Acrobat has become the collector’s friend, the label’s thorough-going compilations a source of renewed pleasure for old hands; and a marvellous glimpse into the storied past for newcomers. The latest wheeze is to assemble the known hit recordings for their chosen subjects; thus, Benny Goodman’s are spread over these two collections, that’s seven CDs in all, each track painstakingly positioned according to their latter-day chart position, with 161 performances to consider.

The research involved in assembling this vital data, and rounding up the original recordings compels admiration, as do compiler Paul Watts’ exhaustive booklet notes and detailed background information. Not possible to list the full personnel for each track – the booklets are already substantial – but Watts does highlight key soloists or guest artists and is good on context.

What is remarkable to note is that Goodman was gaining early hit recognition for his recordings while he was essentially a jobbing studio musician without a regular

band of his own, and well before his heyday as the King of Swing and his later success.

The opening track is ‘He’s Not Worth Your Tears’ from the musical comedy Sweet and Lovely, recorded in New York in November 1930, and pretty corny it is too. Thereafter things look up with a series of tracks with Jack Teagarden guesting on trombone and vocals, and the famous ‘Riffin’ The Scotch’ from 1933 with vocal by Billie Holiday (spelled Halliday on the original label).

Thereafter Goodman’s career gathered pace, his association with talent scout John Hammond (Goodman later married Hammond’s sister) opening doors and leading him to become an established dance band leader, albeit with the benefit of some fine sidemen and the refined singer Helen Ward, whose spirited versions of the ‘The Dixieland Band’ became hits and close out CD1.

The Benny Goodman Era well and truly began from 1935 onwards, each highly danceable piece enlivened by a BG clarinet solo and powered by the charismatic Gene Krupa on drums.

Goodman’s recruitment of pianist Teddy Wilson crossed colour lines and the Goodman-Wison-Krupa trio version of ‘Body and Soul’ is here, at chart position no 20. Clearly those record buyers knew a good thing when they heard it. With the advent of the brothers Fletcher and Horace Henderson as arrangers, the hot attack and all-round swing of the BG orchestra became a given and led the band into its period of greatest prominence, and a multiplicity of hits, even if some were on the sweeter side.

By 1939 and Volume Two, the orchestra’s successes were complemented by others featuring the BG Sextet (with Count Basie and Charlie Christian from November 1940), and the marvellously sepulchral ‘Blues in The Night’ with Peggy Lee’s cool-sounding vocal and then Christian’s ‘Solo Flight’ masterpiece with the full band, still a show-stopper today.

So, what to say about Benny Goodman in conclusion? A complex man? For sure, but what a sublime instrumentalist he was. Never drawn to bebop but yes, the undoubted King Of Swing. And here’s much of the evidence you need to know why he earned that title.