THAT SALTY DOG PAT HAWES

PAT HAWES 2000 BAND

JAZZ CRUSADE JCCD 3055 2000 14 tracks 72 min

Lazy Piano Man, Salty Dog, It Had to be You, Farewell to Storyville, Sweet Patootie, Wild Man Blues, Down in Jungle Town, The Glory of Love, Oh! Peter, Shine, Minnie the Moocher, My Gal Sal, See See Rider, C-Jam Blues

This CD is special - buy it. Do I need to say more? Oh, all right then.

Mr Piano man, Pat Hawes, says that, apart from working out a routine for each number, the music is unrehearsed as he wanted to preserve the spontaneous feel of improvised jazz. The first tune is ' Lazy Piano Man', but rather than being lazy I think that Pat is relaxed. So are the rest of the fine line-up of jazzmen who make up the 2000 Band. Alan Elsdon is a particular favourite of mine, especially on muted trumpet, Goff Dubber is an outstandling skilled reedsman, Mike Pointon who plays a very individualistic style of trombone, and John Rodber on bass and Rex Bennett on drums laying down the ever present, but discrete rhythm line. This is laid back jazz that is beautiful to listen to, even Pat's singing!

This may not be the best album of the Millennium, but it could well be the best of the year 2000.

LEE COLLINS AT THE CLUB HANGOVER - AIRSHOTS vol. 1

LEE COLLINS

JAZZ CRUSADE JCCD 3056 2000 15 tracks 73 min

Panama Rag, After You've Gone, West End Blues, Indiana, Down in Jungle Town, St James Infirmary Blues, The Johnson Rag, On the Sunny Side of the Street, Hindustan, I've Found a New Baby, I Thought I heard Buddy Bolden Say, Muscat Ramble, My Monday Date, Clarinet Marmalade, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans

LEE COLLINS AT THE CLUB HANGOVER - AIRSHOTS vol. 2

LEE COLLINS

JAZZ CRUSADE JCCD 3057 2000 13 tracks 73 min

Fidgety Feet, Chinatown My Chinatown, Basin Street Blues, Big Butter & Egg Man, Royal Garden Blues, If I Could Be with You, My Buckets Got a Hole In It, After You've Gone, Save It Pretty Mama, Original Dixie Jass Band One-Step, Fidgety Feet, St James Infirmary Blues, Indiana

These two fascinating CDs are live recordings from the Club Hangover circa 1953. The recordings were originally put out on CBS radio in San Francisco. The trumpet man in the two line-ups featured is Lee Collins, a vastly underrated jazzman. Collins was a New Orleans contemporary of Louis Armstrong and studied under the same music teacher, Peter Davies. Collins replaced Armstrong in King Oliver's band when Louis left in 1924.

Collins' playing is similar to Armstrong's when he was leading his Hot 5 and Hot 7. Whereas Louis went on to change his style to suit the big bands of the 30's and 40's and varying it again when he hit the road with his Louis Armstrong Allstars in the 50's and 60's, Lee stayed playing a hot 20's style horn. Like so many other traditional American jazzmen of the period, Collins moved around, playing in New York, Chicago before ending up in San Francisco. In 1951 he accompanied Mez Mezzrow to Europe. On a second tour, in 1954, he returned home early with what later turned out to be emphysema that then slowly killed him.

The quality of the recordings is not quite 'BBC', but the quality of the jazzmen is never in doubt and Lee Collins is magnificent. Any failings of the sound quality is more than made up for by the opportunity to listen to a unique jazzman on some unique recordings. No serious jazz collector can pass these CDs up.