Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall: new reissue, still incomplete

Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1938 is an iconic record. It has been in print since 1950, and it offers a great snapshot of Swing at his height, not only musically but socially. However, to this day we don't have a complete issue of the music, as I explained in this previous post.

There's a new reissue just out—Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1938, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., Blu-spec CD2 SICP 30223-4. This has been released in the new Blu-spec CD2 format, but it's based on the previous official CD master (C2K 65143, from 1999), and therefore it's still missing half a minute of music, although the sound seems to have gained definition.

KBO: João Gilberto

A few weeks ago I told you about this little campaign I've started on Facebook to ask for EMI and Mr. João Gilberto to reach an agreement and give the world a proper reissue of the truly wonderful music Mr. Gilberto recorded in his first three albums.

Since then, a few well-intentioned friends have warned me of the unlikelihood of such enterprise. "You won't achieve your goal", they say.

It may well be so. I'm well aware of the crisis in the music industry, and of EMI¡s problems in particular. But nobody will able to say that I didn't try. I think it's a disgrace that so many people have never heard this music, a little spark of genius that happened to be recorded in Brazil around fifty years ago. It had Vinicius's poetry, Jobim's musicality, but first and foremost, Mr. Gilberto's total commitment to the music. They say he's a perfectionist, a difficult man. I say he's just completely devoted to music: if you watch any videos of him, and there are plenty, you'll notice how his whole face shapes around each exact note he sings.

I, or rather, we may not get EMI to publish an official reissue. But it won't be because we didn't speak up.

Like the song says if someone doesn't like this music, it's because "they're not good people, either they have a bad head, or bad feet".