Dixieland Music

Makes for mighty enjoyable listening.

Something that most folks didn't know. In the 1950's and 1960's one could go to Disneyland and hear these guys play, and have absolutely no idea how instrumental all seven of these men were to the Disney Company. One could hear the band play, then go into Fantasyland and see Tweedle Dee and Tweetle Dum and have no idea that the trombone player (Ward Kimball) was the man who designed those characters! All seven of these men were life time animators at Disney. The band started as a hobby and at one time actually included an eighth member, (Walt Disney) on the Kazoo. If you love Disney and Disneyland, you must buy this CD as that's the only way you can hear the original band members. They are all deceased. This is an incredible audio tour into Disney history.

This is a great album to have on with family, during a dinner party, on a weekend drive or when spring cleaning around the house. It is sure to please a lot of people!

"Fire Chief" Ward Kimball as band leader and the "Firehouse Five Plus Two" a Dixieland jazz band that made at least 10 albums. They performed on the Bing Crosby radio show, were featured in a 1950's Walt Disney TV special called "One Hour in Wonderland" that predated the weekly show. They appeared on "Dateline Disneyland" (ABC's Opening Day live television broadcast) in front of the firehouse on Main Street USA, in the parade, and finally performing at the now extinct Plantation House resteraunt in Frontierland. They also appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club's "Anything Can Happen Day" on and performed two numbers, "I Want to be a Fireman" and the "Tiger Rag". This appearance is available on the DVD "The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club" here at Amazon.com. It is mislabeled on the DVD as November 12, 1964 which was actually a re-run of the original episode that almost 10 years earlier; the footage of the second song reappeared in a "Wonderful World of Disney" episode called "At Home with Donald Duck", although the footage was edited out for a 1976 re-run. On January 3, 1964 they appeared on another episode,
They Disneyland 10th Anniversary". They had other appearances in non-Disney fare.

The amazing thing is that they did all of this while working as busy top Walt Disney Studio animators. Truth is that they liked to blow off steam on breaks and after work. They played in the studio offices or on a studio soundstage in the early days. Their jam sessions caused animators, storymen, and inbetweeners to dance with the ladies from the color and ink crew right in the soundstage. As members of the group were some of his best studio animators, Walt Disney liked them and let them do their own thing on the side. But he also loved their music and onstage antics. He even invited them to play in the Disneyland park on Opening Day in 1955 and regularly after that, and later to even appear on his TV show.

The band was not owned or controlled by the Disney Company in any way. They moonlighted, recorded albums, played in nightclubs, and had alot of fun along the way. The FF5+2 was not some polished studio band with tight engineering, but an exercise in spontaneity and improvisation. They truly didn't even believe in practicing, just havin' fun. Maybe that is the best part of listening to them, because they sound great and are very full of life and laughter. They still make you want to dance along. Interestingly, as animators they were used to creative sound effects and included this art in their music too. For example they used an anvil on one track, sirens, bells and whistles.... and it works. This album is great for Disney history buffs since it was recorded at the nostalgic Golden Horsehoe Saloon in Disneyland and you can hear them bantering with the audience, who is going nuts over their music. The voice you hear introducing each song is none other than Ward Kimball himself. They played at different spots throughout the Disneyland park throughout the '60's. This album is one of the shortest produced by the band, but very unique due to its LIVE status. You can hear the gang joking and hamming it up with each other during tracks and inbetween. I only wish I had a video of this performance. Very clean sound on this re-release, high quality CD. The Good Time Jazz label was kind enough to reproduce not only the original cover but even the liner notes. The actual number of musicians in the group changed from time to time, but at this time it was truly 7.

Start your FF+2 collection with this recording and you will want more, they are just great fun!! Two of Disney's famous 9 Old Men are in the group, Frank Thomas (on piano) and the irrepresible band leader Ward Kimball (trombone). The cover art is a photo of the band at Disneyland in the Firetruck. Check out the cover artwork from band member and animator Ward Kimball on some of their other recordings.

This is a GREAT album for anyone who loves Dixieland!It's a great family album,and it's also great for parties,too!For kids,it's a great alternative to the drug,violence and sex-promoting profanity-filled heavy metal [stuff] that kids listen to.Kids may like this album so much that they toss thier heavy metal CDs into the fireplace.

This double CD by the World's Greatest Jazz Band on Arbors Records brings back many memories for me. Not that I was at Manchester's (England) Free Trade Hall on December 15, 1971 when this music was recorded. Far from it. However, the WJGB was one of the bands which helped pique my teenage interest in jazz. This was due to several factors - the heavy play which the late jazz DJ Phil MacKellar gave the WGJB on his Toronto radio show; the surprising availability of their records in a record store close to my home; and the presence in the group of two trombones (the instrument I was trying to play at the time). Eventually I saw the band live in 1974 with several changes in the personnel from the band on this CD. My tastes in jazz have broadened considerably since those early days, but I will always have a place in my heart (and my record collection) for the WGJB co-led by trumpeter Yank Lawson and bassist Bob Haggart.

The great appeal of the World's Greatest Jazz Band was its ability to constantly infuse the Dixieland/NewOrleans/swing/blues repertoire with lots of spirit and thereby uplift the listener's spirts. There was joy on the bandstand which spread to the audience whenever this band played. And their appeal cut across all generations.

The personnel on this CD is the classic WGJB lineup, consisting of Yank Lawson and Billy Butterfield on trumpets, Bud Freeman and Bob Wilber on reeds, trombonists Ed Hubble and Vic Dickenson, and the rhythm section of pianist Ralph Sutton, bassist Bob Haggart and drummer Gus Johnson Jr.
Tunes by Fats Waller, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, among others, are featured. Bob Haggart contributes six tunes to the program, including some newer tunes such as "The Girl on the Beach", but also "What's New?" and the inevitable bass/drums duo "Big Noise From Winnetka".

The whole band jams together on some of the tracks, with solos from all the front-liners, but the larger group is often broken down into smaller units featuring one or two horns with the rhythm section. On a few tracks the rhythm section alone is featured. Billy Butterfield is outstanding on his "Summertime" feature. Bud Freeman swings in his distinctive tenor style on "I Got Rhythm" and is adventurous in his phrasing on "Muskrat Ramble." Ralph Sutton swings hard on his stride specialities - "Viper's Drag" and "Alligator Crawl". "One of those Things" features Freeman and Wilber, while "Black and Blue" has a lovely duet by Lawson and Butterfield. Both trombonists wail in their contrasting but compatible styles on "Limehouse Blues", and Dickenson has one of the concert's finest moments on "In a Sentimental Mood."

These are but a few of the highlights of a nicely balanced program which pleased an appreciative audience. It will please CD listeners too, though it must be said that the recording quality is adequate rather than of the highest quality. There is occasional evidence of tape deterioration. Still, CD releases by the WGJB have been quite rare, so this double CD set is a warmly recommended snapshot of the band at the peak of its powers. The music is also accompanied by comprehensive and often hilarious notes by writer Steve Voce.

In 1971, it would have been tough to dispute any claim that a nonet of Yank Lawson and Billy Butterfield on trumpet, Vic Dickenson and Ed Hubble on trombone, Bob Wilber on clarinet, Bud Freeman on tenor, Ralph Sutton at the piano, Bob Haggart on bass and Gus Johnson Jr. on drums WASN'T the "World's Greatest Jazz Band." Co-leaders Lawson and Haggart put the group together for this live concert in Manchester, England, and 35 or so years later, Rachel and Mat Domber of Arbors Records tracked down the recordings and turned out this historic two-CD set at a modest price. Lawson, Haggart, Butterfield, Wilber and Sutton are outstanding on these discs. Over the years, WGJB issued some fine studio recordings for Atlantic, Decca, World's and other labels, and Jazzology has recently reissued some of the World's recordings. Lawson and Haggart, veterans of the Bob Crosby orchestra, continued to perform at jazz festivals in Los Angeles and elsewhere until they died in their 80s. Finding this previously unheard concert is a pleasant surprise.

Perhaps the best of Tom Bethell's wonderful recordings, this one teams George Lewis-who's in great form-with the inspired cornet of De De Pierce and the always brilliant Jim Robinson on slide trombone.

They romp through 14 tunes, 5 of them previously unissued and all of them sounding great. Cie Frazier is on drums, John Joseph on bass, and the youngster from the north, Mike Polad, plays the banjo. They form a rhythm section that is undeniably the spark for this superior session.

Tom Bethell's recordings were timely and he had a great instinct for which musicians would work well together-although the Kid Thomas and Jim Robinson combination raised some eyebrows. There is no doubt that these 5 sessions, recorded in the mid-sixties, including the Kid Thomas-Jim Robinson-Last Sessions, are some of the finest examples of post-war New Orleans jazz. This particular recording is essential listening for anyone interested in this type of music and a must have for all George Lewis fans.