Swing Music

Most of this disc consists of Fats at the piano (or, on a few tracks, pipe organ), improvising on a range of popular songs, some his own (including the opening numbers, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Sweet Savannah Sue" -- these two performances alone are worth the price of the disc), others not. His playing is consistently enthralling and creative, following the muse wherever it leads. Toward the end of the disc there are a few tracks on which Fats is accompanied by a band, and a few less essential tracks with vocalists, including a two-part comedy number with musical accompaniment that is no more than mildly amusing.

The reviewer of September 2005 described the quality of the music well enough, so I'll only point out that this collection contains some of the best remastering ever done by the late John R. T. Davies, distinctly superior to the first Chronogical Classics disc. Also, that disc includes, as the reviewer of that product pointed out, more inferior song-plugger material than this one, the same kind of stuff Red, Louis, Billie Holiday et al. had to struggle with throughout the Thirties, not successfully in all cases. The Victoria Spivey numbers here are not among the gems of American song, either, but they do give Red Allen a very different, and I think, more advantageous platform than the Tin Pan Alley products that somebody must have liked, back in the day.

I bought this 2 cd set 3 years ago, and I'm surprized that it hasn't been reviewed yet by one of Amazon's early jazz lovers. The music's great. I guess Allen's still disappeared under Louis Armstrong's giant shadow, the way he was for all those years when he played in Louis's big band. Who knows? But if everyone's second to Armstrong's trumpet, then Red Allen is a legitimate second. Also from New Orleans and about 6 years younger than Armstrong, Allen's his own man. Whatever he took from Louis (and most everybody did in those days), he sounds like nobody but himself, a dazzling and unpredictable trumpet player who continued to dazzle into his last decade. Some of this music still startles all of these years later--rambunctious, joyful, red hot jazz. I've played these cds again and again. The 2nd cd is mostly alternative takes, interesting as alternatives and aural delectibles in their own right. For anyone who loves early jazz, New Orleans-inspired jazz, this is must-have music from one of our trumpet giants.