Benny Orchestra Goodman - The Sound of Music on CD

Description

The complete Benny Goodman album devoted to the compositions of Rodgers& Hart s The Sound of Music. Performed by an all-star tentet featuring Jack Sheldon, Bill Harris, Flip Phillips and Red Norvo, it contains the first jazz version ever of My Favorite Things , taped nearly a year before John Coltrane s celebrated rendition. A live set by the exact same tentet recorded a week earlier (playing one of the tunes from The Sound of Music) has been added as a bonus. Includes16-page booklet. The original stage production of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II s The Sound of Music opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontane Theatre on November 16, 1959. Benny Goodman s tentet album of the score from the Broadway musical would be recorded merely four days later on November 20. This was probably arranged from the beginning as a way to promote the show. Whether this extra publicity aided in the show s success remains unknown, but the musical proved to be a major hit. It would be revived on Broadway many times, and was taken to Hollywood in 1965, with Julie Andrews cast as the film s starring role. Oscar Hammerstein II would die from cancer on August 23, 1960, a few months after the show s opening. The Benny Goodman recording session had actually been scheduled for November 11 & 12 (that is, a few days prior to the show s debut), but apparently Goodman wasn t satisfied with the recording studio and all the material taped during the two day session was discarded and is presumably lost. Although nearly all of the show s compositions became popular tunes, one of them would also become a jazz standard: My Favorite Things . Goodman s recording is the first known jazz version of the tune, which would be interpreted later by many other jazzmen. However, its popularity in the jazz world can hardly be attributed to Benny Goodman, who wouldn t record the song again after making this album. It was John Coltrane who brought the song to the attention of the jazz world. He taped his celebrated version of the tune on October 21, 1960 (the album was also titled My Favorite Things). In any case, it s interesting to hear Goodman s version of the song prior to Coltrane s influential reading of the song.

Tracks

01. No Way To Stop It
02. Sixteen Going On Seventeen
03. So Long Farewell
04. Climb Every Mountain
05. The Sound Of Music
06. My Favorite Things
07. An Ordinary Couple
08. Maria
09. Do-Re-Mi
10. Let's Dance
11. No Way To Stop It
12. Sleep
13. I Want To Be Happy
14. Gotta Be This Or That
15. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
16. Sweet And Lovely
17. Breakfast Feud