Wonderful music with terrible surface noise. There is a better option
3
By thomasbc
As many other reviewers have noted, this is essential music, perhaps the greatest live big band recording, ever. Also as many reviewers have noted, the surface noise -- pops and crackles from a scarred lp that was used as source material -- makes it an unbearable listening experience. But after years of frustration, I just found a much better alternative.
There is a 4-cd import from Avid Entertainment that has the complete Carnegie Hall concert, plus material from several BG albums from the '50s. There are no pops, no crackles, just fairly well remastered music. Of course, it's not the tyoe of quality we would prefer -- the recording equipent in 1938 obviously wasn't up to today's standards -- but it's the best I've found, so far.
Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie hall concert
3
By Lostfrank
I like it, but I thought it would be the original broadcast. I just wanted the songs not Benny talking. But I enjoy listening to it.
Benny Goodman 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert
5
By Tuffjustus
Recorded live with only one microphone, this is a collection of some of the best and greatest jazz artists ever. Yes, the recording has plenty of scratchy noise (I have no idea if it could be remastered adequately or not) but listening to Goodman, James, Elman, Basie, Krupa, Hampton, Young, Stacy, and Wilson on stage. Listen to Sing, Sing, Sing.....there is nothing that comes close.
Pass on this one...
1
By maestroe
A legendary performance….Unfortunately this recording is a bust. It’s as if LP noise is brought out and the band in the background. Absolutely destroys the original energy of this great performance….pass on this and listen to it on a real LP
Bad copy of LP recording!!
1
By Egaff50
If there are good reviews they are bogus! This is a BAD copy of a very scratchy LP record! Awful!!!
Terrible Waste of Money . . .
1
By JazzFan2011
Warning to anyone who loves Benny Goodman: don't buy this album, it's a total waste of money. The "surface noise" is so loud and obtrusive and the music itself so dull and muted that you can't listen to it for more than a minute before getting a crushing headache. In fact, it's as if the producers blunted the music and amped up the noise. We want to hear the music, not the limitations of 1938 recording technology. This could easily have been a knock out by simply remastering the album to get rid of the noise and accentuate the great music and the audience reactions. It's simply inexcusable in the 21st century and a golden opportunity wasted.
a truely amazing recording
5
By purplestar7
love it!
Benny Goodman: King of Swing
5
By Clarinetti
This is by far my favorite album. I just wish I could have been there to hear it in person.
Remarkable grouping of 30's jazz personnel jam live
5
By ERICTD
Personnel from 3 of the top swing bands of the day came together on an historic night to jam, really, around a long list of popular tunes. Benny Goodman( BG) led with his band, augmented by personnel from Count Basie and Duke Ellington ( the Count played, Duke did not). Many of these personnel went on to form their own bands later on. Truly an all-star group of musicians all on the same stage, over which hung a single microphone. ( Recording was an after-thought: the tapes would be lost for 10 years, surfacing in BG’s closet).
By coming together from different perspectives, these “all-stars” gave tunes like One O’clock Jump, Don’t Be That Way, and Honeysuckle Rose added life. Sing, Sing, Sing never was nor would it be again played this way, with Krupa so strong, and with an unplanned, virtuoso piano solo by Jess Stacy that people marvel at still. The explosive drum riffs in Don’t Be That Way by Krupa were not scripted either, and are credited with getting the musicians loosened up on this first song, all except Krupa nervous about being in Carnegie Hall, up until then reserved for classical music.
Three other features should be mentioned: very classy women’s vocals on several popular tunes, the miraculous (really) and rhythmic sound of the BG quartet ( Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson. Gene Krupa, and BG), and the history lesson embedded in the middle third of the concert: six tunes trace jazz arrangements ranging back 20 years, covering Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and others.
But mostly there is so much good music in one place. Your feet will tap. You’ll appreciate all the solos, and the wailing finishes. This is my favorite album, and I’m more than biased since it was my Dad’s first LP, which I wore out learning to play the drums.
Definitely a collector’s item. (get the latest version of the CD that contains many extras, including a solo by Freddie Green on rhythm guitar, that was insensitively ordered up by BG on Honeysuckle Rose, but for which Freddie had the wrong guitar! And cut from the orig albums – BG was embarrassed)
Live at Carenegie Hall
5
By BTHS'56
This is what it's all about.
