Czechoslovakia Journey
Dallas Blues
Panama Rag
Riverside Blues
Just Gone
When The Saints Go Marching In
Fidgety Feet
Walking Wenceslaus Square
Ballin’ The Jack
Organ Grinder
Get It Fixed
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
Blue Tongue Blues
Willie The Weeper
Birmingham Bertha
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
Shabby Gal Rag
Mandy Make Up Your Mind
Tiger Rag
Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jelly Roll
Canal St. Blues
Ostrich Walk
I’ve Got What It Takes
Wolverine Blues
Deep Pacific
At The Darktown Strutters Ball
Come Back Sweet Papa
Smokey Mokes
It’s Right Here For You
See See Rider
The Jazz Parade
Square Dance
Graeme Bell’s Australian Jazz Band
Graeme Bell (piano), Roger Bell (cornet, vocals),
Ade Monsbourgh (valve trombone, clarinet,
vocals). Don Roberts (clarinet), Jack Varney
(banjo, guitar), Lou Silbereisen (bass) Russ
Murphy (drums and washboard)
rec. Prague and Paris 1947-48
When Graeme Bell and his
Australian Jazz Band breezed into town things
were never quite the same again. Their "music
for dancing" policy contrasted sharply
with the more po-faced recital rituals of
post war British rhythm clubs, whose audiences
tended to sit augustly wrapped in classical
mobility. For Bell and his confreres the music
should be infectious, should make one want
to shake a leg. And their influence on British
bands was equally potent. Humphrey Lyttelton’s
admiration for the band – and especially for
Lazy Ade Monsbourgh - is well known, as are
the joint recordings Humph made with the band.
This two-for-the-price-of-one
set from Lake contains the famous Supraphon
recordings made in Prague in 1947; the Paris
sessions are just as good and were made the
following year. There’s a pioneering spirit
to these sides, derived though they are from
the white west coast revivalist discs of Lu
Watters, that still excites. Roger Bell plays
a vital blues solo on Dallas Blues
and one can almost see the sly grin on banjoist
Jack Varney’s face as he lashes into his flourishes
on Panama Rag. Lou Silbereisen’s tuba
playing on Just Gone pays pretty much
explicit homage to the Watters sound. Clarinettist
Don Roberts, who has tended to be slightly
undervalued, plays with real fluency throughout,
not least on I Wish I Could Shimmy Like
My Sister Kate whilst Roger Bell plays
a good, firm lead throughout, occasionally
using mutes with discretion and skill. Once
or twice he lays on a wide Mutt Carey-ish
vibrato, as on Deep Pacific. Monsbourgh,
multi-instrumentalist, plays a gruff, anchoring
trombone and his forays on clarinet are fragile
and lyrical – except when he evinces awareness
of Chicago gas pipe players from the 20s,
as he surely does in the small group Blue
Tongue Blues, with its recreation of cross
talk. I have to say Willie The Weeeper,
in their hands, sounds bigger than a four
piece!
The discs show a good variety
of tunes, equally good tempo decisions and
arrangements, whilst simple, are not predictable
and retain sufficient variety. Tiger Rag,
for instance (it’s left off the jewel box
list but noted in the booklet running order)
is rough hewn but not clichéd. The
Jazz Parade even has a modish fade ending.
Add this one to Lake’s previous
Bell release Big Walkabout in London 1948-51
to see why this band was so much admired
by fellow musicians and listeners (and dancers)
alike. And despite the notes’ proviso that
these sides were transferred from 78s the
sound is pretty good.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE
LACD 262 [43:09 + 52:18]
