While this fine double album is great to listen to, its real value is as a historical document. Bringing together the known recordings from a 1946 performance of
Woody Herman and the Herd at Carnegie Hall (some of which have never been released, others of which were previously scattered across two albums), this album marks several important moments in the history of
Herman's music and jazz in general. At the time of this performance, Carnegie Hall was still the exclusive bastion of classical music -- though
Herman's band had already played there, this performance still marked one of the first jazz concerts to be performed at the famed New York venue. Perhaps further highlighting
Herman's respect in the classical community, this show was also the debut of a piece composed for the
Herman band by
Igor Stravinsky, titled "The Ebony Concerto." Unfortunately, the pieces of the recording of the concerto at this performance were lost, so it is only reproduced in fragments on this recording. The mood of the time is captured well, both in the restrained yet joyous performance of
Herman and the Herd, and in the comments that he makes to the audience, including a rather amusing bit where he makes a speech about preserving the values of democracy for the younger generation and quotes that famed fighter for democratic values,
Frank Sinatra. Overall, this recording captures the band in a shining moment, when they were at their creative and commercial peak, only months before they would disband (due to unfortunate family problems). Verve has presented well-designed and informative packaging, including liner notes which give some sense of the meaning of this concert and, thankfully, take time to explain the quality of the recording (which ranges from average to truly awful, mostly because of surface noise -- unavoidable due to the technology of the time). Reissues of older material from popular jazz artists often tread in the territory of cheap copies and useless rehashes, but this is a collection that has some true worth. ~ Stacia Proefrock