[Dixielandjazz] West End Blues

[Don Mopsick]

Bill Haesler wrote:

<<King Oliver rerecorded it for Victor on 16 Jan 1929 with the 
cadenza (played by Louis Metcalf).>>

Wow! This has to be the version that Jim Cullum and the rest of the band and
I heard one day while driving to a gig. We couldn't believe our ears because
we had never heard Joe Oliver much play above the staff. Now we know that it
was indeed too good to be true. We also did not know the date of the
recording and just assumed that because it was an Oliver collection that
contained other earlier cuts, that this one pre-dated the Armstrong version.
We do know that Oliver's chops declined toward the end of the 20s and by the
30s was hardly playing at all on some of the sessions, so having Metcalf
ghost it for him in '29 makes sense. 

But Metcalf did a great job even though it turns out he was obviously
imitating Armstrong (like every other trumpet player of that era except
Jabbo and Bix).

Thanks for setting us straight, fellows. 

mopo