Red Norvo has some issues.

[DukeCity]

Watch to the end...

http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

[Big Wheel]

It looks like Norvo was pissed that the band came in with backgrounds behind him (or maybe that the backgrounds were too loud and he wanted another chorus?). Though from what I've heard about the Goodman bands there was probably always something simmering under the surface waiting to boil.

Edited May 24, 2010 by Big Wheel

[Joe]

Watch to the end...

http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

I'm wondering... is this some sort of gag? I mean, there's some real comic timing on display here.

[DukeCity]

I'm wondering... is this some sort of gag? I mean, there's some real comic timing on display here.

I wonder that, as well. Seems like it would he hard on the bars of the vibes to chuck them onto the stage like that. Unless he grabbed a "gag" set of bars when he was offstage.

[Chuck Nessa]

Like Art Blakey, in his last few years Red was very hard of hearing (you'd have to shout in one ear) - he depended on regular sequences/routines to keep from missing his cues. My guess is Benny changed something up.

[Big Wheel]

One of the commenters on the Youtube clip says this was a regular act Red and Benny used to do. I guess it makes sense that you don't see more mention of this particular "meltdown," then.

[Free For All]

I sense schtick.

[Chuck Nessa]

You always could.

[Van Basten II]

[Joe]

The name of the tune is this clip is "Gotta Be This Or That," according to one online source I could locate.

http://www.casttv.com/video/txdlsj1/benny-goodman-at-carnegie-hall-new-york-1974-video

[Swinging Swede]

Gotta Be This Or That was a popular tune at the end of the Swing Era and was recorded by several bands. Benny Goodman recorded it for Columbia in 1945 in an extended arrangement on a double-sided 78. That original version, which also had Red Norvo and Slam Stewart present, is actually on YouTube too:

Benny Goodman - Gotta Be This Or That (1945)

BG's Columbia recording of it seems to have had a troubled history. It was first recorded in March 1945 at a slower tempo in a regular 3-minute version, with Jane Harvey and Benny Goodman taking the vocals. This version did not have Red Norvo or Slam Stewart, and wasn't released until the LP era. Then the following month no less than two different extended versions were recorded at the same session. One heavily featured Trummy Young, both as a singer (in addition to BG) and in an extended trombone solo. This was also not released until a lot later. The other version was what was released at the time and is the now famous version with BG as the only solo singer, and featuring Slam Stewart and Red Norvo.

All three versions can be found on the Classics CD 1945.