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Jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan, born in Wisconsin in 1908, came to the fore in the late ‘20s as a member of various significant and influential bands, recording as a sideman on hundreds on notable recordings, including Benny Goodman’s pioneering swing hits of the mid-1930s. He formed his own band around that time to perform and record, and it became one of the most stylish and distinctive ensembles of the swing era, until the stresses of leading a band along with financial troubles drove him to alcoholism and he died tragically young in 1942 at the age of 34. In the process of making some fine jazz records, he had more than a dozen chart hits, and this 47-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A and B sides of his releases on the Decca, Vocalion, Brunswick & Victor labels from this era. It features all his 13 US career hits, including The Top 10 hits “Honeysuckle Rose”, “Ebb Tide, “I Can’t Get Started”, and “The First Time I Saw You”. It includes performances with Fats Waller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Bud Freeman, Eddie Condon, Joe Bushkin, Dave Tough, George Wettling and others, plus his featured vocalists Chick Bullock, Ford Leary, Gail Reese , Ruth Taylor and Kathleen Lane. It captures the essence of his most successful music that marked his career heyday during an exciting era in jazz.
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