PEE WEE RUSSELL
Take me to the Land of Jazz
Recorded 1927-1946
ASV LIVING ERA
CD AJA 5391
[76.26]
Crotchet
This is a fabulous compilation of twenty-four tracks featuring that marvellous
jazz clarinettist Pee Wee Russell (1906-1969). Also there are a host of other
luminaries including Bix Beiderbecke, Bobby Hackett, Coleman Hawkins, Gene
Krupa, Eddie Lang, Glenn Miller, Joe Teagarden, Joe Venuti and so on, they
are all there on tracks such as the familiar 'Bugle Call Rag' or 'Who's sorry
now?', two of this superb disc's highlights. Russell was a natural whose
tone, style and fabulous technique were marked by both flexibility and
sensitivity in all his playing, cornet player Beiderbecke being both friend
and influential colleague. Another was Eddie Condon, with whom Russell played
in the 1930s and recorded much (his Windy City Seven sounding here more like
seventy in 'Love is just around the corner'). Russell also had his own groups
such as the vibrantly energetic Rhythmakers (sadly only one track but a memorable
one with 'Dinah'), the Hot Four (one of whose tracks gives this disc its
title), and Jazz Ensemble as well as a couple of memorable tracks featuring
a zappy trio of Russell, Zutty and James P. (piano, rhythm section with Russell
as flamboyant and witty as ever). Watch out for his break (and others including
the versatile trombonist George Brunis) in the wildly exciting 'That's a
plenty' with Wild Bill Davison and his Commodores, while the languid sounds
of 'Peg o' my heart' (with Miff Mole and his Nicksieland Band) provide a
total change of mood. There's little else to say about this CD except to
listen to it to enjoy one of the greatest clarinet players from the Swing
era, and anyway how can you resist a number called 'I ain't gonna give nobody
none of my jelly roll'?
Christopher Fifield
CD Reviews
