Nodern Jazz New Thing

Contrasts is a two-fer collection of work by pianist Marian McPartland featuring the albums Plays the Music of Alec Wilder and Marian and Jimmy McPartland: A Sentimental Journey. Showcasing the exquisite playing of the NPR jazz host, both albums are worth checking out. Disc one should appeal to longtime McPartland fans with the pianist working through the compositions of Alec Wilder in a straight-ahead trio style. Disc two, though, is the real revelation, with McPartland joining her cornetist/vocalist husband, Jimmy, and his New Orleans trad-style band for a live date. The music is much hotter than McPartland's solo work - she "comps" beautifully behind soloists - and it's a treat to hear her in this more bluesy, extroverted context.

King Oliver - Off The Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings (2006) {2CD Off The Record-Archeophone ARCH OTR-MM 6-C2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 312 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 207 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 44 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1923, 2006 Off The Record / Archeophone Records | ARCH OTR-MM 6-C2
Jazz / Early Jazz / New Orleans Jazz / Cornet

Because the personnel include Louis Armstrong, Lillian Hardin, and Johnny and Baby Dodds, the 1923 recordings of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, originally made for the Gennett, OKeh, Columbia, and Paramount labels, have been reissued numerous times as formats have changed and technology has improved. Here, the Canadian label Off the Record (distributed in the U.S. by Archeophone Records) puts 37 tracks on two CDs, having made transfers from the most pristine 78-rpm discs available.

British trumpeter Ken Colyer, one of the major New Orleans revival brassmen, had broken up his regular group in 1971 due to his erratic health but fortunately he continued playing on a part-time basis during the remaining 17 years of his life. This infectious set (which came out on CD in 1998) was performed at a church in 1972 before a live audience and although Colyer and his septet play songs that could be thought of as hymns, there is nothing somber or overly reverent about the interpretations. Colyer (who is in excellent form), clarinetist Sammy Rimington, trombonist Barry Palser, pianist Ray Smith, banjoist Pete Morcom, bassist Alan Jones and drummer Colin Bowden put lots of feeling into the music and there are plenty of stomps and ensemble-oriented jams. Among the ten selections (all of which are quite enjoyable) are "Just A Little While To Stay Here," "Sing On," "Bye And Bye" and "Walking With The King." This is easily recommended to New Orleans jazz collectors.

This CD traces Jelly Roll Morton's period in New York, starting with his second record date in the Big Apple. A few of the sessions have Morton joined by an excess of musicians, with the results certainly being spirited, if bordering on getting out of control. "Tank Town Bump" and "Red Hot Pepper Stomp" are the best of these numbers. In addition, Morton is heard on four excellent piano solos (including "Seattle Hunch" and "Freakish"), leading a nucleus taken from the Luis Russell Orchestra on four other songs, and playing as a sideman with vaudevillian clarinetist Wilton Crawley's pickup band, sometimes to hilarious effect. One of the true jazz giants, every recording by Jelly Roll Morton is well worth acquiring in one form or another.

Original Dixieland Jazz Band - The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917-1936) {2CD Set RCA–BMG 66608-2 rel 1992}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 370 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 250 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 114 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1917-36, 1992 RCA / BMG | RCA 66608-2
Jazz / Dixieland / Early Jazz / New Orleans Jazz

This double-CD has all of the Victor recordings of the first jazz group to record, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The five-piece New Orleans band, which essentially stuck exclusively to ensembles, set the standard for 1917-21 jazz. Their "Livery Stable Blues" (which found the horns imitating barnyard animals) was a big hit, and The ODJB introduced such future Dixieland standards as "Original Dixieland One-Step," "At the Jazz Band Ball," "Fidgety Feet," "Sensation," "Clarinet Marmalade," "Jazz Me Blues," "Royal Garden Blues," and "Tiger Rag."

This DVD celebrates Chris Barber's 50th anniversary as a professional musician. Recorded at Germany's Hot Jazz Festival 2002, he presents his eleven-piece Big Chris Barber Band.One of the leaders of England's early-'60s trad jazz movement, Chris Barber (a solid trombonist) began leading his own bands in 1948. In 1954, trumpeter Pat Halcox joined Barber, and with the later additions of clarinetist Monty Sunshine, banjoist/singer Lonnie Donegan, and blues singer Ottilie Patterson, Barber had an all-star crew. Sunshine's hit version of 'Petite Fleur' made both Barber and the clarinetist into big names. Although his group was based in Dixieland, Barber has long been open-minded towards ragtime, swing, mainstream, blues, R&B, and rock.