When Capitol asked Harry James to re-record the most popular items in his back catalogue in 1955, it was ‘to come as close as is humanly and mechanically possible to a recorded “in person” quality.’ And the company’s engineers did a good job, catching plenty of the excitement and verve of the band – its brass punching out Basie’s ‘Two O’Clock Jump’ with edge-of-the-seat excitement – as well as the romantic schmaltz of pieces such as ‘Sleepy Lagoon’.

The aim was met sufficiently well that soon there was a follow up second volume. This material has come out before on CD (notably on one of Avid’s earliest ‘4 LPs on 2 CDs’ packages).

On this release we get four extra takes from the sessions that were not originally included on vinyl, and the welcome addition of the complete 1957 Wild About Harry LP. Mastering is fine, and not only does James’ trumpet sing out, punching through the swing charts and reveling in the ballads, but we have good clearly recorded examples of his star sidemen (including Willie Smith, Corky Corcoran, and on the bonus album, Buddy Rich). We also have some of Helen Forrest’s best vocals, including ‘It’s Been a Long Long Time’ and ‘I Cried For You’, both introduced by some searing trumpet, and then coddled in a feather-bed of strings and reeds.

The Wild About Harry tracks are the jazziest, as there is no string section, and Rich powers the rhythm section along, on charts such as James’ own ‘Ring For Porter’ plus a trio of Ernie Wilkins’ bluesiest charts.

The oddest feature of the release, however, is the decision to change the track order. It groups the original book-ends of the initial album (two brief and contrasting versions of the band’s theme ‘Ciribiribin’) together, and re-shuffles the rest of the pack, which makes a bit of a nonsense of reprinting the original liner notes! That said, overall it’s a great collection of James’ fine mid-1950s band’s work.