KING OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1928-1930 | The Chronogical Classics – 607 (1991) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

After a couple of fine sides from 1928, the saga of King Oliver turns another corner, heading into 1929 armed with little more than a Victor recording contract. There are plenty of strong performances here. Charlie Holmes puts his personality on the front line, and Fats Pichon sings "I've Got That Thing" with plenty of mustard as usual. But things are definitely changing. On "I'm Watching the Clock," a relaxed recording made in September of 1928, King Oliver expressed himself beautifully, but his chops were on the wane. By the beginning of 1929, Louis Metcalf is the featured cornet soloist in front of King Oliver's Orchestra, using the mute a lot like Joe had brandished it years earlier. "Call of the Freaks," "The Trumpet's Prayer" and "Freakish Light Blues" are beautiful vignettes. Punch Miller appeared briefly on a date that featured the flashy piano of Cass Simpson. For the remainder of 1929 Oliver's nephew Dave Nelson took on the task of trumpeting and occasionally composing for the band. He even sang for a minute but someone must have begged him to knock it off. Teddy Hill played tenor sax for Oliver's orchestra in 1928 and 1929. He worked in a lot of big bands that couldn't give him enough solo space, which is probably why he eventually formed his own progressive swing band where Dizzy Gillespie would take his first solos on record in 1937. Teddy would go on to create an open environment that was conducive to extended improvisation during the early 1940s. On this CD you get to hear him paying his dues. The best of Oliver's solid components still make for good listening. Clinton Walker, for example, would operate the tuba with energetic precision all the way through to May of 1930. James P. Johnson and Hilton Jefferson showed up. That's serious business! So is Roy Smeck's steel guitar solo on "Everybody Does It in Hawaii," although jazz purists wrinkle their noses and roll their eyes at such stuff. Smeck also plays harmonica on "Frankie and Johnny." The combination of tuba and mouth harp is a remarkable sonic blend, for those who aren't too proud to have a wild adventure in the company of crusty old records like these. arwulf arwulf  
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KING OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1930-1931 | The Chronogical Classics – 594 (1991) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 What you've got here are King Oliver's final recordings as a leader. Big bands were still figuring themselves out in 1930, moving from one decade's definitive flavor into another stylistic space as yet unspecified. Hovering over everything was the gruesome specter of fiscal disaster. This did strange things to the music business. Pop culture became partly mummified by a creeping sentimentality that would emerge again during the age of Cold War conformity. During the 1930s and the 1950s jazz endured and continued to evolve, as it always will under any circumstances. With his best decade behind him, King Oliver presided over an orchestra that occasionally sounds a bit sleepy. During their best moments, these guys are almost as solid as Bennie Moten's band, or maybe the Moten orchestra of 1927. "Mule Face Blues" and "Stingaree" are features for Henry "Red" Allen. "Boogie Woogie" is a high-potency stomp containing not one speck of the definitive eight-to-the-bar formula usually associated with the term. On "Stop Crying," Buster Bailey blows into his clarinet with unusual ferocity and Ward Pinkett launches into a frantic scat vocal. Speaking of singers, if you're going to listen back on music from around 1930, it is necessary to make concessions to notions of popular taste. Otherwise, you'll be operating with no historical context whatsoever. If you think George Bias was a silly vocalist, check out some of the singing on records from the same time period by Fats Waller & His Buddies or Duke Ellington. Not everybody is going to sound as hip as Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon or Baby Cox. When three members of the band formed a vocal trio and sang on some of the recordings made in 1931, the results were entertaining in ways that maybe we ought to allow ourselves to rediscover. It's a shame that King Oliver's recordings taper off at this point. Like most other bands on the scene at that time, this one could have picked up steam again as new players, composers and arrangers would have helped it adapt to changing times. By the end of the 1930s, Eddie Condon or the guys at the Library of Congress could have rekindled popular interest in Joe Oliver. Even if by then he'd given up blowing his horn he could have succeeded as nominal leader of a New Orleans-styled jazz band, or something more modern-sounding. But this is pure speculation. Papa Joe died in abject poverty in Savannah, Georgia on the 10th of April, 1938. With five volumes of his work available from Classics, there's a lot of King Oliver to explore, and it's all worth your while. arwulf arwulf
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WILLIE "THE LION" SMITH – 1925-1937 | The Chronogical Classics – 662 (1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Willie "The Lion" Smith, one of stride piano's Big Three of the 1920s (along with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller), recorded a lot less than his two friends. In fact, with the exception of two selections apiece with the Gulf Coast Seven in 1925 (which features trombonist Jimmy Harrison and clarinetist Buster Bailey) and 1927's Georgia Strutters (starring singer Perry Bradford, Harrison, and cornetist Jabbo Smith), along with the rare and originally unreleased 1934 solo piano showcase "Finger Buster," this CD does not get started until 1935. Smith's Decca recordings of 1935 and 1937 were formerly quite obscure, showcasing his piano with three different versions of "His Cubs." The Lion is heard with a Clarence Williams-type quartet which includes cornetist Ed Allen and clarinetist Cecil Scott, matched up with trumpeter Dave Nelson and clarinetist Buster Bailey in a septet; and temporarily heading an early version of the John Kirby Sextet on a session dominated by drummer O'Neil Spencer's vocals. Highlights of this historic and enjoyable CD include "Santa Claus Blues," "Keep Your Temper," "Blues, Why Don't You Let Me Alone," and the earliest recording of the Lion's most famous composition, "Echo of Spring." Scott Yanow
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