Benson Orchestra of Chicago

A complete collection of recordings by the Benson Orchestra would require an added wing of a house just to store it. The group launched the career of many a jazz great, boasting lovely melodic soloists such as saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, and rhythmically propelled by the up and coming drummer Gene Krupa. The history of the orchestra is colorful, including a long stint at the truly mobbed-up Chicago venue known as Marigold Gardens. Benson Orchestra was named after its manager, the mediocre cellist Edgar A. Benson, and musically was never led by anyone with that surname. To start out, pianist Roy Bargy was calling the shots. The ensemble under his direction began recording in the fall of 1920 at the New Jersey Camden studio. "Na Jo", also known as "No Ja", is a tune from a session the following year which has been lauded for containing the invention of "stop time" playing--for sure, the song's title stops proof-readers dead in their tracks, no matter which way the vowels are lined up. The orchestra's record sales were no joke, on the other hand. Its version of "Wabash Cannonball" moved 750,000 units in 1921. Other aspects of the group's sound have been judged to have been ahead of their time as well, including the harmonic relationship between soloists and orchestra sections. Maybe this was too much for straw boss Benson, who got in a fight with Bargy, prompting the pianist to jump ship and take many of the group's best players with him. In came replacement Don Bestor, another fine pianist and conductor who by 1924 had attracted Trumbauer into the fold. The following year the meaty trumpeter Fred Hamm took over, with Bestor starting his own unit. At this point, the entire thing starts to seem like a fizzling franchise, with the shuffling leaders putting their...