Basin Street Blues - Jack Teagarden

Advantages: Fantastic range of great tunes and songs
Disadvantages: None

...Times and Peg 'o' My Heart) show the smooth and terribly sophisticated side of Jack Teagarden's music, whilst the next track, Swingin' on the teagarden Gate, is entirely different. So full of the jazz ethos that you can almost see the people dancing to it. So Many Times and Peg 'o' My Heart are for slow dancing. Then it's back to the smoother sound with Teagarden's rather melancholy Can't we Talk It Over, a ballad about a young man bemoaning the fact that he and his girlfriend are on the verge of splitting up. After four great (but different)classics from Teagarden we next hear from a young Louis Armstrong. The first track from Louis is Melancholy Blues. This is a great blues and jazz crossover. Yes, it is jazz, but yes, at the same time it could pass muster for a blues classic, too. The other Three tracks form Louis Armstrong (West End... Read review

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Advantages: Great jazz tunes from the Golden Age
Disadvantages: None

...This is real jazz, from the real Golden Age of Jazz. It's got the pace, the rhythm, the fluid trumpet playing, the relentlessly enthusiastic, rolling piano playing and the clear diction of some excellent singing of vocalists who could not only hold a tune, but who could capture your heart and soul, too… There's musicians with such great names as Muggsy Spanier, Meade Lux Lewis, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet. You do not get musicians called Muggsy nowadays. I wonder why? As well as straight out jazz such as the Dippermouth blues, there's also the dreamy and melodic April in Paris from Charlie Parker. Some jazz aficionados reckon that Charlie Parker eventually sold out. Well, perhaps he did. But some of his earlier work still stands the test of time. Jack Teagarden is on this CD, with So Many Times, a rather nice, well... Read review

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Disadvantages: none

...back, very bluesy in places - a true classic. Then we have "Little Brown Jug". I defy you to not try and lindyhop or jitterbug your way round the room when this is on. It's so infectious it should carry a health warning. Some fantastic drum playing by Kenny John. "St. Louis Blues - March" has you thinking of cheerleaders and Max Wall all at once. There. Now you'll have to get the album to see what I mean! This is incredibly catchy and it'll have you practising baton twirling with a broom handle in no time. If I was a soldier I'd have gladly marched all day long to this little number. This next one is an all-time favourite, definitely on my desert island discs list, and it's "Basin Street Blues". Because this is from the soundtrack of the film, the vocals are done by none other than the great man Louis Armstong himself. It starts... Read review

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