Savoy Blues
Creole Song (C’Est L’Autre Can Can)
The Glory of Love
Mahogany Hall Stomp
Blues For Jimmy Noone
At A Georgia Camp Meeting
Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night
Yacka Hula Hickey Dula
The World’s Jazz Crazy
Down-Hearted Blues
See See Rider
Good Time Flat Blues
Careless Love
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
Mecca Flat Blues
‘Fore Day Creep
Aunt Hagar’s Blues
Birth Of The Blues
Snag It
Yellow Dog Blues
Wang Wang Blues
Teddy Buckner (trumpet), Joe Darensbourg,
Bob McCracken (clarinet), Kid Ory (trombone),
Don Ewell, Harvey Brooks, Lloyd Glenn (piano),
Julian Davidson and Ed Shrivenak (guitar),
Morty Cobb, Ed Garland (bass) Minor "Ram"
Hall (drums), Lee Sapphire and Claire Austin
(vocals)
rec. 1950-54
None of this material is
new to CD of course and nor is it claimed
to be. The first eight have been on CBS and
Sony Essential CDs; the Claire Austin sides
were on Good Time Jazz and others have been
on CBS and Storyville. In short, they’re classic
tracks though not the best of Ory’s revivalist
band which had peaked in its earliest days
around 1944-45.
Crisp ensemble work and well
worked out routines, sprung rhythm, a tight
front line, and a fairly wide-ranging selection
of material animate these twenty-one tunes.
You’ll hear Lloyd Glenn’s rousing boogie piano
on Savoy Blues as well as Teddy Buckner’s
almost note-for-note Armstrong idolatry. Ory
shines in Creole Song, letting rip
with his laryngitic vocal complemented by
Darensbourg’s fine lower register clarinet
work. The bold front line interjections, those
big, tension inducing repetitious riffs, are
something Ory had clearly worked on for a
long time and were something of a feature
– too much so, perhaps – of his splendid later
date with Red Allen when they recorded things
like Tuxedo Junction and Ain’t Misbehavin’.
I’ve always found Lee Sapphire
an acquired taste; she has a cabaret vibrato
and a hint of a classic blueswoman’s growl
and they don’t quite fuse. Allied to her sleazy
portamentos and something like The Glory
of Love is strictly for "admirers
only." Mind you it doubtless shows Ory’s
phlegmatic and commercially minded astuteness;
she probably pulled in the crowds at the club.
Buckner is at his impressive best on Mahogany
Hall Stomp – fiery and good – and it’s
fine to listen to the famous bowed bass and
accompanying piano chimes of Cobb and Glenn
in Blues for Jimmy Noone. Buckner quotes
like mad on Aunt Hagar’s Blues – but
that big, fat tone offers fine compensation.
But nothing can save pianist Harvey Brooks
who spends much of Birth of the Blues
ruinously quoting Gershwin. One of the most
relaxed tracks is Yellow Dog Blues,
one of the live performances here and it’s
indicative of the way the band could stretch
out rhythmically, without effort, in more
congenial surroundings.
The other singer, Claire
Austin, really does sit in the Bessie Smith
tradition as safely as does, say, Ottilie
Patterson. Austin came from Swedish/American
parents and also worked with Scobey and Murphy
amongst others. For these sides she’s joined
just by Ory’s obbligato work and the rhythm
section of Ewell, Garland and Hall. When she
hangs behind the beat, as she does in ‘Fore
Day Creep, she’s highly persuasive and
her absorption of Smith’s style can hardly
be denied or bettered. Ory’s playing here
is gruff, quasi-rudimentary and will hardly
efface memories of Charlie Green back in the
’20s – but if you’ve not yet heard these sides
they add breadth and perspective to his tailgate
playing.
The sound quality here is
excellent; it’s transferred at a slightly
higher level than I’ve heard before and is
impressive throughout all the dates collected
here.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE LACD 255 [78:07]
