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Abe Lyman was a drummer and bandleader, born in Chicago in 1897, who moved to California in 1919, and after playing with Gus Arnheim’s band started his own orchestra and became a favourite with Hollywood stars, opening at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in 1922 from where he broadcast on radio, cementing his popularity. This 48-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A and B sides of his releases across this era on the Brunswick, Decca, Bluebird, Hit and Columbia labels. He recorded prolifically, and this collection necessarily cherry-picks from across his substantial output. It includes all his 29 career hits and features his contemporary versions of classic compositions from those years like “Breezin’ Along With The Breeze”“Besame Mucho”, “Rum And Coca-Cola”, “Among My Souvenirs”, “Ain’t Misbehavin”, “Charmaine”, and “Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear”. His music was mainly mainstream dance band music typical of the ‘20s and ‘30s, which means some of it was “hot”, and includes well-known jazz pieces like “Twelfth Street Rag” and “Milenberg Joys”. It includes performances by featured vocalists Charles Kaley, Phil Neely, Dick Robertson, Frank Sylvano, Sonny Schuyler, Ed Holly, Irving Kahal, Frank Parrish, Dale Evans and Rose Blane, with featured solos by Carmen Cavallaro and Sy Zentner. It’s a musical window onto fascinating times in music spanning the roaring ‘20s, the Depression era, WWII and beyond, and it makes for excellent entertainment.
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