Benny Goodman in Moscow

[ghost of miles]

A good friend of mine loaned me this 2-LP set, and I'm in the process of dubbing it onto cd-r this afternoon. Sounds promising so far, though I know that BG jettisoned most of the modern charts that he commissioned for this tour. Wondering if we'll ever see a CD reissue of this material...George Avakian says that the rights to it reverted to BG's estate. It might make for a nice Mosaic Select (especially since there's evidently more music that BG nixed for idiosyncratic reasons).

[JSngry]

I recall DEEP saying that the album was a masterful splice job, that the tensions of the tour spilled over into the performances. So maybe just an "as is" reissue - which would certainly be excellent - would be enough.

Although, if you hear the shit that's going after Benny give Phil Woods the "cut" in "Titter Pipes", maybe not... :w :w

[Stereojack]

I like the record a lot. Benny put together an all star band for the tour. Besides the familiar material, there are several interesting new charts, such as "Titter Pipes" and Tadd Dameron's "Fontainebleu". I suspect the only way you're ever going to get this on CD is to make your own!

[BruceH]

I'd sure like to hear it, one way or another!

[Christiern]

In case you never saw this, here's some vivid first-hand background. from Bill Crow's memory bank.

Makes me wish I had been on the tour rather than sitting back in Benny's office, faking his autograph.

[Chuck Nessa]

Hope you signed a couple of checks.

[Christiern]

Of course, but, alas, they were VBN^* cheques.

^*Virtual Bank of Nigeria

[bichos]

[Big Beat Steve]

In case you never saw this, here's some vivid first-hand background. from Bill Crow's memory bank.

I read Bill Crow's account of that tour a while ago when the link to that site came up in conjunction with another story and, to put it mildly, I was baffled. If you take all this in along with Terry Gibbs' tales of "The Fog" in his autobiography as well as Milt Bernhart's account of the 1950 Las Vegas stint of the BG band that included Wardell Gray you are beginning to ask youself questions ... a LOT of questions, in fact.

People (including musicians) rarely ever are saints, but THAT ... ??

[thomastreichler]

I have some of the material on cd; the Italian "Giants of Jazz" label issued 15 tracks under the title of "Benny Goodman In Moscow 1962".