dale88

I have 3 sides of Louise Tobin singing with Benny Goodman. When I saw your thread, I recalled her voice favorably. I don't know why she wasn't given additional recording opportunities.

I recently read the chapter on Artie Shaw's 501 Navy Band in Vladimir Simosko's "Artie Shaw, a Musical Biography and Discography". There is some wonderful history there. You look at the names of the band members and it is just a tragedy that we have no recordings of what must have been a wonderful band. People such as John Best, Conrad Gozzo, Max Kaminsky, Sam Donahue, and Dave Tough. When Shaw came back from the Pacific he got a medical discharge. Sam Donahue took over the band. I have a V-Disc compilation that has one track of the Donahue Navy Band 501 recorded February 1944. That performance is so polished that I would guess that some of the Pacific crew were still on board.

I can give you two of them: Groovin' High: Conte Candoli, 1955 was for Bethlehem, a 10 incher. West Coast Wailers, 1955 was for Atlantic, a 10 incher. This information was in a post on Conte Candoli and Bill Holman on jazzwax.com Nov. 13, 2008. "The trio behind the duo was the same on both dates: Lou Levy on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Lawrence Marable on drums." Those two albums are included on a 2006 CD from Definitive. I am envious that you got to meet him.

Didn't Irving Mills do almost the same thing to Nat King Cole's Straighten Up and Fly Right, by buying it for a few dollars and Nat didn't receive another penny for years? I find it interesting/amusing that the two Kings, Nat King Cole and Benny Carter toured several times together, played at the same venues several times, and became lifelong friends. Carter and Cole were both appearing at Kelly's Stable in late 1941. Nat's manager, Carlos Gastel, then became Benny Carter's manager until 1945. My favorite 'lost opportunity' would have been for Benny Carter to arrange an album for Nat King Cole.

Ben Webster probably could have picked it up from the Irving Mills promotion. Here is another quote from Edward Berger in the Giants of Jazz compilation: "Ben Webster had been a member of Carter's 1934 orchestra and was a close friend. (In Webster's Amsterdam apartment, the only photo on display in the living room was of himself and Carter, whom he and many other musicians always referred to as "The King".)

I rather like some of the Complete Capitol Live Recordings of George Shearing, MOSAIC, 1994, 7 LPs for me. It was also available as 4 CDs.