Gregg Stafford meets Brian Carrick
Streets of the City

PERSONNEL
Gregg Stafford (tpt vcls); Brian Carrick (cl); Emil Mark (pno) Colin Bray (st bs) Sven Stahlberg (drms).
TRACKS
Streets Of The City; Darktown Strutter's Ball; A Kiss To Build A Dream On; Doctor Jazz; Punch's (Miller) Long Distance Blues; High Society; All Of Me. Maryland My Maryland; Basin Street Blues; Indiana; Honeysuckle Rose; Chinatown My Chinatown; Blueberry Hill; Gettysburg March.

Recorded at Audiophile Studios, New Oleans LA on the 10th of October 1999.
Session recordings by Richard Bird - Mastering: Big Bill Bissonnette and Richard P Robinson.
Jazz Crusade 585 Pond Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut 06606 USA.
JCCD-3053 ddd time 72.00 minutes.
Reviewed by KJR on Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional O/S and sound recorder MusicMatch. IBM Aptiva Computer.

Big Bill Bissonette is a long-standing inveterate character set in promoting, and on keeping alive the beautifully distinctive jazz-styled music of New Orleans.

Despite, or to some, inspite of a few natural blemishes, this CD should in time rank among the classics of its gender heard play during the first quarter of the Millennium year, Two Thousand.

Compartmentalise, yes, and why not, so I'll open with str.bass-drums-piano as a first unit, not in any way to diminish voice from the star jazz artist of the group, but to say how fortunate that Big Bill was to "bump into Sammy Rimington's drummer, Sven Stahlberg" just two days before this album was about to go into production, as he agreed to take up the drum chair to produce these fourteen recordings and what seems remarkable to me is, that pianist Emil Mark is from Connecticut, USA; bassist Colin Bray is from Toronto, Canada, and North European previously mentioned Sven, make up the rhythm assembly which commands attention by way of complete unity and musical understanding of each other, that operates so smoothly throughout these numbers, exemplified in All Of Me.

With regard to the second unit, eight years ago in the Kingarth Hotel, seven miles from Rothsay, the seat of the Isle Of Bute jazz festival in Scotland, I attended a Brian Carrick jazz concert and I am almost sure I saw an elastic band attached to his clarinet then as described in Big Bill's liner notes. Brian Carrick is from England, and he is the only jazz artist in this group of five whom I've previously heard playing.

Gregg Stafford is a New Orleanian, and he trumpets the third of my envisaged units composing the full group of five. Odd, you might say enabling units of one jazz artist, but that is how thoughts came to me during my first listening run of the album.

A half a minute of warm, sentimental muted trumpet introduction on the opening and title number Streets Of The City, a truly beautiful sound leading into wonderful harmonious rhythms governed by unique, yet I'd say, New Orleans clarinet tones, which bring back memories when I was young, singing the song "Red River Valley" to this tune. The number is over seven minutes long and I just did not want it to end, for the lilting and dancing inculcation movements make for a special mindset.

On Darktown Strutter's Ball one hears a seven measures, clarion, unified, perfect pitched, articulated trumpet of brilliance and 'talk-i-cism' vocals, which are an extention, in the main, of the trumpeter's instrument style, a voice medium which perhaps 20% his kinship of America could well support in amends for coming second to England's appreciation of Louis Armstrong as a great jazz singer. Comparisons ! What I can say is, that perhaps in this epoch, the voice will be more marked for following on in the Western Hemisphere

Half of the numbers feature the vocals from this very fine trumpeter, and, I'm talkin' about - Gregg Stafford.
The album sound is excellent and dependent on variations in CD playing machines, it would not be prudent to mention balance, but just to say, that I enjoyed hearing the string bass on this album by Jazz Crusade, and will mention Blueberry Hill in so doing.

Maryland and Gettysburg are candidates for support coming from in particular the US military bandsmen, who during and immediately after WWII imparted some great turn-arounds to our Guardmen and Marine bandsmen "over here" so I'll return to blow them A Kiss To Build a Dream On - it is the tune I'm referring to. The clarinet on Maryland plays the melody whilst the trumpet blows the internationally known counter statement in riff fashion.

In Jelly Roll Morton's, or was it King Oliver's Dr Jazz, three triple bars of consious syncopation giving the number its personality, give me great pleasure and no doubt will to many more people during the course when they come to listen to when Gregg Stafford and Brian Carrick met each other and their superlative Streets Of The City rhythm team.

If one wants to absorb pleasure, then encounter All Of Me which is the second of the over seven minutes tracks. It's all music. It's the best of small group jazz music. Don't miss it.

I'll close on the eight plus minutes Basin Street Blues in which Gregg sings the praises of his beloved Crescent City, but his playing on this tune has been inspired by the beautiful high and low register clarinet playing of Brian, the jazz artist from England, a country that has featured a number of New Orleans styled clarinettists come George Lewis, and so the call and response is, that Big Bill must be well pleased with this album, which should in turn appeal to many throughout the wide world accordingly.

KJR 14/mar/2000