Acrobat's foray into the world of white big-band swing continues with this double-CD collation of the hit singles accrued by Wisconsin-born pianist Freddie Slack. The arrangement of ‘Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar’, which he co-authored with trombonist Will Bradley made while he was with the Bradley-Ray McKinley band in 1940 which opens here made his name. Its cheery boogie-woogie feel chimed with the war-time vogue for this piano style, so much so that the triumvirate of Slack-Bradley-McKinley continued to record more of the same. Slack's solo success then led him to form his own big band in 1942 and to continue churning out boogie features and decent dance tracks well into the post-war period.

Happily for blues fans, Slack and his trio took time out in 1941 to record four titles with the great blues shouter Big Joe Turner and they’re all here. ‘Blues for Central Avenue’ celebrates Los Angeles’ black main-stem and Slack fits in perfectly behind Turner's stentorian tones, guitarist Al Hendrickson's guitar fills just right too. A year later, Slack backed Texan star T-Bone Walker on a couple of tracks, Slack letting Walker's guitar and strong vocal make the running. Good to have. ‘Cow Cow Boogie’ also from 1942 gave vocalist Ella Mae Morse and the band a major hit and it is here too. Many of these tracks have spirited trumpet passages and decent trombone breaks, the players anonymous but all worth hearing, this fairly typical of the hotter-sounding white dance bands of the day. If some of these band charts sound a bit like cut-rate Glenn Miller then so be it: jazz-minded readers may prefer the boogie-based small group tracks with star guitarist Remo Palmieri. Worth considering.