Count Basie And His Orchestra - Swingin' At The Chatterbox (1937)

Back in the 1930s there was no shortage of live radio broadcasts of swing concerts. So if a jazz lover felt like staying home instead of going out to a club, there was a good possibility that NBC or CBS (which were primarily radio networks in those days) would be broadcasting a concert by a major swing artist. Thankfully, a lot of those 1930s broadcasts can be heard on CD in the 21st Century. This disc focuses on live broadcasts of Count Basie's performances at the Chatterbox in Pittsburgh, PA in February 1937. The sound quality is OK (by 1930s standards) but not great -- there are many other recordings of swing era broadcasts that have sharper, cleaner sound quality than Swingin' at the Chatterbox: 1937 (especially those that have come out on Hindsight). But the sound isn't terrible either, and serious Basie collectors will enjoy the performances despite the imperfect sound. Leading a big band that boasts heavyweight soloists like trumpeter Buck Clayton and the seminal tenor saxman Lester Young, Basie never fails to excite. These historic performances came at a time when the artist's orchestra was only a few years old -- it wasn't until after Benny Moten's death in 1935 that he became a full-time band leader. Before that, Basie was best known for his years as the main pianist for Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, and, not surprisingly, the Moten influence is quite strong on performances of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" (which features singer Jimmy Rushing), Jelly Roll Morton's "King Porter Stomp," and Basie's own "Swingin' at the Daisy Chain"). Nonetheless, Basie's orchestra had a sound of its own -- even in 1937 -- and Swingin' at the Chatterbox: 1937 paints an attractive picture of his early work.