- Format: CD
- Label: Fantasy
- Genre: Jazz
The music heard here makes a strong and joyful case for the enduring popularity of the Swing Era style. This invigorating overview draws primarily from recordings made between 1959 and 1962 for the Prestige subsidiary Swingville--by artists such as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Claude Hopkins, Rex Stewart, Tiny Grimes, and Pee Wee Russell. But several other Fantasy-owned catalogs are represented as well, including Riverside (mid-Forties numbers by trumpeter Joe Thomas and pianist Billy Kyle, and a 1961 track by Earl Hines); Contemporary (a 1991 live date by Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco); Fantasy (a 1998 "authentic re-creation," as annotator W. Royal Stokes terms it, by New Orleans trumpeter Duke Heitger); and Prestige (a taste of the first recordings, c. 1935, by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France).
Track listing:Coleman Hawkins: I'm Beginning to See the Light; Terry Gibbs/Buddy DeFranco/Herb Ellis Sextet: These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You); Django Reinhardt: The Sheik of Araby; Claude Hopkins: On the Sunny Side of the Street; Tiny Grimes with Jerome Richardson: Durn Tootin'; Benny Carter/Ben Webster/Barney Bigard: When Lights Are Low; Earl "Fatha" Hines and His Band: Yes, Sir That's My Baby; Duke Heitger & His Swing Band: My Buddy; Billy Kyle's Big Eight: Contemporary Blues (aka Billy's Blues); Joe Thomas' Big Six: A Touch of Blue; Shorty Baker & Doc Cheatham: Night Train; The Budd Johnson Quintet: Serenade in Blue; Buck Clayton & Buddy Tate: Can't We Be Friends; Pee Wee Russell: The Very Thought of You; Henry "Red" Allen: St. Louis Blues; Rex Stewart: Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone; Buddy Tate: Overdrive; The Joe Newman Quintet: Don't Worry 'bout Me
