Dixieland Music

If your love traditional jazz, this is a must for your collection. Matty Matlock is a great musician and arranger and many of the bands on the current jazz circuit use his arrangements. This is a fabuluos CD!

This CD represents some of the best of West Coast Dixieland, with arrangements by clarinetist Matty Matlock, and the nucleus mostly of the Bob Crosby Bobcats. Nick Fatool is absolutely superb on drums and Abe Lincoln, one of the finest studio musicians on the trombone. Eddie Miller on tenor is a Bobcat original jazzman from New Orleans and Phil Stephens on bass has a long history with Pete Daily and the Rampart Street Paraders, another of Matlock's recording groups, originally with Columbia. "Oh Didn't He Ramble" is a tune that one of Matlock's groups did on the movie soundtrack of "Pete Kelly's Blues", featuring Jack Webb. This should be a must for any collector!

This CD features the marvelous arranging talent of clarinetist Matty Matlock. Although the whole band is terrific, my personal favorites are trumpeter Dick Cathcart and the spectacular hot jazz trombone of the vastly underrated Abram "Abe" Lincoln. Dick Cathcart's Bix-influenced lead horn is immaculate and provides a solid foundation and time feel for the rest of the group to build upon. Trombonist Abe Lincoln takes no prisoners here. His hot, fiery, extroverted style is nothing short of breathtaking. In my humble opinion, Abe is the undisputed master of the hot jazz trombone. The overall sound quality of this CD is excellent. According to the liner notes, the analog to digital remastering of this 1950's-vintage recording was done with the original master tapes. The results are top notch.

HERE WE HAVE ONE OF THE GREAT GROUPS OF THE DIXIE REVIVAL OF THE 50'S. I BOUGHT THE ORIGINAL IN A GROGERY STORE FOR $.79 IN ABOUT 1957. MOST OF THESE PLAYERS MADE UP THE BACKBONE OF THE BOB CROSBY GROUP, BUT THEIR WORK HERE SURPASSES ANYTHING PRODUCED BY THAT RATHER TICKY-TACKY BAND. SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME GROUP MADE SEVERAL OTHER OFFERINGS, AT LEAST ONE WITH TRUMPETER CLYDE HURLEY. THE GROUP ALSO CALLED ITSELF THE RAMPART STREET PARADERS, AND DID THE MUSIC FOR THE FILM "PETE KELLY'S BLUES." OPERATIANG ON THE WEST COAST, SEVERAL OF THESE GUYS WERE ALSO NOTED STUDIO MUSICIANS, ALTHOUGH CLARINETIST MATTY MATLOCK WAS ORIGINALLY FROM NEW ORLEANS. I THINK COLUMBIA PRODUCED AN ALBUM CALLED SOMETHING LIKE "EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST" WITH THE PARADERS REPRESENTING THE WEST AND EDDIE CONDON'S BAND REPRESENTING THE EAST. THIS IS GREAT JAZZ. ALL THESE GUYS ARE FIRST-RATE PHRASE MAKERS AND THE SOLOS ARE WONDERFUL. "NAUGHTIE SWEETIE BLUES" IS MY FAVORITE.

Not much real "impressive" stuff on this album. It's pretty much run-of-the mill Dixieland standards. If you want really good Dixieland, "Our Man in New Orleans" by Al Hirt is a great album. "Louis Armstrong of New Orleans" is also another great Dixieland classic. I'd recommend buying those two before you get this one.

The Dukes of Dixieland's "down by the riverside" was, in a few words, flat, thin, uninspired (on a Bose Lifestyle 25). Several selections sounded like one instrument playng and the others providing only background music; i. e., no interplay. Others had a big band sound, not dixieland. I thought the band was trying to fall asleep. It was only $5.63, and, I thought that I couldn't go wrong. Wrong!

What a great CD! Unlike the previous negative review, this CD is wonderful. It's the real New Orleans "Dukes" sound. It was so good, I just ordered the CD. From the sound samples, the band sounds like the authentic New Orleans sound. There are so many mediocre groups recording today, but this CD sounds like the original Dukes band. The clarinet player sounds a lot like the great Matty Matlock of the Bob Crosby band and now and then he sounds like Ed Reed who was an Artie Shaw sound alike. The trombonist sounds a lot like a cross between Bob Havens and Fred Assunto, the original Dukes trombonist. And I know what I'm talking about. I've performed & arranged the Dukes music and also Red Nichols and Bob Crosby music for the past 40 years. I own most of the Matty Matlock & Red Nichols music & I've played with dozens of dixie bands including Bob Crosby.

Nuts about easy-swingin'! What a hell of an artist Gene is. Playing together with Buddy Rich is a duel of highs and lows with the corresponding steam drifting up the walls! Together they make the best couple of drummer-players ever...!

Good collection for students or fans of the swing/big band era, especially percussionists. Krupa, "The Chicago Flash," was the first big drum star, and thus set the stage for everyone from Buddy Rich to Phil Collins. I think the serious jazz connoisseur would rather skip this anthology and go for CDs of his original albums instead.