Star alto-saxophonist McIntyre was a founder member of the popular Glenn Miller band and did well. So much so, that he formed his own dance band in 1942 and had reasonable success, at least as far as hit singles were concerned. It’s these and others that Acrobat have culled from the RCA Bluebird, Cosmo and MGM back-catalogues, this double-CD the latest in their long list of similar collections.

Regular arrangers Dave Mathews and Billy May kept the band well placed musically, the personnel stayed steady and its musicianship was impeccable.

If the jazz element was modest, then that’s no surprise, although the Ellingtonian touches on Mathews’ chart for ‘The Commando’s Serenade’, a 1942 instrumental featuring his Webster-like tenor are a pleasure to hear. Of course there were ballads aplenty, and a clutch of vocalists, but overall, it’s easy to see why this band played top spots and held down various radio residencies. Mathews soloed often and McIntyre himself could offer Hodges-like solos and bassist Eddie Safranski, later a star with Stan Kenton, stands out too.

May clearly kept the Duke’s writing style in mind as he voiced the saxophones and used hot trumpet solos and muted brass, this typified by Jimmy Emert’s wa-wa trombone on the striking ‘South Bay Shuffle’ with its neat Mathews coda. Gunther Schuller thought the band underrated and commended its Ducal flavours; rightly so. McIntyre, who died in a house fire in 1959 aged only 44, may not have set out to challenge the swing masters but he oversaw a band definitely worth hearing anew.