Sinatra studied the trombone playing of his boss Tommy Dorsey to learn about breath control and long lines, but All or Nothing at All, the one pre-Dorsey track here, with Harry James, shows that he was already the master of these elements. The voice, on these 25 tracks from the early 1940s, was still in unsullied condition and far more flexible than in the later more popular Capitol years. The mastery of Nelson Riddle and, to a lesser extent, Billy May and Gordon Jenkins, transformed the singer’s later years, but these tracks show that Dorsey’s and Axel Stordahl’s arrangers knew what they were at. The early preciousness here was later replaced with astringency at Capitol. The later selection of material was unerring, but still flawed in these early years. Does anyone need another White Christmas?
Sinatra, with his cigarette and highball glass, was one kind of icon. Willie “The Lion”, with his cigar firmly chomped in his teeth, was another. Sinatra’s music has faded a bit, but The Lion’s remains as vivid and coloured as it was when he recorded it. His piano playing, along with that of his confreres Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, was a dominant element in Harlem before the war. Like them Willie was a soloist and also a band player. This collection gives a vivid and well-chosen portrait of him in both roles. He was a huge and colourful figure who suppressed his egotism with difficulty. Dragged into his vortex and shining in the small groups are Sidney Bechet, Bud Freeman, Frankie Newton, Charlie Shavers and other regulars from the New York scene of the 1930s and 1940s.'