Under The Influence

This girl sure does like to sing about being in love. In fact.... that seems to be all she sings about. I thought she was an actor? The United Kingdom's Blonde Bombshell and all that.

I'm a sucker for horns in their many guises, probably one of the reasons I like swing. Plenty of horns here, that's for sure. Her voice is pretty, smooth and sweet. The arrangements feel a bit too polished - though, it is swing after all. Listening to it again I think I quite like it. Must have been in a funny mood last time.

Picked up this one after hearing it featured on Woody Allen's Annie Hall. I found a couple of copies on EM. The Live Buddy Divito version is from a Harry James (radio DJ from back in the 1950s) live show. The recording is really old, and kind of broken - still got a great vibe though.

I have another one that's much more up to date (and over produced), with a big acapella chorus backing. It's nice enough I guess - just a bit cheesy. It's the antitheses of the Buddy version.

I'd like to track down another copy of this one day. Something a bit closer to the one in the movie. It's a lovely track.

92 Benny Goodman tracks in my iTunes! time for something new. While digging around I stumbled across a reference to Fletcher Henderson as one of Goodman's influences.

It's pretty apparent within the first couple of seconds that there are some serious similarities here. Variety Stomp is one of my picks so far, really mean trumpet hook.

I think I might have an obsession... actually, I know I have an obsession. With over 5 hours worth of Benny Goodman clocked up in my iTunes count today there's really no hiding it.

Most of today's effort has been spent consuming his famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. I have to admit that I know next to nothing about swing. In fact, this week was the first time I sat down and investigated it. A dozen random downloads from emusic later I'd decided that Benny sounded like he deserved more attention. Shows how naive I am really as it turns out that his 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert is considered one of the great events in music history. And I can see why.

The album I grabbed off emusic yesterday weighs in at 3.7 (?!) hours long (apparently it includes some 1944-47 stuff too) but I didn't feel bored at any point during the listen. These guys really know how to get the crowd going.

With the whole swing angle I was hoping to find more tracks like Kai Winding's Comin' Home Baby and I think I found one in Sing Sing Sing. Definitely going to dig around in the swing section a bit more this week.