1937-1939

nny Carter's remarkable career as a musician, composer, arranger, and bandleader had many facets, and spanned an incredible 70 years. Some of the thoroughgoing threads in Carter's work include his superb arrangements for big band and his lively, unerring sense of swing. These qualities are abundant on his late-1930s dates as a leader (most of which were recorded in various cities in Europe), and this collection, the fourth in the Classics chronology of Carter's work from the time, is not to be missed.
Given the style and era-specific recording quality, there is an air of nostalgia to these sides, and the highly entertaining "Nagasaki" (which features a rapid-fire, jive-talking vocal from Carter himself) edges toward novelty. But Carter's superb charts for the orchestra display a complexity, subtlety, and energetic interchange reminiscent of Duke Ellington's style. In addition, there is fine playing all around--Carter frequently solos on trumpet and alto sax, while jazz legends like guitarist Django Reinhardt and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins drop in for sessions (Paris '38 and the Hague '37, respectively). This Classics set, like the others in the series, is, indeed, classic in every sense of the word.|