The box office sold out, and it's said that Benny himself had to deal with a scalper to get tickets for his family — probably a press agent's story, but there is no doubt the place was packed and seats were even added on one side of the stage. The concert itself was kind of a mixed bag, with a program that was stretched in a lot of different directions, but the talent and determination of the musicians was first class. Here's a prime example, a song that was originally written to commemorate a Life magazine story about the band. It's called "Life Goes To A Party", and features extensive solos by Harry James on trumpet and Babe Russin on sax.
There are a number of albums available that were made from the original recordings of the concert. The sound quality - even with all possible modern tweaking - is nothing like we're used to these days, but that's not surprising. The original recording was made with one microphone suspended in mid-air over the center of the orchestra, and was said to have languished in Benny's closet for years.
Benny has always been appreciated by jazz purists for his talent, but criticized for going after popularity rather than taking risks. However, this was one time that he stuck his neck out and it paid off for him. The concert was a landmark event and created a tremendous amount of attention for Benny and for swing music in general. It's a special moment in music history and it always returns to my thoughts when I recall how I first became hooked on swing music.
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