Benny Goodman: Farewell

Rating:
Summary: Swing is still the thing
Review: This dvd is rated a buy. Goodman was as always consistently Goodman at his highest performance standard. His attempt at humor though was a bit trite and not spontaneous, as he would have liked the audience to think.

Artists are Charlie Anatolini. He is one on the few drummers who is not under the mistaken assumption that the audience has come solely to listen to him. Don Haas is an excellent pianist. Peter Witte on base is also good and his solo (1) melodic.
As a guest artist, Sven Agmussen on violin was excellent. Jimmy Maxwell on trumpet could have stayed at home. Although a good section man in a big band, his muted and sporadic playing was barely audable. As for the musical selection, nothing new, but always refreshing to hear these same Goodman standards.

For Benny to swing at his age was truly remarkable.

The second DVD is an audio of that concert and should rather have contained other material.