Timeless Historical
www.timeless-records.com
CBC 1-078 jazz : Playing time 76.26

Vincent Rose and his Montmartre Orchestra
String Beans; Helen Gone; Sadie (you are the lady for me).

Glen Oswald’s Serenaders
Oh! Peter (You’re So Nice) 2 takes; (You) Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine (2 takes); I Ain’t Got Nobody To Love;
I Wouldn’t Be Crying Now (If it wasn’t for you); Buck Town Blues.

Art Landry and his Orchestra
Rip Saw Blues; It’ll Get You; Lazy Blues (Cuttin’ Up); Sleepy Time Gal; The Camel Walk; Swamp Blues;
Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue; Everybody Stomp; Slippery Elm

Horace Heidt’s Orchestra
Golden Gate; I’m Ka-Razy For You.

Herman Kenin’s Ambassador Hotel Orchestra
He’ A Good Man To Have Around; I’m The Last Of The Red Hot Mammas.

Jackie Taylor and his Orchestra
We’re On The Highway To Heaven; That’s What I Like About You.

I raise my Glengarry (I own one) to Timeless Records for putting together these 25 Victor recording classics, inclusive in a total of six period bands for their 1924-1930 West Coast of America album.

All songs are dance band tunes reminiscent of the "Gatsby" era. To many listeners, all tunes will have within them jazz breaks, although not classed such at the time, to a lesser discerning number of listeners, they will class a handful of the tunes as being of full jazz content, but, what I can say with impunity, is, that all tunes are composed of musicology wizardry of the finest order.

Explain - the volume of variant sounds, instrumentational creativeness in kind, covering voice - are artistically broad and expansive, such that, it may take years of graft by today’s traditional jazz groups to bring a semblance of those styles up to complement any 21st century band book, when reed players then doubled on violin.

I can recall in my youth wearing a pale-green zoot suit, brown & white brogue footwear, dancing with a girl who had just finished her stint on the ocean liners, supporting a silk pyjamas evening outfit with high heels, bringing her up to perfect holding waist-line height, to most of the tunes recorded on this album.

I can recall singing to nearly all of them, compositional of Chappell of 50 New Bond Street, sheet music Department before an accident depleted greatly their collection, over which one can juxtapose the following scenes: admiring a notable French impressionist painting of the kind of partying on a riverside lawn of some of England’s Grand Country Houses, or, an afternoon spell of listening to 20s Palm Court Hotel piano performances, or, gliding to this album’s sound of music on the floor boards of Scotland’s and London’s ballrooms - alas no longer extant.

Clips: Trumpeter Harry Owens, trombonist Buster Johnson and reedman Bobby Burns on vocals in Helen Gone with Vincent Rose and his Monmartre Orchestra, Taylor on violin - turns me on, on this one. Did not know that pianist Vincent Rose had a hand in composing Whispering - my first improvisational tune on reeds.

The second take of (You) Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine with oboe, banjo and brass bass sounding like a bass clarinet, sends me on my way to heaven.

Swamp Blues with a trio of clarinets produce a musical scene on how one would picture what a real swamp would feel and look like, further, Sleepy Time Gal is a 1925 Oakland, California recording sound that is sensual. Nice vocals by Henry Burr, and there are fine solos by the three jazzband front-liners taking advantage of Victor’s new electric recording system.

He’s A Good Man To Have Around is a Sophie Tucker "hot mama" hit song. C-melody or alto intro with a fine string bass beat and tone, blends in beautifully with a clarion call tongued trumpet, makes for relaxing yet inquisitive listening.

The violinist leads on We’re On The Highway To Heaven and That’s What I Like About You, with Jackie Taylor and his Orchestra, featuring the Boswell Sisters (Connie, Helvetia, Martha), although the Sisters vocals’ sound is constant on both tunes, the band on the latter track has adopted a more smoother flowing sound - intrigue.

There’s more: not the Cocoanut Grove of London yore, nor the Brooks-Callender Cocoanut Grove of Benny Goodman fame, but learning from the very interesting Ate van Delden booklet that in 1928 Jackie Taylor entered his band at the Cocoanut Grove, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, and that, following on from the Boswell tracks, came the gateway with pianist Paul Lingle in the 40s to a Dixieland revival on the West Coast in San Francisco, California - narratives that will, I’m sure, be of interest to many.

This album is the music from which I embarked on a crossover to becoming a moldie figgie full of enjoyment.

Ian King
Kings Jazz Review
Monday the 11th of August 2003