Tommy Dorsey and His Clambake Seven: The Music Goes Round and Round

National Review, March 16, 1992 by Ralph De Toledano

Tommy Dorsey and His Clambake Seven: The Music Goes Round and Round (BMG/Bluebird 3140-2-RB). Like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey sentimentalized and watered down the jazz elements in his style. But his technique on the trombone was superlative--"He almost makes it sound like a violin," one jazz musician said to me at the time--and he had some very fine sidemen: Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, and the greatest of all white jazz drummers, Dave Tough.

The Clambake Seven was a small group out of his big ban, rooted in the jazz tradition, and they made real music out of the pop tunes of the late 1930s. This record is not going to crowd the titans off the shelf, but it does bring back a now forgotten tune, "The Music Goes Round," which moved out of 52nd Street, NYC, and helped introduce the swing era by its slightly zany push and lyrics.