Tommy Dorsey: Song of India

Rimsky-Korsakov's 1898 opera Sadko depicts a Russian harpist who deserts wife and home for foreign adventure. During his travels he acquires Wife #2 and a fortune. When he returns, everyone rejoices, including Wife #1, who's retained a shrewd divorce lawyer and reduces hapless Harpo to his musical souvenirs, notably the "Song of India." Plugged with a Solotone mute to render this melody in a freakish sopranino register approximating a muted trumpet, TD's trombone is as pretty and as phony as the fixed smiles at a debutante ball. The only jazz here is Berigan's real trumpet, standing out grandly like a moonlit Taj Mahal.