Need help with the Dorsey Brothers

[neveronfriday]

OK, this is my coming out.

Whenever the buying bug bites me, I find myself turning to swing and small swing sessions. There have been lots of excellent reommendations on this board and I've bought lots of them. Anything from Lionel Hampton toJohn Newman, from the great recommendations in the small groups swing thread(s) to the Billie Holiday and other vocalist threads.

The Blue Note stuff I like, but I just get the creeps with some of those pingy RVG editions. My ears start to hurt because of the sound, not the music.

That aside, I know that most people considered Tommy Dorsey to be "corporate", "lifeless", and whatever.

Fact is though, that right now I'd like to fill one gaping hole in my small collection, and that's the Dorsey one.

I have some tunes on some collections, but what I'm looking for is this:

I need a series or some single releases that anyone here can recommend, especially soundwise.

I'm not interested in purchasing a 10 to 20 CD collection that has every honk Tommy Dorsey or the Dorseys have ever recorded, but I'd like an extensive overview/collection of their work in the best possible sound.

Whenever I look around the various shops, I always get completely confused about these releases. Lately, there hasn't been much, and before that there was so much that it is mind-boggling.

So, can anyone recommend CDs he or she has, that are recommended?

List them here, and I'll rely on you and start hunting for them.

Thanks!

[ghost of miles]

Deus, you beat me to it. I've been meaning to start a similar thread, albeit devoted only to the Tommy Dorsey big bands. I'm not a fan, but I'm teaching a class on big bands in American popular culture and can't really see ignoring Dorsey's 1940s units. Any recs for that particular organization--esp. among the various Hep releases?

[neveronfriday]

Tommy Dorsey is also top of my list, so any recommendations there I would be quite happy with.

My Dorsey affection goes way back and as it goes with these things, I'm not sure if I'm still "with the program", but I'm going to try.

[jazzbo]

I may be different but I really love the work the Bros. did before they joined together for their first band; I'm not sure that is what you are looking for though.

These are my favorites, all in great sound by J. R. T. Davies:

Just great early white jazz and hot dance!

There is also another favorite, the HEP cd "Harlem Lullaby" which has a fine collection of the recordings of their first band . . . including Mildred Bailey, Lee Wiley, Mae West, Bing Crosby, Ethel Waters, Bunny Berigan, Joe Venuti, Dick McDonough, and more. . . . Also with J. R. T. Davies remastering, great sound.

[neveronfriday]

Sounds good to me.

Thanks for the recommendation.

What label are those pics?

Hep?

[ghost of miles]

It's the same label that did the Jack Purvis set... a very good label. Oracle, I think.

[ghost of miles]

My mistake--Jazz Oracle. Website here. I have only a few of their CDs so far, but they do excellent work. The Purvis is wonderful.

[neveronfriday]

It's the same label that did the Jack Purvis set... a very good label. Oracle, I think.

Yep.

Found the website.

Thanks!

I'll start searching.

[neveronfriday]

More recommendations, please.

Later material.

[B. Goren.]

I'd like an extensive overview/collection of their work in the best possible sound.

Deus, I think the solution is the English label JSP. I also plan to order their Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey set. So far I bought several sets from this label and they are all great and with a very good sound quality. I have some good reasons to believe that I'll not be disappointed from this one also.

Dorsey bros on JSP

[brownie]

Chronogical Classics has a Tommy Dorsey series that is pretty well advanced by now.

I have not checked the JSP box that B. Goren linked but the boxes from that label are usually pretty good and pretty cheap.

Edited August 6, 2004 by brownie

[neveronfriday]

I'd like an extensive overview/collection of their work in the best possible sound.

Deus, I think the solution is the English label JSP. I also plan to order their Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey set. So far I bought several sets from this label and they are all great and with a very good sound quality. I have some good reasons to believe that I'll not be disappointed from this one also.

Dorsey bros on JSP

I've had that one in my Amazo basket for eternity.

Maybe I should click?

[neveronfriday]

Chronogical Classics has a Tommy Dorsey series that is pretty well advanced by now.

I have not checked the JSP box that B. Goren linked but the boxes from that label are usually pretty good and pretty cheap.

I've looked at that series often, but that's what I meant above: it might just be too much of a good thing.

I'll look into it again.

[B. Goren.]

I'd like an extensive overview/collection of their work in the best possible sound.

Deus, I think the solution is the English label JSP. I also plan to order their Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey set. So far I bought several sets from this label and they are all great and with a very good sound quality. I have some good reasons to believe that I'll not be disappointed from this one also.

Dorsey bros on JSP

I've had that one in my Amazo basket for eternity.

Maybe I should click?

As I told you I don't have this specific set in my collection but in light of my experience with this label (Bix & Tram, Django, Jelly Roll Morton), I would not hesitate.

[neveronfriday]

*click*

[B. Goren.]

*click*

Please let me know your impressions after listening to it.

[ghost of miles]

These have piqued my curiousity:

DorseyHeps

Scroll up & down and you'll see some Jimmy Dorsey & Dorsey Bros. material there as well.

[neveronfriday]

These have piqued my curiousity:

DorseyHeps

Scroll up & down and you'll see some Jimmy Dorsey & Dorsey Bros. material there as well.

Yes, I've been all over these sites, many times, but I just can't decide.

I'd like an opinion from those people who have those.

Cheers!

[neveronfriday]

*click*

Please let me know your impressions after listening to it.

Shall do.

Will take about two weeks to get here.

Cheers!

[B. Goren.]

Shall do.

Will take about two weeks to get here.

Cheers!

Danke

[neveronfriday]

Shall do.

Will take about two weeks to get here.

Cheers!

Danke

De nada.

Arriba!

[Shrdlu]

This might seem a corny suggestion, but make sure that you get the TD session with the famous "Marie" and "Song of India". Pop items these were, but I have heard them tons of times and they still sound fresh. (I grew up with them!) The personnel is graced by the presence of Bud Freeman - not a Dorsey regular, I think. Bud can even be heard briefly, sounding like late Trane.

The symphony conductor Arturo Toscanini is said to have scolded a trombone section and told them to try to sound as good as Tommy.

[Larry Kart]

Echoing Dick Sudhalter's opinion in "Lost Chords," a set of six Sunbeam label LPs of the T. Dorsey's band's Raleigh-Kool radio broadcasts "show the band far looser, more powerfully swinging than on its commercial recordings" -- with great work by Dave Tough, clarinetist Johnny Mince, and Bud Freeman (a regular until he left to join Benny Goodman in 1938). Dont believe that material is on CD though (someone tell me if it is, because I don't have all the Sunbeams). A terrific band, with its own style, and there's nothing not to like about TD's trombone.

[Shrdlu]

I heard that Freeman was not with Dorsey much - mainly just for that one recording session that porduced those two hits.

[Larry Kart]

Not so, Shrdlu. Quoting from John Chilton's "Who's Who In Jazz," Freeman "was with Dorsey from April 1936 until joining Benny Goodman in March 1938" -- a month less than two years.