Hollywood Swing & Jazz: Hot Numbers From Classic M-G-M, Warner Bros. & RKO Films

Say what you will about the state of entertainment-conglomerate megamergers, but this ambitious Rhino compilation of jazz in film--combining music selections from three studios--would have been all but impossible without them. More importantly, this satisfying set serves as a virtual primer of jazz's influence on American films and its rich, multihued heritage and diversity--be it the "race music" of the Mills Brothers' 1933 romp "Congo Fever," Duke Ellington and Hoagy Carmichael's elegant classicism, Louis Armstrong's refined Dixieland, the big-band swing of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman, or even that unlikeliest of jazz chanteuses, Doris Day. Collectors will also be delighted at the generous sampling of stellar outtakes that surface here for the first time, including an Ellington reading of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm," originally intended for the Marx Brothers' Day at the Races, a smoky Lena Horne rendition of "I'll Get By," originally recorded for Louis B. Mayer's personal collection. And there are no fewer than nine cuts from the 1960 hipster opus The Subterraneans, many featuring Andre Previn, Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan, and Art Pepper. Painstakingly compiled and lovingly annotated, this set is both great entertainment and joyous history lesson. Regarding history, it bears noting that when much of America's radio and clubs were still strictly segregated, black jazz performers found their broadest public exposure via Hollywood. --Jerry McCulley