When George Avakian and Charles Edward Smith originally brought out this anthology of Beiderbecke’s work on LP in 1961, it was intended to put him in the context of the two big bands with whom he principally worked, namely those of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman. At the time, this corpus of material was less well-known than the numerous joyous small group recordings featuring Bix, that had been celebrated by collectors here and in the USA. Now, even on this reissue, replete with several alternate takes and Jess Stacy’s versions of the solo piano compositions, it seems curious to focus only on the larger bands, given that (in the words of the Downbeat review quoted here), “there are too many tedious elephantine stretches”. Of course there are gems, the effervescent ‘From Monday On’, ‘Clementine’ and the timeless ‘Lonely Melody’, but one yearns for the lighter sound of the Bix and Tram groups, or even the clunky enthusiasm of the Wolverines. So, to appreciate this music in the fuller context of Beiderbecke’s work, it’d be better to spend a couple of quid more and shell out for the 4CD Properbox, now apparently out of print, but still fairly easily available, as it has the pick of the small groups and the bigger bands.