance-jazz band drummer who ever lived. The only other diversion from the Goodman-Wilson-Krupa-Hampton team is with the Quintet number, Pike-a-Rib, a tune put together by Goodman and Hamp, and featuring BG, Hamp, Teddy, drummer Buddy Schutz, and that superlative bass player of Onyx Club fame, John Kirby.

Aside from the fact that these were first-rate musicians, I know that these Trio and Quartet records are as fine as they are because Goodman and the others loved making them. The big band was terrific. But Goodman was and is to this day a fellow who loves playing purely improvised jazz. And when you have yourself a 14-piece band, the arranger for the main part must take over while the improvisation hangs loosely around the edges. With the Trio and Quartet, Benny could improvise to his heart's content, which is all that anyone could ask.

Remember this too: good improvisation never grows stale. This record will be as good years from now as it is today and was in 1939. These selections are landmarks of a brilliant career. – Notes  by Fred Reynolds - Music Editor, Hi-Fi Music at Home Magazine

Whispering

The Man I Love

Opus 1/2

Sweet Georgia Brown

Body And Soul

Oh, Lady Be Good

Dinah

Sweet Sue – Just You

Smiles

Runnin' Wild

Tiger Rag

Pick-A-Rib