Charlie Barnet - 1936-1937 (CD)

All Music Guide

There's no denying that it's good to hear every single record that Charlie Barnet's band made during the 1930s. This is after all part of our cultural heritage, and every piece of the puzzle helps to place the entire body of Barnet's workindeed that of every popular big band from the 1930sin perspective. Nevertheless, eighteen of its twenty three tracks come with vocals, and several of these are packed in corn syrup, as it were, in an effort to appease the appetites of the record buying public. Bob Parks carefully squeezes out the lyrics to "When I'm With You", and Kurt Bloom seems to be emulating Ozzie Nelson on "You're Looking For Romance". Joe Hostetter asks the revealing question "Where Is My Heart?" and trundles out a stable full of "Empty Saddles". This acts as a benign sequel to his marvelously entertaining vocal on "I'm An Old Cowhand", which was recorded only a few minutes earlier on the same day [see Classics 1133 Charlie Barnet 19331936]. The leader of the band sings on n...o less than seven tracks, sounding a little like Dean Martin during "Rainbow On The River" and periodically supplying tasty fills with his saxophones. He's really delightful at the helm of the bouncy, swinging "Long Ago And Far Away" and sounds particularly smooth on "Until The Real Thing Comes Along". Barnet could be oddly charming, as any one of his eleven wives could probably testify. Three tracks feature a vocal group billed as the Barnet Modernaires. Their treatment of "Bye Bye Baby" is precise and polished, conforming closely to the prevailing style of conventional 1930s white big band vocal groups. Fats Waller's cheerful renditionrecorded only two days earlieris much groovier than this squeaky clean routine, but he was making jazz and the Modernaires were playing to the pop market. "MakeBelieve Ballroom" was used as the theme song of Martin Block's WNEW radio program. Block began using the title near the end of 1934, having swiped it from Al Jarvis, a DJ on KFWB in Los Angeles. The allnight "Milkman's Matinee" also ran on WNEW, hosted by Stan Shaw from 1935 until Art Ford took it on in 1942. There's nothing quite like hearing a team of sober adults singing "Everything's ‘Grade A' at the Milkman's Matinee" in perfect harmony. As for the instrumental tracks, the Barnet treatment of Irving Berlin's "Always" swings handsomely, and four titles recorded for Irving Mills' Variety label are interesting examples of a band in transition. "Take My Word" is superb smooth and easy dream music, with Barnet's sax sounding something like what Coleman Hawkins blew back in 1933 when he and Charlie were both making records for the Banner label. "Swingin' Down To Rio" is plenty hot, and the other two numbers are straightforward swing, right out of the Fletcher Henderson book. For this session, conducted in direct violation of his contract with Victor/Bluebird records, Barnet unearthed the name of a hot dance band from the 1920s to masquerade with his orchestra on this one occasion as The California Ramblers. The next leg of the Charlie Barnet story will demonstrate the blossoming of a creative, hardswinging jazz band. - arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide Read more Less