Customer Reviews

Jazz a la Creole

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This is a strange, yet important collection. It's essentially three separate little records, with some minor overlap in personnel. The other guy covered the first part fine. I'm here to defend the other two. I'm no expert, but...
Anyone with interest in New Orleans' musical heritage probably ought to own this.
The middle section, led by Albert Nicholas, is the first, as far as I know, recorded example of the old Caribbean party songs that evolved in the oral tradition in New Orleans going back a couple hundred years or so. These are the recordings that inspired the likes of Don Vappie and others to resurrect the Creole/"Latin Tinge" aspect of Traditional Jazz in recent years.
The third section, led by Danny Barker, consists of probably the first recorded example of the Mardi Gras Indian tunes, another up-'til-then strictly oral tradition mostly hidden from society at large. The Indian chants are now an integral part of what became, and still is, New Orleans R&B.

Were it not for Baby Dodds' drumming, the two drum improvs, and the six Mardi Gras Indian songs that close the CD, Jazz a la Creole would be an enjoyable set of NOLA jazz standards performed in a postwar vein. But those three factors combined with the c. 1946 recording date make the CD something else altogether: An aural Rosetta Stone heralding the future of NOLA music. Contemporary artists such as the Neville Brothers, Big Sam, and Trombone Shorty can all find their ancestry here; for that alone, Jazz a la Creole is indispensable for fans of NOLA music.

Man, this is pure history! Baby Dodds was one of the most creative drummers of all time, playing his press rolls with a very syncopate fills in woodblock, cowbells, tom tons and bass drum rims. As you will hear, this 1946 record have a unique and primitive drum style, lost in time. A different way to play drums never repeated again, but registered in this and other CD's from him (and as a sideman like Bechet's, Bunk Johnson's, Satchmo, King Oliver and others new orleans jazz leaders from the 20's, 30's and 40's).
Great impros and 2 fantastic's solos.

The second half of this CD is amazing, too!
It isn't with Dodds! Another band.
It is A PURE AND FANTASTIC CREOLE HABANNERAS records (not a mardi gras, for god)!! !!
You are a lucky person to find this CD.
This is DEEP JAZZ HISTORY!
Buy it know!

The first half of this CD is made up of indispensible recordings originally made by Rudi Blesh's Circle label, from the New Orleans revival of the 1940s. Five tracks are from a trio session from 1946 featuring the wonderfully fluid New Orleans clarinet of Albert Nicholas with the great Don Ewell at the height of his Jelly Roll Morton phase and the superb New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds. These tracks are classics that stand on a par with Morton's 1927 - 1929 trio sides: the first take of "Wolverine Blues" in particular is tremendous. Also from this session is a piano / drums performance of Ewell's Morton - based "Manhattan Stomp", and two irresistable drum solos by Dodds: if they don't get your feet tapping then you are already dead!

The rest of the album can't match these performances. Six sides of creole songs by Albert Nicholas, Danny Barker, Pops Foster & an uncomfortable James P. Johnson (or Charlie Queener on one track) are an interesting example of one facet of New Orleans music, while the remaining numbers by a Danny Barker led group are best forgotten, and cost the disc a star.

The first eight tracks make this CD an obligatory purchase for any lover of New Orleans style jazz & of Don Ewell's under-rated piano.