This Set of 3 CDs contains 30 tracks of professionally recorded, popular, hard-to-find big band/swing era music with excellent sound and quality.

30 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Big Band, JAZZ: Swing/Big Band



Details:
In August, 1935, the Benny Goodman Band gave one last performance at the end of a discouraging road tour. As the tall, young bandleader stood in front of a passive, disinterested audience, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps and decided that if he were going down, then he would go down swinging.

He gave some quick instructions to his band to play a lively version of the familiar "Sugar Foot Stomp," which had been practiced during rehearsals, but never presented before an audience. To this adaptation was incorporated a jazzy trumpet solo to add a bit of bravado.

Suddenly, the reaction of the crowd brought an eruption of cheers and jumping. The band and their leader were quite surprised and astonished. Goodman, having risen from the brink of disappointment, later described the reverberation as "one of the sweetest sounds I ever heard..."

As a result of this spontaneous experiment, Benny Goodman became one of the noted bandleaders of what is now know as "the Swing Era." He developed his own unique version of "Big Band" sounds, which would be revered in the music world for many, many years.