[Dixielandjazz] Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman reviewed - Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2015

[M J [Mike] Logsdon]

You beat me to it, Bob!  Though I'm good for only a few initial comments, as I only just received my set (197 out of 5000; wahoo), and, alas, don't seek out the reviews like you do.  Blessings on you for that!

I can't send the link to the Mosaic set from here at work, but going to www.mosaicrecords.com will do the trick pretty easily.

This set is unbelievable.  I wrote Mosaic the moment I got their initial email about it and said "I've suffered with the French 'Chronogicals' for so long, I never thought these would ever 'hear' the light of day!"  The reply was, "It needed to happen."

I take some issue, though not much, with the reviewer's comment that we have to listen hard to hear Eddie's 4-string banjo-tuned Gibson.  True, he never solo'd, but in the less-raucous moments he's CLEARLY audible, and just this morning on the way to work heard a distinct end-of-track break that was solo if anything is.  (And I'd say that if you really want to hear him, the Epic LP "Midnight in Moscow" is really good for that non-solo, clearly audible sound.)

So I repeat that if anyone loves Eddie, Bud, and the Gang, this set is a must.

And since I know Bob is well-versed in them as I'm sure many others are as well, if you want to REALLY hear Eddie play, one of the early Town Hall broadcasts has a microphone problem during much of the first tune, and Eddie is wildly audible, in a lovely and rare audio-imbalanced way.  I think the tune is "I've Found a New Baby", but I'll have to check.  More later on this unless someone else posts it first.