[Dixielandjazz] Bing Crosby: "Bing in Dixieland, " "The Night Before Christmas"

[Robert Ringwald]

Since this is labeled Bing and Dixieland, I wonder why Bing With a Beat
with Bob Scobey is not included.  

--Bob Ringwald


Bing Crosby Archive press release, November 10, 2011:
New Bing Crosby Archive Releases Featuring Newly Discovered Christmas Recording
Now Available for Pre-Order Exclusively at BingCrosby.com: 'Bing in Dixieland' (CD)
and 'The Night Before Christmas' (Limited Edition Vinyl Single); Both Available on
iTunes November 29
Bing in Dixieland
This new 23-song collection features Bing Crosby with a series of small Dixieland
combos. The core of the album is a 14-song session from 1956 with Buddy Cole and
His Dixieland Orchestra, recorded for Bing's daily CBS radio show. These tracks were
part of the acclaimed 160-song 2009 Mosaic Records limited edition collection, "The
Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings 1954-56." ("These are a master's lucid readings
of the American songbook" -- Time magazine.) Here they're augmented by two previously
unissued selections from that daily radio show featuring Buddy Cole and His Trio.
Seven additional bonus tracks, mostly recorded for Bing's 1950s radio shows for Chesterfield
and General Electric, feature Bing accompanied by The Firehouse Five Plus Two and
John Scott Trotter's Dixieland Group. Ella Fitzgerald makes a guest appearance on
"Memphis Blues" and another very special bonus track features Bing with Louis Armstrong
and His All-Stars. Bing and Satchmo's legendary performance of Cole Porter's "Now
You Has Jazz" from the 1957 Edsel television special has been transferred from a
newly discovered audio master reel for inclusion in this collection.
"Bing in Dixieland" includes classic Dixieland favorites as well as a few standards
done in the Dixieland style: "At the Jazz Band Ball," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Muskrat
Ramble," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "Strike Up the Band," "That's A-Plenty,"
"My Baby Just Cares for Me," "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain," "Smiles," "Just Around
the Corner," "The Banjo's Back in Town," "When My Baby Smiles at Me," "The Object
of My Affection," "I Got Rhythm," "Margie," "Yes Sir! That's My Baby," "Oh, How I
Laugh When I Think How I Cried About You," "Everybody Loves My Baby," "Between the
Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," "The Blues My Naughty
Sweetie Gives to Me," "Memphis Blues" and "Now You Has Jazz." The digital version
of the album, available on iTunes, includes the video of "Now You Has Jazz."
Jazz critic Will Friedwald, reviewing the Mosaic collection in the Wall Street Journal,
said of the Dixieland session, "Crosby is totally in his element here, doing songs
from the jazz age -- his impetuous youth... He's never sounded more loose, buoyant
and, particularly on 'Sometimes I'm Happy,' full of contagiously good spirits."
The Night Before Christmas
Considering that he's known all over the world as the "Voice of Christmas," it has
remained a curiosity that Bing Crosby never got around to recording Clement Clarke
Moore's enduring poem, "The Night Before Christmas" -- also known as "A Visit from
St. Nicholas." As it turns out, Bing did record the poem in 1968 for an overseas
Voice of America radio program. The master tape was recently discovered in the Crosby
Archive and is now being made available for the first time in this limited edition
colored vinyl single. The flip side contains two more Crosby Christmas chestnuts:
"Adeste Fidelis/O Come All Ye Faithful" (a 1952 radio recording taken from the 2010
Bing Crosby Archive CD "The Crosby Christmas Sessions") and a previously unissued
1960 duet with Kathryn Crosby on "Away in a Manger" recorded for Crosby's annual
radio special, "A Christmas Sing With Bing." Last year's Bing Crosby Archive limited
edition Christmas single, featuring Crosby's duet with David Bowie on "The Little
Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth" sold out quickly.
Also available from the Bing Crosby Archive: Bing Sings the Great American Songbook,
Seasons (Deluxe Edition), Return to Paradise Islands (Deluxe Edition), On the Sentimental
Side, Bing on Broadway, El Senor Bing (Deluxe Edition), So Rare: Treasures from the
Crosby Archive, Bing Sings the Sinatra Songbook, A Southern Memoir (Deluxe Edition),
The Crosby Christmas Sessions, Bing and Rosie: The Crosby-Clooney Radio Sessions.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
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