Best Benny Goodman recordings

I have multi-disc (LP) boxed sets of the Carnigie Hall concert, and the 1938 Broadcasts. I prefer the performances on the Broadcast recordings. The Broadcast recordings were recorded "off-the-air" as a quality control project by the radio station, and the fidelity is excellent. Remember, this was AM radio.

Carnegie Hall Concert....Columbia set SL160
Broadcast recordings....Columbia set SL180

From the liner notes...
These recordings are made from "air checks" of late evening broadcasts from all over the country. Most of the original discs were taken off the air by a fan named Bill Savory, now a Columbia records engineer, who also did the remarkable editing job which produced these final master tapes. The final result is the most authentic original-Goodman sound ever captured on record, whether the band was broadcasting from the Manhattan Room of the Hotel Pennsylvania or the Palomar in Los Angeles.

The broadcasts gave us another advantage not possible in the case of the Carnegie Hall album. We frequently had six or seven versions of the same tune to choose from, so there was no need to put up with flagging inspiration or minor flaws.

Further reading of the liner notes reveals another reason why the Broadcast recordings are better.

The Carnegie Hall concert was recorded with one microphone hung way up in the ceiling. It was not planned to use the recording for a record release to the public. The Broadcast recordings benefited from careful microphone set up and balancing by the audio engineers of the radio stations doing the broadcast.

Audphile1...Amazon.com has a CD set titled Carnegie Hall Concert with the same cover art as the LP set. But I don't know if the music is from the original recordings made in Carnegie, or from the broadcast recordings. The CD has a spoken introduction by Benny, which is on the Broadcast set, but the sequence of tracks does not match either LP set.

I encourage you to research this further and try to get the Broadcast recordings. It is worth the effort.

Perhaps other Audiogon members can contribute info.