Tommy Dorsey - 1937-1938 {The Chronological Classics, 1078} (1999)

Tommy Dorsey presided over no less than 22 recording sessions during the year 1937. His records were popular among both jazz heads and pop music fans who expected to hear singers in front of the band. This eighth installment in the Dorsey chronology offers predominately vocal tracks garnished with three pleasant instrumentals, "Just a Simple Melody," "Little White Lies," and "Oh, Promise Me." The leader wisely bolstered his trombone's famous tonality with such capable players as Pee Wee Erwin, Bud Freeman, and Johnny Mince. Gifted percussionist Dave Tough, a troubled individual who was eventually slain by his addiction to alcohol, lasted a remarkably long time with Dorsey, finally bailing after the session of December 6th. Syrupy-voiced Jack Leonard made off with eight ballads in addition to Kern/Hammerstein's "Who?," which was given the same group vocal treatment as Dorsey's hit record, "Marie." Edythe Wright, capable of singing prettily, was at her best with humorous upbeat numbers like Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen's anti-romantic "Down with Love." The nadir of her career was reached with the incredibly racist Rodgers & Hart tune "There's a Boy in Harlem." This nasty little air paints an archaic Jim Crow portrait of a musically gifted but sloppily dressed Afro-American composer who never leaves the 'hood but whose influence pervades the music industry. With Lorenz Hart's lyrics containing a thinly veiled reference to "this person in the woodpile," the song belongs in Tin Pan Alley's sociological chamber of horrors. Its appearance in the Dorsey discography casts a sickly light upon his periodically flawed ethical sensibilities.


Tracks:

01. Gettin' Some Fun Out of Life (2:24)
02. In a Mission by the Sea (3:23)
03. Nice Work If You Can Get It (2:22)
04. You're a Sweetheart (3:05)
05. Moanin' in the Mornin' (3:07)
06. Down with Love (2:47)
07. Who? (3:09)
08. The Dipsy Doodle (3:11)
09. I Can Dream, Can't I? (2:46)
10. A Little White Lighthouse (2:57)
11. The One I Love (2:44)
12. Just a Simple Melody (2:41)
13. I'm the One Who Loves You (2:38)
14. Little White Lies (3:16)
15. You Couldn't Be Cuter (2:29)
16. Just Let Me Look at You (2:39)
17. Smoke from a Chimney (2:33)
18. The Big Dipper (2:45)
19. How Can Your Forget? (2:50)
20. More Than Ever (2:41)
21. There's a Boy in Harlem (2:33)
22. Annie Laurie (2:40)
23. Oh, Promise Me (3:06)