The Jimmie Lunceford Collection 1930-47

Jimmie Lunceford was one of most prominent bandleaders of the swing heyday of the 1930s and early ‘40s, his tight, highly professional band coming to prominence with a season at New York’s Cotton Club, and establishing a reputation that saw it ranked alongside the best of his contemporaries. Glenn Miller once observed that “Duke is great, Basie is remarkable, but Lunceford tops them both”, and the highly-regarded big band expert George T. Simon stated that “Jimmie Lunceford’s was without doubt the most exciting big band of all time”. His style was highly individual, best-known for fine ensemble playing rather than virtuoso soloists, with trademark imaginative arrangements by the great Sy Oliver, trumpeter with the band for several years, and with his characteristic ‘two-beat’rhythm, as well as an entertaining line in humorous lyrics and extrovert presentation. This great value 50-track 2-CD collection, which does not duplicate any tracks included on our existing Jimmie Lunceford products (‘Jimmie Lunceford Jukebox Hits 1935-47’ ACMCD4076, and ‘Jazznocracy’ ACRCD165), brings together recordings from early recordings in 1930 with his first band The Chickasaw Syncopators, right through his career to include a track from his final session before his untimely sudden death in 1947. It’s a thoroughly entertaining cross-section of the career of a bandleader who truly did know how to entertain.