Giants of Jazz (Ita)
1999
The Myth Of New Orleans
About This Album
New Orleans-styled clarinetist Johnny Dodds is honored here with a 24-track tribute issued by the Giants of Jazz label in 1999. Chronologically scrambled, this overview taps a time line from July 13, 1926 (the day that "Gatemouth" and "Perdido Street Blues" were recorded) to June 5, 1940, when "Gravier Street Blues" (here mistitled "Gravier Street Stomp") was waxed at Dodds' very last recording session, which took place only two months before his death at the age of 48. Although a sequential anthology might give a clearer picture of the artist's progressive development, this disc works well as a sampler of the genre and the work of the individual and the ensembles within which he operated. An exponent of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Johnny Dodds made some of his best recordings with Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. The emphasis here is largely upon his work as a leader, and this focus brings to the fore such colorfully named ensembles as the Chicago Footwarmers, the State Street Ramblers, the Dixieland Jug Blowers, the New Orleans Wanderers, the Dixie-Land Thumpers, the New Orleans Bootblacks, Johnny Dodds' Black Bottom Stompers, Johnny Dodds' Washboard Band, and two different trios involving primal Crescent City string bassist Bill Johnson, widely regarded as one of the very first jazz musicians to operate a bull fiddle.
Track List (try track 14)

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