Dixieland Music

Before there was Louis Prima, there was that OTHER clown prince of jazz, Joseph "Wingy" Manone.

Neither is remembered as a great trumpet technician, but both Manone and Prima, New Orleans natives of Italian heritage, played the horn well enough; both had monumentally ebullient personalities, and both had learned much from Louis Armstrong.

But Manone, compared with Prima, was more of a jazzman, as the selections on this CD indicate, and his sidemen, such as Leon "Chu" Berry, were more notable jazz performers than the ones who were working with Prima at about this same time.

This CD is full of fine but lesser-known Manone recordings. "Manone Blues" is a delightful uptemo driving blues with the band responding in a most traditional way to Wingy's vocal calls.

Manone shows a high degree of showmanship and Classics has done a decent job of compling the 78's, most of which have not been reissued in the US.

The folks at the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation should be commended on this CD, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the development of the most famous of the early traditional jazz revival bands: Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band. The material here is drawn mostly from private recordings and live performances. The sound quality varies from poor to very good, with most tracks being quite listenable. Here I should add that the poor sound on some tracks cannot be blamed on the sound engineer, but rather on the poor condition of the one-of-a-kind lacquer originals, many of which may have been produced by a crude home disc cutter in the first place. The transfers have been well done and the sound here is good as can be expected. What is fascinating to me is that the Lu Watters aggregation started off essentially as a typical big band in the late 1930s. You'll hear standard big band arrangements of "Stardust," "Strange Blues," You Taught Me To Love Again" and others. However, you'll also hear the band's signature trad jazz sound developing, and by the time "Panama" or "Maple Leaf Rag" roll around, you can recognize the band as Watters. As a document of the "birth of a band," this disc is a priceless treasure. However, for sheer muisical and entertainment value, it doesn't rate too highly. Most of the performances sound rather uninspired compared to the later Jazz Man, West Coast, or Good Time Jazz recordings. Those are Watters and his band at their best. Don't get me wrong, there's some good stuff here, the poorer sound and a number of real duds make this a disc only for the Watters completist.If you're looking for just one good Watters disc, I'd recommend looking elsewhere. On the other hand, if you're a long-time Watters fan looking to expand your Watters collection and don't already have this CD, by all means, pick it up!