Customer Reviews

Dixieland Favorites

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD contains a great hour plus assortment of Dixieland music played by a very talented group of musicians. The sound quality is right up there with some of the best CDs produced. This CD will be difficult to match, let alone beat for Dixieland enthusiasts. A solid five stars ... closer to six.

The great musicianship and spirit of the Firehouse Five Plus Two is at its best in this album. I believe the group did its best work in the years when George Probert played soprano sax with them, and this CD contains some of Probert's finest work. His extended solo on "Canal Street Blues" is perhaps the most expressive soprano sax playing this side of Sidney Bechet. If you're going to own only one Firehouse Five Plus Two recording (though I can't imagine why anyone would stop at just one!), this would be my choice.

What an amazing collection of recordings. I was afraid that the digitization of this old(er) music might mute the sound or make it sound strange. What a delightful surprise I got. I kept turning up the voume higher and higher, and the horns and whistles and sirens got crisper and crisper. I could NOT stop tapping my toes. My smile broadened with each song, even the blues numbers.

I purchased this album as an effort to remember the music my Dad listened to when I was a kid. I was thinking that this music was best heard as a remembrance of him. How wrong I was. These Dixieland tunes cannot help but make anyone happy, and I intend to take this CD into the office to spread the joy.

The only picky negative criticism I have (and some will find it a positive) is that the last two tunes were recorded from a live performance, with people talking during the intros and exits to the songs. I would have prefered the "pure" recordings. Again, some will like the concocted party background noise, which disappears as soon as this fantastic band starts wailing away with their instruments.

Once I wear out this CD, I expect to purchase more music from the Firehouse Five Plus Two!!!!

One of the great appeals of traditional Dixieland music is the distinct beat obtained by using a banjo and tuba for the rhythm section. "Modern" Dixieland bands tend to use drums and base for the rhythm section. The beat just doesn't compare - listen to their rendition of Muskat Ramble where the banjo and tuba will set your feet tapping! Sound quality of this CD is excellent. Highly recommended for Dixieland fans.

This CD of the group is actually a compilation put together by band leader Ward Kimball in 1986, well after the group retired in 1971. Each song was remastered from the original source specifically for the Good Time Jazz label. It has over an hour of music, longer than any of their other CD's since all the rest are just straight conversions from the original albums.

The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a band that played Dixieland Jazz and had the unique distinction of being animators and other employees that worked at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. One of the most famous animators to work for Disney was Ward Kimball's who played classic Dixieland records in his office during lunchtimes to blowoff some steam. Soon the guys brought in instruments and began playing along with the record. One day when the record player broke down and they played anyway. They kept on playing without the record player and the rest is history. Their jam sessions caused animators, storymen, and inbetweeners to dance with the ladies from the color and ink crew right in the soundstage. As members of the group were some of his best studio animators, Walt Disney liked them and let them do their own thing on the side. But he also loved their music and onstage antics. He even invited them to play in the Disneyland park on Opening Day in 1955 and made repeat visits for the next 15 years after that, and later to even appear on his TV show.

The group made 12 albums over the years, some of which included original artwork on the cover by animator Ward Kimball. They even released a very special album called "At Disneyland" which is a live concert in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon at Disneyland Frontierland. Even today you can still hear their music on a visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. When you take a ride on the Mark Twain riverboat, it has a music loop playing Dixieland Jazz as part of the background theme music on board that includes tracks from this LP (now a CD) including, "Muskrat Ramble", "Fidgety Feet", & "Come Back, Sweet Poppa".

Over the years they performed on the Bing Crosby radio show and his golf tournaments, were featured in several Walt Disney TV specials. They also appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club's "Anything Can Happen Day" on and performed two numbers, "I Want to be a Fireman" and the "Tiger Rag". This appearance is available on the DVD "The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club" here at Amazon.com. It is mislabeled on the DVD as November 12, 1964 which was actually a re-run of the original episode that almost 10 years earlier;


The band was not owned or controlled by the Disney Company in any way. They moonlighted, recorded albums, played in nightclubs, and had a lot of fun along the way. The FF5+2 was not some polished studio band with tight engineering, but an exercise in spontaneity and improvisation. They truly didn't even believe in practicing, just havin' fun. Maybe that is the best part of listening to them, because they sound great and are very full of life and laughter. They still make you want to dance along. Interestingly, as animators they were used to creative sound effects and included this art in their music too. For example they used an anvil on one track, sirens, bells and whistles.... and it works.

If you play Dixieland you can only hope to play like these guys. If you love Dixieland Jazz you can't help but love this. New Orleans Jazz with a good west coast flavour. Well worth listening to again and again.

Mike Phillips

Sultans Easy Life Jazz Band

Over the years I have bought a few of the Firehouse Five records. This one was stuck into my last order as an afterthought. What a plesant surprise! It is pure, no frills Dixieland. I'm guessing that it is one of their early efforts.
I consider it a find.

Their best rendition of dixieland. This is their greatest and in my opinion some of the best classic New Orleans Jazz I have heard. This first came out on big old 33-1/3 vinyl. I was glad to find it on CD. The old player died long ago but now I can enjoy it again.

Dixieland Favorites met all my expectations. Great sound, great toe tapping music. Good mix of slower and faster dixieland songs. A bood buy.

When you feel like "getting loose" enough to fairly s-l-i-d-e around the room, put this on the box. I've want such as this to be played at my funeral, as I shimmy on home to Jesus.