The Benny Goodman Trio Plays For The Fletcher Henderson Fund

 

I Found A New Baby

The Benny Goodman Trio 

Plays For The Fletcher Henderson Fund

Columbia Records CL 516

1952

From the back cover: Fletcher Henderson was the first of the swing band leaders. In 1922 he brought an all-star group of musicians to the Club Alabama in New York, in which Coleman Hawkins, Joe Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Don Rodman first mad their reputations. A prolific recording artist, composer, and arranger, Henderson became the leader of the movement to free dance music from the shackles of stock arrangements by writing orchestration which gave his soloists the greatest freedom to improvise. In 1934 he became chief arranger for Benny Goodman's orchestra, producing standards like Blue Skies and Sometime I'm Happy, and original compositions which have become big band classics.

Since 1934 Fletcher has continued arranging, conducting his own band, and working as accompanist for Ethel Waters in her triumphant comeback. In December, 1950, while leading a small band at New York's Cafe Society, he suffered the first or two cerebral hemorrhages. His left side is at present paralyzed, but he has recovered sufficiently to think of resuming his career as an arranger. It is as a tribute to his contribution to American music that this record is being issued.

Also from the back cover: Benny Goodman, the most famous of the swing band leader, was born in Chicago forty-one years ago. He joined Ben Pollack's orchestra at the age of fifteen, coming to New York with that band in 1927. For the next seven years he divided his time between playing in radio studios, musical comedy pit bands and making innumerable records both with large conventional orchestras and small jazz bands. As musical director of Russ Columbus short-lived band, he acquired experience which made it inevitable for him to have his on group. 1934 marked his debut as a full-fledged bandleader at Billy Rose's Music Hall, and he continued as the top swing leader until 1941, when a serious back injury forced him into temporary retirement. Since that time he has had successful big bands and small groups and has made a distinguished name for himself as soloist with the country's leading symphony orchestras and chamber brisk groups. Goodman is the first jazz musician to make a successful innovation of the classical field.

Gene Kurt is also a Chicagoan who has been the country's favorite drummer almost since he started recording with small jazz bands in 1927. In 1935 he left Buddy Roger's band to join Benny Goodman's orchestra, of which he was a star attraction until 1938, when he started his own band. He is still a successful leader and is thinking seriously of fronting a small all-star group to replace his large group.

Teddy Wilson is from Austin, Texas. Before joining the Goodman Trio he played in the bands of Jimmy No-one, Lous Armstrong and Benny Carter. Like Krupa, he left BG in 1938 to start his own band, which was too advance for the public taste. He has sudied harpsichord with Yella Pessi, and piano with Nadia Reisenbefg and Frank Sheridan. At present he is on the staff of WNEW and teaches piano at the Juilliard School of Music.

Benny Goodman Trio. Early in 1935 three guests sat down to lay after finishing a huge dinner at Mildred Bailey's house in Forest Hills, Long Island. It was a t this moment the Benny Goodman Trio was born, with Benny on clarinet, Gene Krupa on drums, and Teddy Wilson at the piano. The music that night was so memorable that the next move was to arrange for a recording session to preserve it for the future.

At this point in his career Benny Goodman was a struggling young bandleader who was trying to make the public appreciate a new brand of dance music called swing. He was lucky enough to have a recording contract, but it took several months of persuasion to convince his company to make disc of anything so uncommercial as an instrumental trio. But in June of 1935 the Benny Goodman Trio assembled again and made four sides with were destined to change the tastes of American record buyers. One of those four tunes, Body And Soul, may be heard again in this long playing record, effectively proving that the Trio has lost none of its old magic.

The Trio mad hits first public appearance the following year during Benny's appearance in Chicago at the Congress Hotel. The success of the records was so great that it made possible the public acceptance of the first racial y mixed musical group. As long as Gene Krupa was with the band the Trio stayed in existence, sharing the spotlight with the quartet and band.

This record makes the first bobbin appearance of the original Trio in thirteen years. It was taken from Martin Block's "Make-Believe Ballroon" program over station WNEW on April 1, 1951, in which Benny Goodman and Marin Block combined forces to pay tribute to Fletcher Henderson, the great arranger who was then critically ill.

Lou McGarity played first trombone with Benny Goodman's Band in the Early Forties. He has recently returned from Hollywood to play with studio orchestras in New York.

Buck Clayton was Count Basie's star trumpet man for seven years. He was a featured soloist in Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938, and is currently a member of Joe Bushkin's Quartet.

Eddie Safranski was the bass player with Stan Kenton's band during its prime. At present he is playing with studio bands in New York.

John Smith has been a recent member of the Benny Goodman Sextet. His guitar may be heard in many of New York's radio and television orchestras.

A word about the performances: China Boy and Body And Soul were both recorded by the original Goodman Trio. The first is a typical Trio performance, highlight Benny's amazing technique and Krupa's flashy style, while Body And Soul presents the more enduring assets of the group. Teddy Wilson is at the hight of his improving genius in this performance.

Runnin' Wild was originally featured by the Goodman quartet and this performance show the unique ensemble achieved by Benny, Gene and Teddy. One The Sunny Side Of The Street introduces the superb bass of Eddie Safranski, who blends perfectly with the Trio. John Smith joins Eddie and the Trio to make After You've Gone a slightly frantic and chaotic affair. Side 1 ends with Lou McGarity's soulful trombone recreating Basin St. Blues, which was a standard in the roman band library from the very beginning.

As easy, relaxed performance of Rose Room by the Trio opens up the second side, followed by Honeysuckle Rose, with the fine muted solo work of Buck Clayton. I Found A New Baby provides a field day for Goodman, who, along with Krupa, manages to revive a good portion of Sing, Sign, Sing. One O'Clock Jump in the logical climax to this side, nearly seven minutes of the finest blues improvising by all the soloists.  – John Hammond

From Billboard - August 16, 1952: This disk contains the original Benny Goodman Trio, with Benny, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa, together for the first time in 13 years, plus Lou McGarity on trombone, Buck Clayton on trumpet, Eddie Safranski on bass and John Smith on guitar. The disking was taken from the Martin Block show on WNEW, New York, when the group got together to play for the Fletcher Henderson fund in April, 1951. It contains 10 fine oldies, including such items as "One O'Clock Jump," "After You've Gone," "Rose Room," "Sunny Side Of The Street," "China Boy," Runnin' Wild," and others. Goodman, Krupa and Wilson sound fine together again, and their ideas, inventiveness and stylings are still fresh and uninhibited. They manage to put an enthusiasm and humor into their playing that is very bright and refreshing. "I Found A New Baby" is one of the top sides, as is "One O'Clock Jump." This is an outstanding disking, one that will attract all the Goodman-Krupa fans, and many, many other jazz fans to hear this fine musicians on this exciting LP set.

China Boy

Body And Soul

Runnin' Wild

After You're Gone

On The Sunny Side Of The Street

Basin Street Blues

Rose Room

Honeysuckle Rose

I Found A New Baby

One O'Clock Jump