Customer Reviews

Turn on the Heat: Hot Dance Band Sides 1925-1931

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Few CD retrospectives offer material that so completely captures the mood of a time period. This is such a CD. Rivermont records has put together the definitive collection of one of the most recorded, but alas, most overlooked orchestras from the 1920's: Sam Lanin. Perhaps due to the wide variety of aliases this man chose to record under.

I can scarcely remember a contemporary radio program or review of the 1920's that even mentions this seminal orchestra leader. Yet, should we manage to resurrect personalities from that time period, an objective musical historian would presume anyone alive during the '20's could quickly point to the Sam Lanin organization as a "first mention" name in dance bands.

I highly recommend this CD.

Sam Lanin was a great organiser, who could be relied upon to put together a studio band when required. He recorded prolifically for a great many record labels, under a variety of pseudonyms as well as his own name. As a result he is less well-known than Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, and Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey. Which is ironic really, because they were all employed by him, on and off, and all make their presence felt within this splendid compilation. One who doesn't, despite being listed within the very informative booklet, is Sylvester Ahola. He made just two records for Lanin, in November 1927, then left for England where he remained until mid-1931.

Given that he could and did call upon the cream of New York's session men, it's not surprising that the recordings are uniformly excellent. Most are popular songs of the day, many of which have stood the test of time, and vocalists include Arthur Fields, Irving Kaufman, and Scrappy Lambert. As always with Rivermont CDs, production and remastering is excellent, and this collection of hot dance band sides from 1925 to 1931 can be recommended without reservation.