Customer Reviews

The S'Wonderful Ray Conniff: The Big Band Years, 1939-1947 [ORIGINAL RECORDINGS REMASTERED]

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If you love big band swing, and you want to hear the very best examples of it, buy this CD. Featured are wonderful Conniff charts for Bunny Berigan, Harry James, Glen Gray, and Artie Shaw. Especially interesting tracks: The proto-r&b "Little Gate's Special" (a 1939 Conniff composition) in twelve-bar blues form, no less, and featuring Basie-style riffs. "Prelude in C Major"--a take, in part, on Rachmaninoff's C-sharp Minor Prelude (listen for the opening three-note motive thereof). And, most of all, the Harry James/Conniff composition "Easy," the best 32-bar, AABA jam-tune this reviewer has ever had the pleasure to sonically behold. And note, please, that the simplicity of this piece (to say nothing of its flawless, streamlined swing) is simple in effect only. In fact, a rather complex scheme reveals itself upon careful listening: a riff theme for piano and, afterwards, orchestra; a compelling and memorably melodic theme atop the same minimalist ii-I/bridge structure; a slight elaboration of the chord pattern for soloing purposes; and, finally, a return to the melodic (second) theme. What sounds like simple repetition isn't quite repetition. And it isn't quite simple. In a word, it's Conniff.

Almost on the level of "Easy" is the Kenton-esque Conniff original, "Hold The Phone" (1944), superbly played by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (with jazz great Red Nichols in the trumpet section). This is how Stan Kenton might have sounded had he instructed his trumpet section not to scream and his arrangers to hold the bombast.

Pop brilliance on this level is hard to come by. Get this CD.

When I hear Ray Conniff vocal music, all I can think of is vocal muzak. For me, it is terrible stuff. That's why I was stunned to hear this superb big band cd containing music arranged by Ray Conniff back in the 1940s. I thought anything with his name attached to it would be as uninspired as his vocal music from the 50s, 60s, etc. This cd however is one of the best big band compact discs I have ever heard. As a bonus, the songs, on this cd, are not the same old titles (good as they may be) that turn up, in different order, in various compact discs. If you like original 1940s big band music, this is a must for your collection.