The Bissonnette story starts about a young white American boy living in Connecticut, USA, who had a dream of wanting to become an up-to-date jazz drummer.

Having had the opportunity of being able to attend the Jimmy Ryan’s Club in New York where ‘modern’ jazz music was beginning to take effect, whilst going there accompanied by an adult of standing to hear drummer Gene Krupa who in 1954 founded there a school of percussion with Cosy Cole, the young man Bill later had a change of heart

I’d say that Cosy Cole in the early 50s was a member of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars bands. In his Jazz Crusade book published in 1992 towards the ending of it, Big Bill Bissonnette includes several other selective musicians of the Lewis, Armstrong generation and beyond.

Little did Bill Bissonnette, as he was then known, know that he would go on to make history when musical tastes changed for him, as was directed and influenced thoughtfully by a colleague on becoming acquainted with the Southern Louisiana, olden days black American jazz musician’s kind of music.

Drafted into the Army at San Antonio, Texas, the nearest posting to New Orleans of his choosing that he would get, which has Austin and Houston situated in the in between area of land running alongside the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico of those four place names.

Whilst residing as a rookie in the South he achieved a good measure of very difficult to achieve successes, gained with the help from both a local newspaper reporter and, also one from home, both nicely plugging the merits of a jazz radio programme that was started at the barracks by this fledgling army recruit using his record collection sent to him from home.

The radio station was approved, both by the KEEZ-FM radio station manager in San Antonio and with the recruit’s Army Commander on the thought that it would promote good community relations in the base camp.

With a great deal of disappointments and setbacks over his many successful achievements, starting off with a few more weeks in visiting New Orleans in the South, Bill Bissonnette with tenacity, enthusiasm, and most of all determination, started out from his home in Connecticut on the East Coast of America, stretching out to California on the West Coast, taking in Montreal, Canada to the north, where it was the dancing that did it for New Orleans trumpeter, Kid Thomas Valentine when playing in one of the Bissonnette bands entitled, “The International Jazz Band”, unwittingly setting out the parameters for band-leader Big Bill on the road to becoming THEE man of the New Orleans 1960s jazz revivalist movement in the USA.

The book’s well-written narrations, with the no punches pulled talks, or should I say relates, about his crusading movements of wanting to record for posterity and the archives, which having writ – it most sincerely deserves national recognition, as many of the aging New Orleans musicians, who were vastly dying out, faster than he could possibly imagine with his limited resources and the life-times left in those old-timers that would be as proven - be impossible to do so.

There are sad moments – for example, the disappointment of not being able to record Billie and DeDe Pierce, singer and trumpeter family team, their live concert performances for his Jazz Crusade record company that the Hartford Courant newspaper reporter had printed of the gig at the Rocking Horse pub in East Hartford, and a session at Moose Lodge Hall, Stamford, elsewhere, having been published by the New York Times.

In his moments of gladness among others he recalls when in the 1964-65 years, Jazz Crusade won the Jazzology Jazz Poll for Traditional Jazz with his Easy Riders Jazz Band. Also another one I’d say, was his appearing at Earthquake McGoon’s club managed by Turk Murphy at the time in San Francisco, California, was of a gig played there - always in mind.

Among the 50 or so veritable, authentically recalled chapter events written in the book, the descriptive one, titled “The Mouldy Five”, which is of on how one of his jazzbands fell apart, reads with emotion in a gentlemanly styled manner.

The Jazz Crusade book has 60 top-class photographs in 4 sets of 15 with photographer credits; it has 50 select Memorabilia pages; 50 CD Album Cover Sleeves of the Bissonnette principle ongoing recordings, and overall, it has 340 pages including indexes of artists plus names of 150 old time New Orleans styled jazzers, including 10 famous names, Louis Armstrong among them, dedicated to those jazz artists gone before them, and a list of songs and discographies.

The non-Americans written about in The Jazz Crusade book are, Barry Martin and Sammy Rimington with mentions of Chris Barber and Terry Lightfoot who, are all still playing and leadings jazz bands of their own. Barry is in New Orleans, Sammy is in Europe and both Chris and Terry are in Britain.

Although the book is of the 1960s New Orleans Jazz revival decade, I am writing this review of it on the 4th Day of January 2007, noting that one can read several up-to-date Big Bill Bissonnette CD Album reviews featuring jazz artists from America, Canada, Europe and beyond, which are published on the Kings Jazz Review website – the latest Bissonnette Jazz Crusade album being - “New Orleans Reborn”.

The deluxe edition of The Jazz Crusade book, ISBN 0-9632297-0-2 published by Special Request Books includes a Compact Disc of fifteen tracks totalling 72:28 playing time chosen by Big Bill Bissonnette himself as being the best of the recordings pertinent to his book.

The CD album’s fifteen tunes has seven different New Orleans styled drummers, on it, there is Sammy Penn on five of them, Art Pulver on three, Alec Brigard on two, Cie Frazer; Barry Martin, Mitisue Yano, all 3 of them, playing on one each, with drummer Big Bill on the other two tunes. Big Bill plays trombone on eleven tunes, and, on another tune trombonist Louis Nelson plays. Big Jim Robinson plays trombone on four tunes trebling on Bugle Boy March with protégé Bissonnette and Tsunetami Fukuda.

The two black American New Orleans musicians Alvin Alcorn and Paul Barnes’ vocals in harmonising talk singing on Bourbon St Parade is unique.
Any top-class KJR scat-tapping jive dance dancer will shine if done in the way that Sister Kate can shimmy the Pete Bocage style as heard sung on this track by Victoria Spivey.
The Kid Thomas Boogie-Woogie track is like riding the majestic Flying Scotsman steam locomotive, such as recalled on the railway lines between London and Edinburgh, lovingly, listening to its riff movements, and the Emanuel Paul quivering and shakings saxophone tone, simply has to be much in kind to a satisfied woman’s ecstatic, rapturous, craving shouts of delight.
I recall being sad, OK disappointed, when the George Lewis, New Orleans styled clarinettist Sammy Rimington, then with UK trumpeter Ken Colyer Revival Jazzmen, who in doing his last gig with trumpeter Bill Brunskill at The Lord Napier, Thornton Heath, Croydon, England, which I attended, left the UK for the USA, enthrals me with his performance here on the Uptown Bumps track. To hear him playing with Kid Thomas Valentine, Big Jim Robinson, Captain John Handy, and, Sammy Penn, on trumpet; trombone; tenor sax and drums respectively is out of this world for me, how great they all are in playing this number on the 3rd of December 1965, in the Bissonnette “December Band” at Moose Lodge Hall, Stamford, Connecticut, USA, which was in effect recorded on a celebration party date to welcome clarinettist Rimington from his homeland to join the Bissonnette Easy Riders Jazz Band, in America.
Take a train and ride to Atlanta. Make it baby. She will never know. Make it soft and low. Behind the kitchen door, are lines in the song Make Me A Pallet On The Floor sung by Carol Leigh, a discovery singer by Big Bill, whose sensual, sultry voice when listened to - coming over in one of the lines sounding as – ‘make a baby’ – which repeats itself eight times consecutively with Carol varying tonal emphasis on it which wonderfully makes one, in fact me, feel passionately for her and the song.
With I’m Shy Mary Ellen I’m Shy and only five of the fifteen foremost song comments made above, outwith its book entitled, The Jazz Crusade – as standing alone, this CD album becomes priceless - it is an item of American musical history to be treasured and savoured by all of the States – in America.