Customer Reviews

1955

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This is a 2CD set of previously unissued live recordings from the Kerosene Club, San Jose, California. The sound is actually pretty good and with 76:31 of total time for the 1st disc and 72:26 for the second, you get lots of music for a reasonable price.

What is so attractive about these discs is that the tunes are played with lots of spirit and enthusiasm, always emotionally charged. The El Dorado Jazz Band wasn't a two beat Lu Watters type of unit at all. They were finding their own way by going back to the hot jazz recordings of the twenties. They were inspired by the Hot 5's and 7's, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and others in the same way that Lu Watters was, yet they play with a stand up bass rather than tuba and play the tunes-for the most part-in 4/4 time. The musicians, Bob Helm included, play the music and solo in a way that will make you wonder why they were never better known. The excellent liner notes will tell the El Dorado's story.

There may be a few minor flaws in the live presentation, yet the music carries you along in a way that makes you wish you could go back 50 years or so. Traditional jazz bands playing with regularity in saloons is something from out of the past, something we can only daydream about now...and it sure as shootin' must have been one heck of a good time. Check out the samples and see.

Jim Borkenhagen plays trumpet; Bob Helm, clarinet; Jim Leigh, trombone and leader; Danny Ruedger, banjo and vocals; Pete Fay, piano; Squire Girsback, string bass, and on CD2 tracks 14-19 add Rowland Working, clarinet; and subtract the bass of Squire Girsback.