The benchmark for reissues of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra from its earliest days until it disbanded in the late 1930s has – since its 1961 appearance – been the Columbia 4-LP set A Study In Frustration, produced by John Hammond and Frank Driggs. Repackaged by Essential Jazz Classics in 2011 with an additional 10 tracks to form a 3-CD set, which was then reissued by Pollwinners (reviewed in Jazzwise September 2018), it takes the band from its earliest iteration to its 1938 version, after Henderson was already well-established as an arranger for Benny Goodman. So this new 2-CD set from Acrobat has a lot to live up to.

The first CD here broadly follows the Columbia issue, and the second cherry-picks from it, with a small number of different tracks. So for completists, wishing to find Henderson material which is quite scarce on CD, it is a useful addition. But with the caveat that the transfers are not great, and on many tracks, such as ‘Henderson Stomp’ or ‘Whiteman Stomp’, the Pollwinners release has the edge in audio terms, even though it’s a simple dub of the Columbia LPs.

Neither lives up to the much-missed RCA Bluebird 21-track Hocus Pocus compilation, which was remade from original masters. So, if you want a quick whistle stop tour of Henderson from his early Hawkins/Armstrong period right through to the latterday Roy Eldridge/Chu Berry era, this new set will suffice, but for approximately four quid more, the Pollwinners release is better value. Its liner notes are better proofread – the Acrobat having an interesting cornetist listed called ‘Rexwart’ – and the information about the leader and his band hasn’t been lifted verbatim off the internet.