Time Life swing LPs

[Jerry_Jelinek]

Are the Benny Goodman recordings considered part of the series? I know those were recorded by Benny Goodman and Orchestra. Also the original artists appear on a few of the tracks, for example, Nat King Cole is on one of the tracks.

The Benny Goodman stuff is the exception. These are studio and live recordings done between the mid 1950s thru the early 1970s. Some very nice small group things and some big band things. He plays various old big band songs along with fresher 'pop' arrangements of popular songs for the era (60s and 70s).

The Nat Cole is Nat singing. But if you recall Nat passed away in 1965. So how does this fit in with this set of 70s recordings??

Well to my understanding, the series actually started back in the mid 1950s. The Glen Gray big band series from the 1950s was the precursor of the Time Life series in the 1970s. All of these 1950s tracks are in the Time Life set.

Capitol records used the name of Glen Gray to attract the older big band fans. But Billy May was the real genious behind these 1950s sessions. They were very popular in sales.

How the Nat Cole sessions were done, I don't know. I'm guessing here that based on the sound qualilty of Nats voice (which to me sounds weak), the Nat Cole tracks were done somewhere between 1962-1964. Again i don't know the circumstances.

Fast forward to the early 1970s. Time Life commissioned Capitol and Dave Cavanaugh to continue recreating big band charts from the 1930s-1950s. Dave assigned Billy May to be the chief architect. Viola the set was done and to me is the definitive set of recreations ever done.

We owe you BIG TIME Billy May.

Jerry

[sonofvu]

George, as I said in the other thread, the collection is good to have, if only as a collectable. The books that come with the sets are kinda nifty. The set is not worth $500, but it is probably worth more to you than your non-swing friend.

I think the set does not feature original Swing Era recordings, but instead post-Swing Era re-recordings of Swing Era standards.

Well, the sound quality is great but the set has no books. It would be a cool collectible but I'm more of a completist (if there is such a word) when it comes to collecting stuff like that. I suppose I could get the books later.