Muskrat Ramble - Jack Teagarden

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

...My late Father would have approved of this CD. For this, he would have said, was real Jazz. "Not like this modern rubbish!" My father's idea of real Jazz was music by the greats of the 1920 and 1930s. Jack Teagarden, for example. Mezz Mezzrow, was another of his heroes. And perhaps some of the early Louis Armstrong. Well, two out of three ain't bad. There's no Mezz Mezzrow on this CD, but there is plenty of Jack Teagarden and some early Louis Armstrong, too. There's also Lester Young and Artie Shaw, too. I have to agree with my dad. This rocks. Well, perhaps not rocks, but I think you know what I mean! Jack Teagarden's jazz is the ultimate in smoooooth jazz. Until he really wanted to become lively, then it was as if you were listening to an entirely different orchestra. The first two Jack Teagarden and his Orchestra tracks (So Many... 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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Advantages: Smith, Smith, SMITH
Disadvantages: There are none

...out and never moving away from their dirty Salford roots, this evil bunch of troubadours want nothing else but your soul and your daughters - chart success - pah! Who needs it? And I've been there with them, through all that time, from the day in 1979 when I won Live at the Witch Trials off a mate in a hand of poker. From the icy and eerie terror of Frightened to the rambling, naive anthem that is Music Scene, this album is as fiery a debut as I've ever heard and they just got better and better and better. If you've never heard Fiery Jack or Totally Wired or Cruisers Creek or Hit the North, then you've not lived young man. You can take all your collections of bland, rubbishy, sheened pop of the last thirty years and shove it - The Fall are the only band that counts and the Hip Priest will inherit the earth.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful