Customer Reviews

Shall We Swing? / Sounds of the Great Bands in Latin

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

 

 

I've listened to many big band albums but this one remains one of my all-time favorites. The "Shall We Swing" selections are big band arrangements of great classical themes arranged by the incomparable Billy May. These arrangements are fantastic and the band he assembled was up to the challenge. This band has all the great 50's and 60's studio musicians from Hollywood such as Uan Rasey, Babe Russin, Conrad Gozzo, Skeets Herfurt, Don Fagerquist,
Ted Nash etc. Just hearing "Poet and Peasant Overture" and "Hungarian Dance" is worth the price. Truly unique! Get it - you won't be sorry.

The "Sounds of the Great Bands" are from Glen Gray's early 60's albums (and he did a lot of them) in which he did original arrangements of famous bands. No telling these from the originals. Even the solos are practically exact duplicates. Again these arrangments were played by Hollywood's finest.

Billy May's arrangement of "Poet and Peasant Overture" alone is worth the price of this great album. Great big band; fantastic May arrangements. One of the finest big band albums I've ever heard!

But this may be a place to do so. The early 60s, when music had not yet been overrun and all opponents crushed by rock, was a time of oldsters trying hard to remain relevant while various newsters fought to be heard. There was a huge folk base, abundant jazz that was still readily available in your local record shop, a strong C&W contingent, Ed Sullivan staples, and various international sounds arriving daily. In 1963 most college-aged people would probably have heard of Chad Mitchell, Eydie Gorme, Woody Guthrie, Martha and The Vandellas, Dave Brubeck, Trini Lopez, Andy Williams, and Henry Mancini. Such variety would soon disappear.

One of the hangers-on still churning out the goods was Glen Gray, a famous swing band leader who had a sensational arranger in Billy May. Together these two, and their crackerjack musicians, spilled out LPs that replicated the old sounds perfectly (and remember, those old sounds weren't as readily available in good quality as they are today) and meandered into "relevance." This is a combo of two relevant records, taking a pair of those early 1960s LPs and packing them on to one CD. You get 9 famous classical tunes performed in a perfect but cold swing style, and 11 swing classics infused with the newly popular Latin flavor.

Though I recognize the excellence of both arrangement and playing, and have no qualms about re-imaging very familiar older material, I cannot warm up to this pair. Somehow the whole thing, including the tracks so highly praised in other reviews, is just a little chilly. Sterile. Packaged. Processed. I'm not sure. But the swing bands of the 30s and 40s, including Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra, had a fire and passion that just feels missing here. You got lots of samples...see if you like them. I don't hate it; I don't love it. Tepid music inspires a tepid response.

If ever there was a album to buy because of one track, this is it for me. In 1961, when I was learning the radio business at a college station, KTCU in Fort Worth, this album arrived as part of a package we received every month from Capitol records. I attended a band concert in the South Tyrol area of Northern Italy this summer and one of the selections played by the Brunico City Band was "The Poet and Peasant Overture" by Franz von Suppe'. I was immediately reminded of this album with arrangements of classical themes by Billy May. The Poet and Peasant is stunning. Just when you think it's over, there's another bit of whimsy on the end. I searched Amazon and found a used CD in the UK and ordered it. I have yet to listen to all the other tracks on the "Shall We Swing" half of the disc and almost certainly won't listen to the Big Band classics in Latin, but I have played the Poet and Peasant until my car CD player refuses to repeat it one more time.

Who in their right mind would add a latin beat to great swing music? Terrible. Just terrible.

DO NO BUY IF YOU WANT WANT MUSIC THAT SWINGS