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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent performances of an inspired choice of jazz numbers, 9 Dec 2001
Trad jazz has been criticised for being too commercial. Certainly the jazz on this double CD album is mainly from the period when Barber, Ball and Bilk were invading the popular music hit parade in the 1950s and 1960s, but their success was well deserved and many of the tracks remain popular today. Trad jazz has also been criticised for being too polished, but these CDs demonstrate this merely means all musicians play well together and play in tune.Jazz band leaders Chris Barber, Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk account for 26 of the 44 tracks on the album, but others include bands led by Monty Sunshine, Micky Ashman, Ian Menzies, Terry Lightfoot, Alex Welsh, Mick Mulligan and Bob Wallis, with vocalists Ottilie Patterson with Chris Barber's band, and also such as George Melly, Lonnie Donegan and Fiona Duncan. These are all names to thrill lovers of jazz played in traditional style, whether as jazz standards of which there are many tracks, or as based on popular tunes. Standards include "South Rampart Street Parade", "Savoy Blues", "Tin Roof Blues", "Muskrat Ramble", "High Society", "Wild Cat Blues", "Panama Rag" and many others. The more popular tunes include "Petite Fleur" as one of the first trad jazz numbers to make the hit parade, plus other nostalgic numbers including "Samantha", "March Of The Siamese Children", "Midnight In Moscow" and "Sranger On The Shore". However my favourites on this album are "Salty Dog" belted out by Fiona Duncan with The Clyde Valley Stompers, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" as a sincere duet with Lonnie Donegan and Fiona Duncan, "Careless Love" beautifully interpreted by Ottilie Patterson, and "The Old Rugged Cross" hauntingly performed by The Monty Sunshine Quartet. And there is much more. You must listen for yourself to the delightful atmosphere created for entertainment and enjoyment. Do not let criticisms of "Trad Jazz" as commercial and polished be a turn off. Turn on your CD player and experience these CDs as excellently performed jazz music of an inspired choice of numbers. This collection is as close to a true definition of "definitive" as is likely to be achieved.
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