THE BIG BAND CHRONICLES

Originally produced for radio, this aural retrospective of big band music is more for nostalgia than serious history. The producers do not concern themselves with perspective. But as a kind of audio family album, it’s quite delightful. It includes interview snippets with performers, generous excerpts from vintage recordings and sound bites of period news--all nicely re-creating the era of swing. Like many documentaries, it suffers from a certain shapelessness, but fans of the big bands will hardly notice. Also, like many pop documentaries, it tells aficionados what they already know and gives others too little. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 98]