[Dixielandjazz] Bing Crosby Reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Bing Crosby, Beyond His Greatest Hits
by Will Friedwald
Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2010

Bing Crosby wasn't the single most important figure in 20th century popular music
-- and, in particular, the most influential singer of the great American songbook
-- it's difficult to know who would be. He cast a giant shadow over the entire landscape
of American music, touching upon the pop icons who followed him (Frank Sinatra, Elvis
Presley and the Beatles all paid their respects) and into the worlds of jazz, rhythm
and blues, and country music. There's even a famous calypso record dedicated in his
honor.
The impact of Crosby (1903-1977) upon American culture was enormous -- a sea change
that was both musical and technological. He was the first major pop vocalist to incorporate
the swinging rhythms and improvisatory essence of the new American music called jazz
into his singing, which, in turn, allowed him to bring a hitherto unheard casualness
and intimacy to American pop. He also was the first vocalist to fully fathom the
equation of the new electronic media: electrical recording, radio and sound film.
His mastery of these forms empowered him to become the biggest musical star of the
Depression and World War II eras -- and an inspiration for generations of performers
and singers, including Sinatra.
Heard today, Crosby's warm, mellifluous baritone is still as engaging and moving
as ever. If Crosby is less a part of the discussion than he should be, it's partly
the fault of the organizations that control the rights to his performances. While
the estates of Sinatra and Presley have taken steps to make sure the catalogs of
these iconic artists remain accessible, the only Crosby music that has been readily
available in the three decades since the singer's death were Christmas albums and
basic greatest-hits collections.
That situation, at last, is starting to change. In the past few months, more of Crosby's
music -- particularly from the harder-to-hear later portion of his career -- has
been made available than ever before in the compact-disc era. Bing Crosby Enterprises
has supervised the release of six individual packages (one a two-CD set) from
http://www.ccmusic.com/
 as well as an epic seven-CD box from Mosaic Records, "The Bing Crosby CBS Radio
Recordings (1954-56)."
Not all the new releases are equally valuable: There's a sappy singalong album ("On
the Sentimental Side") and a lackluster pair of ethnocentric concept sets ("Return
to Paradise Islands" and "El Señor Bing"). These are strictly for completists, although
all three are graced with extraordinary bonus tracks that are more exciting than
the main event. By contrast, "Bing on Broadway" gives us Crosby doing excellent songs
in excellent voice, on tracks compiled mostly from the same radio recordings that
make up the Mosaic box. The 1977 "Seasons" is especially welcome; this was Crosby's
last album, recorded in London shortly before his death. (Copies of the LP frequently
change hands on eBay, some advertised by their sellers as being autographed by Crosby
-- which would be a neat trick, since it was released posthumously.)
The "CBS Radio" box is an extraordinary mother lode of previously unreleased Crosby:
160 songs that no one has heard unless they were listening to the singer's daily
15-minute radio series of the mid-1950s. (Although some of the tracks were, shortly
after the singer's death, released with an overdubbed orchestra.) It's an amazing
amalgam of everything from ancient tunes Crosby remembered from his childhood ("They
Didn't Believe Me") to a variety of contemporary hits that were then on the jukebox,
even such unlikely items as mambos ("Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White") and country
songs ("I'm a Fool to Care"). Pianist Buddy Cole and his trio provide all the accompaniment;
Cole borders on the annoying when he switches to electric organ, but on the bulk
of the tracks he helps Crosby keep everything light and highly swinging.
The biggest revelation in the package is a session recorded with an eight-piece traditional
jazz band probably arranged by clarinetist Matty Matlock. Crosby is totally in his
element here, doing 12 songs from the jazz age -- his impetuous youth. The singer
enters "Yes Sir! That's My Baby" almost completely a cappella, backed only by drummer
Nick Fatool's rimshots -- an amazingly difficult opening. You can tell Crosby's senses
of rhythm and pitch are both highly developed, and the dozen songs are a rare example
of Crosby actually calling attention to his technique. He's never sounded more loose,
buoyant and, particularly on "Sometimes I'm Happy," full of contagiously good spirits.
Much about the session suggests that Crosby might have been thinking of releasing
these tracks commercially, but if so he abandoned that idea in favor of his masterpiece
Dixieland album, "Bing With a Beat," the next year.
The other essential new release is "So Rare: Treasures from the Crosby Archive."
This double-disc package was compiled with hardcore Crosby collectors in mind, but
the music is of such a high quality that even newcomers to Der Bingle will find much
to enjoy. The set starts in 1931 with two songs from Crosby's breakthrough broadcast,
and continues up through the war years (a beautiful reading of "Over the Rainbow"),
into the Eisenhower era and a fascinating group of movie and show tunes from the
1960s. "So Rare" ends intriguingly with the live "That's What Life Is All About,"
from one of his final concerts. In a spoken introduction he compares the song, partly
written by the singer himself, to Sinatra's "My Way" and Sammy Davis Jr.'s "I Gotta
Be Me." Normally, it's hard to stomach these high-blown anthems of self-celebration,
but "That's What Life Is All About," more than "My Way," is reflective and inwardly
probing, even self-deprecating and, for once, not merely a victory lap set to music.
Besides, if anybody had earned the right to take a bow, it was Bing Crosby at the
end of one of the great careers in American music.


--Bob Ringwald
Amateur (ham) Radio call sign K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551

Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?