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May 23, 2025
Memories of a vanished pop scene
This little memoir contains Benny Green's recollections of his life as a semi-professional saxophonist in the dance halls and supper clubs of North London just after WWII. As the opening chapter (whose title I've stolen for my review) makes clear, it was a time of unimaginable paucity for new jazz records; during the war years, the major record companies would release no more than two or three 78s a month and there was a time-lapse between the cutting of a record in America and its release in Britain. This meant that physically tracking down a new release in the UK was a demanding task that relied on rumour, gossip and a sound knowledge of the public transport system.
Concomitantly, the live music scene was still flourishing; there were countless bands whose repertoire consisted of orchestrations of more or less contemporary hits, and this book describes Green's amusing adventures in many of them - roughly along similar lines to Mark Ratcliffe's Showbusiness: Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Nobody, but from a much earlier era. Green has an easy, gently self-mocking style which is well-suited to this kind of writing; my favourite among his anecdotes was the one about his learning, by rote, Lester Young's sax solo from Count Basie's 1936 recording of Lady Be Good, and his subsequent attempt to reproduce it on the bandstand in a trio setting. The result would have anybody who was only slightingly familiar with the joys and perils of musical performance alternately nodding with recognition, cringing with embarrassment and snorting with laughter.
Originally reviewed 14 March 2013
This little memoir contains Benny Green's recollections of his life as a semi-professional saxophonist in the dance halls and supper clubs of North London just after WWII. As the opening chapter (whose title I've stolen for my review) makes clear, it was a time of unimaginable paucity for new jazz records; during the war years, the major record companies would release no more than two or three 78s a month and there was a time-lapse between the cutting of a record in America and its release in Britain. This meant that physically tracking down a new release in the UK was a demanding task that relied on rumour, gossip and a sound knowledge of the public transport system.
Concomitantly, the live music scene was still flourishing; there were countless bands whose repertoire consisted of orchestrations of more or less contemporary hits, and this book describes Green's amusing adventures in many of them - roughly along similar lines to Mark Ratcliffe's Showbusiness: Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Nobody, but from a much earlier era. Green has an easy, gently self-mocking style which is well-suited to this kind of writing; my favourite among his anecdotes was the one about his learning, by rote, Lester Young's sax solo from Count Basie's 1936 recording of Lady Be Good, and his subsequent attempt to reproduce it on the bandstand in a trio setting. The result would have anybody who was only slightingly familiar with the joys and perils of musical performance alternately nodding with recognition, cringing with embarrassment and snorting with laughter.
Originally reviewed 14 March 2013
Displaying 1 of 1 review