Original Dixieland Jazz Band Music

Combine great story telling and period music from the turn of the century (19th-20th) and you get the best brass band mix. Especially good if you remember seeing the concert.

It's been since at least 50 years since I last saw the Eddie Condon band at a Greenwich Village haunt. They were wonderful -- outstanding musicians, if somewhat -- shall I say -- different. (I remember Pee Wee Russell reading a chemistry book between sets.) This Japan album brings back many fond memories. My favorite in this collection is one I had not heard before -- "Am I Blue" with a magnificent vocal by Jimmy Rushing. The record provides as good a sample of Condon's Chicago style as I have heard.

As nearly a life-long historian and collector of the ODJB, it's good to see that the band continued to develop its book beyond what it recorded for RCA in the states. Added to the earlier, pioneering sides were some popular songs and some new tunes that the ODJB helped make popular. The band was probably at its peak in London and drummer Tony Sparbaro told me that England really "dug our jazz", hence, the resurgence of trad jazz with Kenny Ball, Chris Barber, and Monty Sunshine and others in England.

It's good to hear these old masters playing this music in the usual tight, exciting Eddie Condon Chicago style. The selection of tunes is a good variety (especially Shim-me-sha-wable, Avalon & Strutting With Some Barbeque).

The personnel involved is also among the very best all in top form. Eddie Condon playing rhythm guitar, Gene Krupa on drums, Wild Bill Davidson on cornet, Kenny Davern on soprano sax and Dick Wellstone on piano.

I do have to question Eddie's choice of excluding the bass and trombone. Were Jack Lesberg (bass) and Vic Dickenson (trombone) unavailable? If not them, there could have been other choices though I can understand Eddie reasons for wanting to mix it up a little; some leaders might have chosen to omit piano since guitar acts as the chordal instrument.

In any case, these are minor issues. The most important thing is the music which still has that lovely and memorable Condon flavor.

Whoo, boy. This is some old time, rag time, raggedy jazz here. Sounds like it, too. As noted throughout previous reviews and as one is no doubt aware if you are even considering buying this CD, this is a historic set of tunes all in one place, which is convenient. And the digital remastering to CD is serviceable and adequate enough, but it is apparent that they didn't have much to work with. The sound ranges from tinny to muddy and everything in between. The songs themselves are enjoyable, but none of them has a distinctive sort of sound or melody and they all tend to run together after a while. I got pretty tired of listening to it before long. Personally, this kind of music and these old time recordings just don't do much for me. I can only ever listen to it when it is background music for some other activity and I don't really have to "listen" to it. But even when it is background music, it never really does anything other than distract me occasionally. Yes, these songs and recordings are collectible for the jazz enthusiast and music collector, maybe even the occasional music/jazz historian, but for me, this is one CD set that will spend a lot of time on my shelf and not in my CD player.

This used to be my favorite restoration of this music - but reviewer Ted Ison is correct: it has been definitively surpassed by the Archeophone/Off the Record set for both instrumental clarity and a more "live" sound.

This will always be tough music to 'hear' at first, and it's worth going to the best available transfer for help. We will never be able to join the young musicians that crowded in front of the bandstand in Chicago's Lincoln Gardens in 1923, stunned by the raw bluesy power, double cornet break precision and the then radical inventiveness of this music (check out the 3 different approaches that Joe Oliver takes on the 3 different versions of 'Mabel's Dream')as the group improvised chorus after chorus of 'High Society'. Instead of 2 powerhouse cornet players right in front of us, we will always have to try to experience them through the tinny, scratchy, distant medium of 1923 accoustic recording, and for budget labels at that, limited to short 2 to 3 minute takes. "Through a glass, darkly," indeed!

You really must compare the samples of this record with the Archeophone transfers before you buy. Judge for yourself which version is better.

There's really nothing much here that hasn't been reissued previously again and again and again. All these Oliver sets sound like they're derived from the same sources and just recycled by different labels. These are dull, bland sounding transfers. The only thing this set has going for it is that it's "complete". Otherwise, it doesn't make for very satisfying listening.

The rhythm banjo drowns out the horns during the first 28 cuts. Cuts 29 thru 41 are much better in that regard. Cuts 40 and 41 are especially good in that we are able to hear King Oliver solo. Louis Armstrong shows us that he can be an ensemble player. He also shows us that he can play a slide whistle too. This CD is a compendium of some of the classic jazz tunes of the era. If one is an arranger, this disc could serve as a foundation illustrating how these tunes sound when played straight.

Music in this double cd is the best in King Oliver's career.
He plays with young Louis Armstrong and there are some great numbers specially on disc 1. Sound on this 2Cd is great. I love real sound like this without sound reflection which appears on Great original performances.
It is essential music for all fans of early jazz .