[Dixielandjazz] Blue Prelude

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I suspect the problem with the two levels of Dukes of Dixieland was just a recurrence of the trouble various bands had in the 1920s. When I was sent a copy of a CD of early recordings for the Edison company I found some excellent Mal Hallett...  Except these titles hadn't been issued back in the day, startlingly good as jazz but elbowed out in the cause of KITSCH. 
There are the Cliff Jackson Crazy Cats as employed to perform under the name MARVIN SMOLEV (a dozen or so titles, only three of jazz) and of course there are the Gene Goldkettes. 
Not to mention in later years Singleton Palmer's band in St. Louis, with a veteran clarinettist called Norman Mason whose working group at the time looked I suppose something like Evan Christopher's, with a couple of guitars. Bob Koester recorded them, but the sides were never issued. Mr. Mason was interviewed by (now alas the late) Paul Oliver during the 1960 field-trip which brought blues and numerous unique musicians into the wider light. He moaned to the Englishman about having to play Dixieland style, a mechanical ersatz at odds with what he referred to as his St. Louis style on clarinet. 


I would be interesting sometime to hear what Bob Koester recorded... 
I found an LP by the band in question and wasn't Mr. Mason quite right!!!
And the oom-pah! bands in Lederhosen on little Rhine cruiseboats play "Dixieland" so much fresher!


TRICKSIELAND (tune N'ag'ra Falls Blues)
aka 'slapped in the face by bookers' bad taste'

I got the Market Forces blues, trombonist made sound like a cow,
Moody moo!but all of the band is being milked for money now: 
piping down like a valet tame 

the clarinettist's not to blame
and the trumpeter's deferred so much he's stuck in a permanent bow...  

Robert R. Calder