An interesting review Anton.

Apart from the fact that some of the material was not best fitted to the artists, it is my personal belief that there could have been considerable improvement if the participants had been together in the studio.

You say "there doesn't appear to be a real connection between band and vocalist". Not surprising as they were separated by both time and space. Bing liked being with his musical support. 

The band recorded in Hollywood at the end of February/early March 1972, Bing overdubbed his contribution a couple of weeks later, in San Francisco.

But as you imply much is redeemed by three, possibly four, tracks but particularly "Hangin' Loose".

And I agree that the exclusion from the issued album of "If I Had A Hammer" is inexplicable. It is certainly better, in my view, than some of the tracks actually included.


 

I listen tio this LP often. I like it. Fine review!

That's an interesting review Anton but as I've not heard these recordings I'm unable to agree or disagree. I do have the Sinatra-Basie LP and believe it's definitely not one of Frank's best.

I find the "Bing with Basie" album very underwelming.  Had it had the kind of song choices and arrangements used in Tony Bennet's and Ella Fitzgerald's albums with Basie, the album would be unforgettable. Bing would have knocked it out of the park. Unfortunately, it didn't have those kinds of song choices or arrangements, and it is, sadly, rather forgettable.

To put it another way, I think Bing deserved to have top-notch, creative arrangements, and a set of excellent standards, going into that project.  I don't know why he didn't get that or who is to blame, but his talent deserved that, and he didn't get that level of quality music and material to work with.

Due to the meanderings of the big river, it looks like you'd be a good 3 hour drive almost due North of me.  A shorter drive when I was younger and only winked at the speed limit laws,  Maybe actually a lot longer than three hours, as I'm now a pokey old geezer who stays off of the Interstate to take the scenic route, not wanting to miss any of the cows and barns and old broken windmills along the way.  ;)

My older brother went to college in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, not far from Savannah, not so far up river from you. I've been through that country a few times.

I’ve been giving this album another listen, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot more this time. I think a good few things could’ve been done better, whether actually recording in studio, or song choice, but overall I find it a lot more enjoyable this time around.

Anton G.-F. wrote:

Dear all,

I've been listening to Bing 'n' Basie quite a bit lately, and so I've decided to write and publish a review of that album in my blog Bing Crosby on CD. If you're interested, you can read it here:

http://bingcrosbyoncd.blogspot.com/2014/11/bing-n-basie-daybreak-records-1972.html

Thanks, and I hope everyone's having a great weekend! 

Anton, a fabulous pitch perfect review! You seemed to have been reading my mind and thoughts on this for years and then re-phrasing them far more articulately, down to the very last track. I was so disappointed on buying and then hearing this. It just seemed so bland, weary and lacking in the expected fizz for what these two great artistes could have achieved. Particularly when you think of the rip roaring Basie of April in Paris and his three album collaboration with Sinatra and also the Bing of his "Bing Sings While Bregman Swings" album.
 

paulmock wrote:

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bing recording his vocal tracks for this album today, tomorrow and the 16th of March. Time to pull out the album and give it a spin or two, eh?

Paul,
Most certainly!
I do not think I have listened to this for at least ten years. I have a pristine second hand LP copy  purchased in 1987 from "Music Inn", a wonderful big band specialist record store in my home city of Nottingham. Five years later I then had some of the happiest fifteen years of my working life being employed by these people. Thirty years later, it still survives. Thank you for the much appreciated anniversary notice to us all. It will certainly be spun! Lovely to hear from you.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (15/3/2022 12:58 am)

Well, Paul. Thanks again for your prior anniversary notice and kind words. As previously noted, for the first time in many a year, I gave Bing 'n Basie another spin. I must confess that along with some of the other members, I did enjoy it and more than expected. I did so alongside my cocktail hour pairing (you see already how keen I am to emulate you, here?) of it with my Basie choice of "Count Basie Live at the Sands (Before Frank)".  

It's that Warner/Reprise 1998 retro release of fourteen previously unissued live tracks recorded during Sinatra's Jan/Feb tenure there for his 1966 "Live at the Sands" album. I believe one or two were played each night as a warm up, prior to Frank's entrance. As with the Sinatra album, this is also, naturally a stunner due to... well, you'll know!

Having duly and gratefully taken note, I must now at some point buy, "Have a Nice Day".

"Bing 'n Basie" does have its moments but as you and others have mentioned these are still few and far between. Many of the band's arrangements seem so tepid. It also puts me in the uncomfortable position of having to disagree with the great Johnny Mercer who certainly knew a thing or three about great music - but in his sleeve notes praises the choice of songs. I did though very much enjoy his own contribution of "Hangin' Loose".

Just for the sheer arrogant fun of it (and the fact that I so desperately need to get myself a life), I've taken matters into my own hands and have re-organised this album. I understand song wise, the remit was so obviously towards the contemporary. I'll respect that but as Anton has pointed out in his magnificent review, it's these choices where much of the problem lies.

So with that in mind, along with hiring Quincy Jones to arrange and hopefully as many of you to co-produce (and suggest the tempos or alternative contemporary songs), I offer the following major and expanded adjustments: Should sales prove encouraging, we can then produce the dream Bing and Basie album with then decades of songs at our disposal: 

Side One
1: On a Clear Day
2: King of the Road
3: Gonna Build a Mountain
4: Put Your Hand in the Hand
5: Hangin' Loose
6: Everybody's Talkin'

Side Two
1: Feelin' Good
2: I Can't Stop Loving You
3: More
4: This Guy's in Love With You 
5: What Now, My Love?
6: When You Smile

* Mame (unreleased)

 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (21/3/2022 5:25 pm)

Hey, David!
Thanks so much for this - as with so much of Bing's unreleased material, I've never heard this before.
I certainly would have included this on the completed album - even replacing it perhaps with one of the lesser swinging released tracks. But would that have needed to have been? There seemed plenty of physical room on the released LP, compromising of just eleven numbers. Do you have any information or theories as to why this was dropped? I thought within the confines of the album, it was a humdinger of a swinger - seemingly what they were out to achieve in so far as a well known contemporary pop piece from the relatively recent and then given the big band vocal treatment. I thought the tempo and arrangement suited this different approach to the song down to a perfectly placed golf tee!!!!!!
 

I think the album suffered for two reasons...

1. Bing and Count Basie did not record the album together in the same studio
2. The choice of songs was a little too contemporary

That being said, it is a very listenable album in my opinion.