When Benny Goodman’s sextet played, they could make almost anyone’s heart beat a little faster. He was able to sustain an excitement with the innovation, precision, and top quality swing musicians playing great tunes, with task-master Goodman driving them to play their best. With this in mind, my anticipation grew high at learning Jonathan Stout’s “The Grand Slam Sextet,” with their focus on Benny Goodman’s classic sextet of the late 1930s to the early ’40s, was to be the featured band at the Valley Jazz Club in Canoga Park, California.
As the musicians filed onto the stage with their instruments, I could feel an excitement in my guessing who might have been their original counterparts: Geoff Nudell, clarinet (for Benny Goodman); Craig Fundyga, vibraphone (Lionel Hampton); Chris Dawson, piano (Teddy Wilson); Josh Collazo, drums (Gene Krupa); Wally Hersom, bass (John Kirby); and Jonathan Stout, leader and electric guitar, (then still novel to swing bands when Goodman recruited Charlie Christian to play). This band’s vocalist and co-leader was Hilary Alexander (for Peggy Lee). When The Grand Slam Sextet opened their concert with Benny Goodman’s 1939 version of “Flying Home,” I knew I was in the right place.
The instrumentals were precise and driving, a simultaneous challenge and amusement for the swing dancers in a sports-like aerobic activity (and amazingly
