Customer Reviews

That Sentimental Gentleman

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

 

 

Musically this album rates even more than five stars, if that's possible (more about my 4-star decision below). It consists exclusively of broadcast recordings by Tommy Dorsey's orchestra during the height of its success, in the years from 1940 to 1944. Okay, so the title's actually a bit misleading in that only half of the tracks are from the band's romantic style that earned Tommy his nickname, but nothing can beat the excitement of the band going full tilt on Hawaiian War Chant or Well, Git It! And when you do get to the sentimental songs you have both Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes to listen to and love.

The album is also historically significant because it includes Sinatra's last performance with the band, followed by a very early Haymes effort on Daybreak, from Grofé's Mississippi Suite. In addition there are five songs from the otherwise-unrecorded period of the ASCAP strike, when the band featured some great jazz from Charlie Shavers and Sy Oliver.

The performances are all "live" - going so far as to include some banter between Dorsey and a waiter at a restaurant on one cut - so there's a spontaneity and looseness that few studio recordings can match. All the great musicians and singers are there: in addition to Shavers and Oliver, there's Buddy Rich, Ziggy Elman, Bunny Berigan, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, the Sentimentalists, and on and on. Except maybe for the Glenn Miller AAF Band, it just doesn't get better than this!

Now why did I assign only four stars? All of this great music is on a CD which sounds like it is a second-generation copy of the 1950s LP. There seems to have been virtually no sound restoration beyond the clumsy echo chamber and bass/treble boosts that were the only techniques available five decades ago. If you listen through those efforts, the quality of the original 1940s transcriptions must have been far better than the average for the time, but much of it is muffled by whatever was done by the LP's engineers. Let's hope that the original discs are still out there somewhere and that the third time will be the charm.

This is still my favorite Tommy Dorsey recording, and I have over 45 of them. "That Sentimental Gentleman" captures what I consider the best era of the TD band, from 1940 to 1943. Although the sound quality is not as good as the studio recordings, the excitement of Ziggy Elman, Buddy Rich, Bunny Berigan, Frank Sinatra, and all the rest swinging live more than makes up for it. And all those great Sy Oliver arrangements! If you want to find out how exciting TD's band really was, this is it!

This is a CD release of an old LP record issue that originally came out in the 1960s. It contains "live" radio recordings of Tommy Dorsey from the early 1940s when his band was at it's musical peak. Sy Oliver was Tommy's chief arranger by this time, and some of his solid arrangements are performed "live" to great effect. Buddy Rich was on drums, and he is at his best. Frank Sinatra sings on several tunes, and he sounds great live with the energy of the band and the crowd to really get him going. While there is some ballad material on this set, I have always liked the up-tempo performances for their sheer musical power. The most incredible performance on the set is Hawaiian War Chant that features Buddy Rich on drums, and has a duet between Buddy and trumpeter Ziggy Elman. This is much more up-tempo than the relatively tame studio recording of a few years earlier. Another Rich tour de force, "Quiet Please" which was driving in the studio is over-the-top high energy when heard live. Frank Sinatra's vocal (backed by the Band's vocal) on "Yearning" reveals an assertive, almost commanding, Sinatra in the "live" performance setting. He is also heard on the live version of "Marie," which is much gutsier than the original studio recording. Song Of India is also heard with much greater energy than the original studio record. For folks who love those Dorsey tour-de-force numbers featuring the band and all of his singers (Pied Pipers, Jo Stafford, Connie Haines, and ---of course--Sinatra) there is "I'll Take Tallulah;" this performance will send you (driving tempo courtesy of Buddy Rich). Two moderately well-known Sy Oliver charts are noteworthy, Swanee River, and a personal favorite "Mandy" (aka Mandy, Make Up Your Mind). These are the best performances on the record, but they're all musically good, and historically important to the true big band Swing fan. You also get to hear announcements of many of the songs, including a fair amount from Tommy himself. If you're a real big band fan, you don't want to miss this; it's musically well executed, and a lot of fun.

This was a terrific album when it came out in the '50s and I'm so glad it's been re-issued, as it's just as terrific. This was the first TD album by RCA with live airchecks and it opened a new "Live" excitement we had previously only felt from Miller, Goodman and Shaw records. If you Like the Great TD, you've got to get this CD!