[Dixielandjazz] Billy Banks Rhythmakers

[Jim Denham]

Dear Listmates,

 From time to time people (especially younger, more 'modern' players) ask 
me what is the best 'traditional' (or, they tend to say, "dixieland") 
jazz available on record. I invariably reply "The Billy Banks 
Rhythmakers sides of 1932". Indeed, I've become so used to saying this 
that I've forgotten to actually listen to them for quite a while.

Doing so now, some questions occur to me:

1/ Seeing as how Red Allen and Pee Wee Russell gel together so well in 
the front-line, how come they never recorded together again until that 
1967 "College Concert" with Charlie Haden, just before they both died?

2/ If Eddie Condon organised the band (as is said), why didn't he get 
the guys together again, without Billy Banks or (even worse) Chick 
Bullock?

3/ Was Gene Krupa really the drummer on the April 18 1932 session, as 
most discographies state (and Banks himself, apparently claimed): it 
sounds like Zutty Singleton to me.

4/ When Pee Wee played tenor (on the July 26 1932 session) a guy called 
Jimmy Lord stepped in very ably on Chicago-style clarinet: does anyone 
know anything about Jimmy Lord?

5/ Why aren't Fats Waller' s "Rythmakers" sides (the July 26 1932 sides: 
"I Would Do Anything", "Mean Old Bedbug", "Yellow Dog" and "Yes Suh!") 
ever referred to in articles or CD compilations of "the Best of Fats 
Waller"? Because they certainly were Fats at his jazz best

6/ Finally (and rhetorically): why aren't these great sides better-known 
and permanently available on CD?

Grabbin' my hat,

Jim Denham
-- 
Jim Denham