Benny Goodman

This album consists two set-long airchecks from historically important engagements by the Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins orchestras at the Savoy Ballroom. The Basie band (1937) was fresh out of Kansas City and just becoming a national sensation. Hawkins (1940)was trying his hand as a big band leader after his hit with Body and Soul. Both performances are incredibly energetic and free-ranging, unleashed from the constraints of three minute studio recordings. The bands swing like there's no tomorrow, the soloists stretch out, and the audiences whoop and holler. Announcements between tunes are mildly amusing and add a sense of historical mood. I know of no other recordings that capture such a sheer sense of excitement. This is must-hear stuff if you want to know what the SWING era was all about.