[Dixielandjazz] "Mississippi Stomp" Slim Lamar and his Southerners

[Bill Haesler]

> Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't usually forward links to records, but I do not often come across bands with so many names I don't know!   Here, the only ones familiar to me are Tony Almerico and Jim Ruxh. 

To which Steve Voce replied;

>  I'm surprised we haven't heard of the band before, if all their records are this good.

Dear Marek and Steve.
They ARE good.
You both seem to have missed out on the secret that was jazz in the Memphis area during the late 1920s - early 30s,
We backroom record collectors came across these 'Territories Bands' (Slim Lamar, Mark Britt, Sunny Clapp and Blue Steele) back in the 1970s when the International Association Of Jazz Record Collectors issued the LP ( IAJRC No. 9) 'Memphis Kick Up' with extensive and informative notes by Dick Raichelson. Some sides of which were also reissued in 1997 on a Retrieval CD RTR 7906, 'Texas & Tennessee Territory Bands".

The tune "Memphis Kick Up" by the Lamar band was composed by the little known Jim Rush (with help from Will Tyer's composition "Panama") and was discussed on the DJML back in 2009.
One of the names you would know is Benny Pottle, who is up there with the best string bass players from that period and recorded with Wingy Manone, Louis Prima and Jack Teagarden in the mid to late 1930s.

Here is another favourite of mine: The Blue Steele Orchestra from Atlanta with "Sugar Babe, I'm Leavin'".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rZ8_FwWy2k
Check YouTube for others.
Happy listening.
Cheers,
Bill.