Benny Goodman's Backup Band's Rehearsal, NYC 1941-03-13, featuring Charlie Christian, Cootie Williams, George Auld and others - Fabulous, fabulous foundation of modern jazz (mp3 sample included)

This rehearsal session was originally captured on a 16 inch acetate disc, which was put out on the bootleg Blu-Disc label as part of the Un-Heard Benny Goodman series. Anyone expecting big-band material is going to be floored - this sounds nothing like it, rather it sounds like something that could have been performed yesterday. The story goes that the band started playing while waiting for Mr. Goodman to show, and it was spontaneously captured for posterity. Sound quality is incredible for what it is.

There's no specific track list for this session, but snippets of the following tunes may be heard:

A Smooth One
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
Rose Room
I Hadn't Anyone 'Till You

Personnel are:

Cootie Williams T
George Auld TS
Johnny Guarnieri P
Charlie Christian ELG
Artie Bernstein SB
Dave Tough, DM

Notes from the record sleeve:

This material was transferred directly from a 16" acetate disc which was made at the time of the rehearsal. The disc was cut inside-out and at the very beginning the sound level was quite low since the studio engineer had not set any balance or level on what was going on in the studio. For the first two minutes of this record there is background noise (with the low level) and this does not clear up completely until two minutes into the rehearsal. We did not filter since we wished to preserve as much of this historic performance as was possible.

Lineage: Rehearsal ->16 inch acetate ->boot LP -> YOU

Enjoy! A DoinkerTape