Customer Reviews

New York Jazz in the Early Twenties 1

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New York jazz in the 1920s was new, dynamic, innovative and the precursor to "pop" and big band music that was to follow. This CD has a great sampling of the musicians who epitomized that style, including Red Nichols (my favorite). The first four titles are examples of the wonderful collaboration of Nichols and his close friend Miff Mole ("Red and Miff's Stompers) and clearly demonstrate the higly disciplined style for which Nichols was well known (and cordially despised)by his fellows. Phil Napoleon's sole ontribution here is with "Five Pennies", a Nichols number which Napoleon plays in a much "looser" style than Nichols. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey are a bit less prominent here as these recordings pre-date their own groups. But their styles are unmistakable Other bands included are the California Ramblers, Joe Herlihy and his Orchestra and Phil Napoleon's Orchestra. The listener should note from the liner notes the various side-men; many of them were highly talented and were much in damand for studio sessions. They made a real contribution to the music of the day, including the selections on this CD.

Overall, great musicians but not the strongest selection of titles.

However this CD contsains no rarities, and it is just a run of the mill hophodge sampler of "new York Jazz In The Roaring 20's," completests and collectors can find this material elsewhere in much more compete series. Most of the material on this CD is by Red Nichols as a leader, and The California Rambers, you can buy their CD's seperately making this CD, very useless, even though the music is great, it's incomplete, and expensive. Not recommended to jazz collectors, who will already have most of this material.

These are the tired old Biograph remasters from the 1960s, some of which were done at the wrong speed, resulting in incorrect pitch. Amazing that no one bothered to correct this. These Edison recordings by Red Nichols' groups are now available in beautifully remastered sound on the Jazz Oracle label, and lovers of 20s hot jazz are advised to seek them out.