Customer Reviews

The Columbia House Bands: Ben Selvin, Vol. 2

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had both this CD and its companion Vol.1 for a couple of years now. Both are superbly produced and transferred (despite what another reviewer states -- does he require all high frequencies to be dampened? Then the music sounds dead and muffled). Both are essential listening to those of us who love quality dance band music of that era. Selvin used great soloists, who gave many of his sides a quintessential jazzy sensibility (the young Benny Goodman features prominently herein). Get this one!

....and you all thought Selvin's Volume I really was good...too...well.....this tops them all!!!!! Some of the biggest names recorded with Selvin: GOODMAN, MILLER, both JACK & CHARLIE TEAGARDEN, and even cowboy crooner SMITH BALLEW. Ballew has a singing voice like mine, and I have many, many of his records; including one recorded around 1932-1933 "Tia Juna," and "The Isle of Capri." Selvin really had good potential and talent to show-off to the world what good quality musicians were really made of. (Bill Randle, if you're reading this -- don't forget, Selvin, in his whole career recorded under 150 different band-leading names, and way-over 9,000-10,000 recorded titles and I really don't care what jazz discographer Brian Rust thinks of my opinion.)

While I relished volume one of Ben Selvin's reissues on TOM, this one (1929-1930) is even better; the music is a few degrees hotter and features Benny Goodman (a lot), Jack Teagarden (on two tracks), Manny Klein, the Dorseys, Stan King (on most tracks) and a host of other well known instrumentalists. Main vocalist is the dependable Dick Robertson, but we also find the delightfully laconic Eddie Walters (also present on some tracks with the Charleston Chasers, Timeless CBC 1081). I would be hard put to mention a letdown among the tracks. The booklet info is excellent and this time comes with complete discographical info (missing on vol. 1). Sound quality is as good as one might expect from recordings this age and together with the other TOM reissues this is a valuable addition to my discography of pre-swing dance music. Highly redommended.

Once more I find myself in complete accord with Joost Kiefte. When I reviewed Volume One I thought it merited five stars, but this is even better. In part this is because it spans a slightly earlier period, September 1929 to February 1931, so it carries stronger echoes of Twenties syncopation, and two of the vocals are by Clarence Williams' wife Eva Taylor. It helps also that many of the songs are better-known, and Randy Skretvedt's informative liner note is supplemented by good discographical information, which enables us to appreciate the calibre of the musicians who created these great tracks. Overall, it's the quality of the playing, how well that was captured all those decades ago, and how well it's been remastered that makes this a five-star plus

This is the second volume of Ben Selvin, he was a big star in the 20's and these cuts are all original and classic...."I'm In The Market For You", "When I'm Housekeeping For You", "Smile Darn Ya Smile"..are all great!!! This is your connection to the real stuff of the twenties...It's great that these cuts have been saved on CD.

Ben Selvin had his first orchestra around 1917.He recorded over 3000 records for various companies.The bands featured on this CD Included many musicians who went on to fame;Benny Goodman,Tommy Dorsey,Artie Shaw,to name a few. The CD is a good review of the music heard in the '20's & '30's.but failed miserably in an attempt to"clean" up whatever records they were dubbed from.