Great albums from the classic jazz and Dixieland revival (1939 onwards)

[Rabshakeh]

One area of jazz that seems to be comparatively little-discussed here is the music produced by the classic jazz revival.

What I mean by this is that style of jazz based around the models of Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, the earlier ragtime and stride pianists, as well as the Original Dixieland Jass Band, which experienced a revival in the late 1930s, as an alternative to the then-dominant swing and/or big band styles.

Dixieland, hot jazz, Trad, New Orleans Jazz, Chicago style, San Francisco style, ragtime, New Orleans marching band, and the rest. 

There are a few threads here and there touching on this music: I started one specifically on European trad around a year ago. There is also a good thread somewhere about New Orleans marching band records. But other than that, I am impressed at how little comes up on this music when searching the Organissimo database.

I'm not sure of the comparative commercial and cultural impact that the Dixieland etc. revival actually did have at its height, as against swing and bop. Clearly it was a major movement within jazz, though. It created the careers of younger revivalists like Lu Watters or Ken Colyer, it led to a renewed surge of interest in the careers of surviving greats like Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Eddie Condon, Jack Teagarden and Pee Wee Russell, and it uncovered "unappreciated" talents like Bunk Johnson or George Lewis. 

Histories of jazz, these days typically written from the point of view of bop fans, often have a little bit of space dedicated to the movement. Typically, this is to set the classic jazz revival up as an antagonist to the bebop movement that arose at roughly the same time. But there is rarely much said about the music or the movement itself. In the internet age, this music seems to be basically forgotten.

Going by the substantial amount of revivalist records that are still readily available on the second hand circuit (often cheap), and the prevalence of references to it in non-jazz culture (Spike Jones, Country Joe and the Fish, Bonzo Dogs and the Star Wars Cantina scene music, being classic examples), it must have been a substantial part of the jazz ecosystem in its time, even if, with age, it has mostly withered away. 

With that introduction, I'd be very interested to hear forum members' recommendations for which albums and records, in their views, represent the key musical 'moments' of the revival. 

That could be either because they are Important (capital I) records historically, or because they are among your personal favourites, or both. 

For the purposes of this thread, let's take music recorded from or after 1939 as the timeline. Most of this stuff presumably comes between 1939 and roughly 1955(?). So, bonus points for music released after the initial wave had subsided.

Ideally, LPs or classic contemporaneous compilations or reissues (although that's unlikely to be possible for the earliest parts of the revival genre's emergence).

--------------------

Some examples from my side, in deliberately careless order: 

- Muggsy Spanier - The Great 16! - 1956 compilation of 1939 sides, that I think are regarded as a major step in heralding the revival. 

- Eddie Condon's Commodore recordings - Essentially laying down the template for 'Chicago style' Dixieland. I'm typically allergic to box sets, but the Condon Mosaic is one I would definitely buy.

- Percy Humphrey - New Orleans The Living Legends: Crescent City Joymakers - One of my favourites from the Riverside series of Chicago and NO 'living legends'. Filled with blues and pre-war hokum stylings, but lots of space for actual solos.

- Jack Teagarden - Mis'ry and the Blues - A personal favourite from Teagarden's later period, mixing croaky blues songs with upbeat Dixieland.

- Dave Dallwitz - Ern Malley Jazz Suite - From 1975. Australian trad that goes somewhere that is a lot more advanced compositionally than one would expect from this kind of music. 

- Henry Allen - Ride, Red, Ride! - A great bluesy group with Coleman Hawkins, from 1957. A mix of styles that refuses to be hidebound and mixes up trad, swing and blues (they aren't really different in this setting). Lots of fire in the playing. 

- Howard Alden and Ken Peplowski - Pow Wow - From 2006. Swing and trad-rooted playing that sometimes goes quite far outside, with an emotional core to it that it really like. 

- Lu Watters - San Francisco Style - 1946 recordings that are probably the cornerstone of what became known as 'dixieland', taking the King Oliver and Hot Sevens template into a heavily arranged direction, and introducing Turk Murphy, Bob Scobey and the rest of the team. Certainly an Important one for inspiring the movement.

- Louis Armstrong - Satchmo at Symphony Hall - A live record from 1947. A classic of Louis Armstrong's return to something closer to his original style, with a great group including Teagarden and Hucko. I like it more than the more famous Ambassador Satch and Satch plays Fats records. 

- Tuba Skinny - Owl Call Blues - Currently very popular group in the surviving revivalist circles. Basically a retro mix of Dixieland and pre-war blues styles. It sounds like the kind of music that would be played in a barroom scene in some half-arsed immersive theatre. This record seems okay to me, but I haven't enjoyed any of their others.

- Pee Wee Russell - Ask Me Now - I know this is a favourite with a lot of members. A nice mixture of Russell's clarinet with a group playing in later styles. I love this record.

- George Lewis and Kid Thomas Ragtime Stompers - My favourite of Lewis's records. A lot of people find it slapdash but for me that is the charm here. Loose with a lot of feeling.

- Black Eagle Jazz Band - S/T - Taking the Watters Dixieland style but upgrading the arrangements for the 1970s. 

- Dejan's Olympia Bass Band - Here Come Da Great... - An excellent and very funky marching band record from the early 70s. 

- John Handy - John Handy's Quintet - From 1966. Adding a bit of R&Bish chaos to the trad mix.

- Kenny Davern and Humphrey Lyttleton - This Old Gang of Ours - A lovely relaxed transatlantic session from the 1980s. I really enjoy Kenny Davern's clarinet playing.

- Bunk Johnson's earliest sides - The New Orleans folk revival's big discovery. Controversially loose, then as now.

- Wally Rose - Ragtime Classics - A nicely boomy recording of ragtime revisited, from Lu Watters' pianist. Recorded in 1958.

- Shel Silverstein and the Red Onions - A comedy Dixieland record by the illustrator and comedian. Repeatedly my Spotify Wrapped most listened to record. Aggressive vocal Dixieland that plays on what I assume was the testosterone-heavy associations of the varsity crowd who followed this music at the time. 

- Sammy Remington and the Mouldy 5 - Reed My Lips - A 2006 record from New Orleans with Big Bill Bissonette on drums. Clear George Lewis influence to my ears. I really enjoy this one.

- The Best of Ball, Barber and Bilk - Budget British trad comp on Pye that somehow got to number 1 on the British charts - probably a commercial high point of British trad.

- Sidney Bechet's Blue Note recordings from 1945 - Packaged in multiple different formats. Bechet's postwar style in it's muscular glory.  

Any others that you can think of would be welcome. I've been listening to this music for a while now, but it can be hard to find out about it. 

It would also be interesting, quite aside from recommendations of records, to hear people's recollections of the revival movement, its musicians and its fans, or just any comments that they might have on the revival, where it went and how it played out.

Edited March 27 by Rabshakeh

[Niko]

since you're a "one album per artist" man, I stay to that convention with one exception (Kid Thomas)... generally, I've been following the pianists when exploring, Art Hodes, Don Ewell and - more recently - Earl Hines (who I left out here because he's too modern)...  also spent quite a bit of time learning about this music in the past three years or so, our generation was not properly informed about it... 

American Music By Emile Barnes (e.g. Storyville)
Marty Grosz And His Honoris Causa Jazz Band – Hooray For Bix! (Riverside)
Kid Thomas And His Algiers Stompers Featuring Emile Barnes (Riverside)
Billie And DeDe Pierce – Blues And Tonks From The Delta (Riverside)
Don Ewell Quartet – Free 'N Easy! (Good Time Jazz)
Joe Sullivan – Mr. Piano Man (Down Homes)
Luckey & The Lion: Harlem Piano Solos By Luckey Roberts & Willie 'The Lion' Smith (Good Time Jazz)
Barbara Lea With The Johnny Windhurst Quintets
Art Hodes With Volly DeFaut – Up In Volly's Room (Delmark CD)
Raymond Burke, Pinky Vidacovich – Clarinet New Orleans Style (Southland)
Armand Hug and His New Orleans Dixielanders / Eddie Miller and His New Orleans Rhythm Pals (Southland, actually, the Southland Label was one of my starting points but I haven't found the perfect albums yet)
Kid Thomas At Kohlman's Tavern (New Orleans)
Lee Collins – A Night At The Victory Club (New Orleans)
Burt Bales And Paul Lingle – They Tore My Playhouse Down... (Good Time Jazz)

Revival musicians playing other music

Bud Freeman Esq (Fontana)
Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers (Folkways, the first track was my most played track in 2023 according to spotify)

[colinmce]

Adding some different titles from artists listed in the OP:

Jack Teagarden - Think Well Of Me (Verve, 1962) - an all-time favorite album of mine, period
Henry 'Red' Allen - Feelin' Good (Columbia, 1966) - so fresh, though there is a lot of singing and your mileage may vary there
Pee Wee Russell - New Groove (Columbia, 1963) - a great companion piece to Ask Me Now!
Louis Armstrong And The All Stars – Satchmo At Pasadena (Decca, 1951) - a great concentrated blast of the All-Stars band

Some of these may lean more 'swing' than 'dixieland' but it's in a similar spirit for me:

Gus Hoo And His Dixie Stompers – New York Land Dixie (RCA Victor, 1956) - "Gus Hoo" is Billy Butterfield, the Fresh Sound CD is under his name
Tyree Glenn - At The Embers (Roulette, 1957) - are there any bad LPs from The Embers? I haven't found one yet
Various - Session At Riverside (Capitol, 1957) - Coleman Hawkins, Milt Hinton, Peanuts Hucko, Charlie Shavers, Lou McGarity, et al. (the previous companion volume, Session At Midnight, is also excellent but much more in a swing/East Coast vein)
Bobby Hackett - Creole Cookin' (Verve, 1967) - a midsize group with a handful of modernists on board, excellently recorded & deeply swinging
George Wein & The Newport All-Stars (Impulse!, 1963) - everybody should hear this one
International Jazz Group (Columbia, 1956) - Arvell Shaw, Taft Jordan, Vic Dickinson, Budd Johnson, a.o.
Charlie Shavers - Charlie Digs Dixie (MGM, 1959)
Ruby Braff & His Men - Easy Now (RCA Victor, 1959) - Ruby Braff deserves his own thread really, all of his LPs from the 50s are wonderful (and of course the ones from after are too, especially the underheard 70s group with George Barnes-- I don't think more than one of these made it to CD)
I don't know how heartily I can recommend them, but any of the Red Nichols Capitol LPs from the 50s are a good listen, maybe in smaller doses

Keeping in mind your box set allergy, Mosaic put out a lot of fine examples and none of them will put you out more than a few bucks or less in LP form: see the Condon Mob Sessions, Teagarden Roulette & Capitol, Hackett Capitol, and from the Singles series:

Ruby Braff - Hi-Fi Salute To Bunny 
Jonah Jones - At The Embers
George Wein & His All-Stars - George Wein Is Alive and Well In Mexico
Bud Freeman - Chicago/Austin High School Jazz In Hi-Fi 

and again, the Columbia Small Group Swing, Capitol Classic Jazz, and Buck Clayton editions will give you something close to this style.

Anyways, this is a fun rabbit hole to go down, and as a vinyl buyer in 2024 it's just amazing how far your dollar can go with these kinds of titles. Very refreshing.

Edited March 27 by colinmce

[JSngry]

I concur about the Wein record, which is saturated with personality!

Also...having only one Louis Armstrong record should be grounds for extradition to...somewhere... 

That's your life force right there. 

[kh1958]

Traditional New Orleans jazz is still alive and sounding good.

I've got these bands on my schedule for visits to Economy Hall at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs.

Doreen's Jazz New Orleans.

Joe Lastie's New Orleans Sound

Charlie Gabriel and Friends

Smoking Time Jazz Club

Doctor Michael White's Tribute to Johnny Dodds

Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses

The Palm Court Jazz Band

[danasgoodstuff]

Atlantic recorded some classic New Orleans players in the '50s.  I have some but not all.  Henry Red Allen made some very nice albums in the late '50s and early '60s, but although his roots in New Orleans were deep (his father ran a brass band in the 19th century) these are not strictly traditional in approach.  I'm particularly fond of Ride Red Ride on RCA with Coleman Hawkins as a sideman.

[JSngry]

Those Atlantic sides made a Mosaic. Not a bad one! 

[Rabshakeh]

18 hours ago, Niko said:

since you're a "one album per artist" man, I stay to that convention with one exception (Kid Thomas)... generally, I've been following the pianists when exploring, Art Hodes, Don Ewell and - more recently - Earl Hines (who I left out here because he's too modern)...  also spent quite a bit of time learning about this music in the past three years or so, our generation was not properly informed about it... 

American Music By Emile Barnes (e.g. Storyville)
Marty Grosz And His Honoris Causa Jazz Band – Hooray For Bix! (Riverside)
Kid Thomas And His Algiers Stompers Featuring Emile Barnes (Riverside)
Billie And DeDe Pierce – Blues And Tonks From The Delta (Riverside)
Don Ewell Quartet – Free 'N Easy! (Good Time Jazz)
Joe Sullivan – Mr. Piano Man (Down Homes)
Luckey & The Lion: Harlem Piano Solos By Luckey Roberts & Willie 'The Lion' Smith (Good Time Jazz)
Barbara Lea With The Johnny Windhurst Quintets
Art Hodes With Volly DeFaut – Up In Volly's Room (Delmark CD)
Raymond Burke, Pinky Vidacovich – Clarinet New Orleans Style (Southland)
Armand Hug and His New Orleans Dixielanders / Eddie Miller and His New Orleans Rhythm Pals (Southland, actually, the Southland Label was one of my starting points but I haven't found the perfect albums yet)
Kid Thomas At Kohlman's Tavern (New Orleans)
Lee Collins – A Night At The Victory Club (New Orleans)
Burt Bales And Paul Lingle – They Tore My Playhouse Down... (Good Time Jazz)

Revival musicians playing other music

Bud Freeman Esq (Fontana)
Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers (Folkways, the first track was my most played track in 2023 according to spotify)

Thanks! These are some great suggestions. 

Also promoted me to listen to that Barbara Dane record again. Not really jazz but what a great record. I think that I hadn't heard of it until around 4 years ago when I saw it flagged up on Twitter.

17 hours ago, colinmce said:

Adding some different titles from artists listed in the OP:

Jack Teagarden - Think Well Of Me (Verve, 1962) - an all-time favorite album of mine, period
Henry 'Red' Allen - Feelin' Good (Columbia, 1966) - so fresh, though there is a lot of singing and your mileage may vary there
Pee Wee Russell - New Groove (Columbia, 1963) - a great companion piece to Ask Me Now!
Louis Armstrong And The All Stars – Satchmo At Pasadena (Decca, 1951) - a great concentrated blast of the All-Stars band

Some of these may lean more 'swing' than 'dixieland' but it's in a similar spirit for me:

Gus Hoo And His Dixie Stompers – New York Land Dixie (RCA Victor, 1956) - "Gus Hoo" is Billy Butterfield, the Fresh Sound CD is under his name
Tyree Glenn - At The Embers (Roulette, 1957) - are there any bad LPs from The Embers? I haven't found one yet
Various - Session At Riverside (Capitol, 1957) - Coleman Hawkins, Milt Hinton, Peanuts Hucko, Charlie Shavers, Lou McGarity, et al. (the previous companion volume, Session At Midnight, is also excellent but much more in a swing/East Coast vein)
Bobby Hackett - Creole Cookin' (Verve, 1967) - a midsize group with a handful of modernists on board, excellently recorded & deeply swinging
George Wein & The Newport All-Stars (Impulse!, 1963) - everybody should hear this one
International Jazz Group (Columbia, 1956) - Arvell Shaw, Taft Jordan, Vic Dickinson, Budd Johnson, a.o.
Charlie Shavers - Charlie Digs Dixie (MGM, 1959)
Ruby Braff & His Men - Easy Now (RCA Victor, 1959) - Ruby Braff deserves his own thread really, all of his LPs from the 50s are wonderful (and of course the ones from after are too, especially the underheard 70s group with George Barnes-- I don't think more than one of these made it to CD)
I don't know how heartily I can recommend them, but any of the Red Nichols Capitol LPs from the 50s are a good listen, maybe in smaller doses

Keeping in mind your box set allergy, Mosaic put out a lot of fine examples and none of them will put you out more than a few bucks or less in LP form: see the Condon Mob Sessions, Teagarden Roulette & Capitol, Hackett Capitol, and from the Singles series:

Ruby Braff - Hi-Fi Salute To Bunny 
Jonah Jones - At The Embers
George Wein & His All-Stars - George Wein Is Alive and Well In Mexico
Bud Freeman - Chicago/Austin High School Jazz In Hi-Fi 

and again, the Columbia Small Group Swing, Capitol Classic Jazz, and Buck Clayton editions will give you something close to this style.

Anyways, this is a fun rabbit hole to go down, and as a vinyl buyer in 2024 it's just amazing how far your dollar can go with these kinds of titles. Very refreshing.

Thank you. Some great stuff. That George Wein record is one I had meant to check out and it is nice to see that it is now streamable.

I think what these posts show is that the wider revival / trad movement is quite a diverse place. There's a wide range of different styles grouped under the same umbrella.

15 hours ago, kh1958 said:

Traditional New Orleans jazz is still alive and sounding good.

I've got these bands on my schedule for visits to Economy Hall at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs.

Doreen's Jazz New Orleans.

Joe Lastie's New Orleans Sound

Charlie Gabriel and Friends

Smoking Time Jazz Club

Doctor Michael White's Tribute to Johnny Dodds

Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses

The Palm Court Jazz Band

Nice. 

On the records front, do you have anything you'd recommend. Either from these performers or more generally.

As I said up front, I'm also interested in where this music went after the air goes out of the movement in roughly the mid sixties (is there a date that is often pointed to, like 1947 for big bands?).

It seems like there was a sort of revival of the revival sometimes in the 70s and 80s, but I know next to nothing about it.

[soulpope]

Although said era/style of jazz ain't a focus of mine necessarily, this platter is a beloved one :

Buster Bailey "All About Memphis" (Felsted) 1958 ....

[kh1958]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Thanks! These are some great suggestions. 

Also promoted me to listen to that Barbara Dane record again. Not really jazz but what a great record. I think that I hadn't heard of it until around 4 years ago when I saw it flagged up on Twitter.

Thank you. Some great stuff. That George Wein record is one I had meant to check out and it is nice to see that it is now streamable.

I think what these posts show is that the wider revival / trad movement is quite a diverse place. There's a wide range of different styles grouped under the same umbrella.

Nice. 

On the records front, do you have anything you'd recommend. Either from these performers or more generally.

 

Here's a few of recent vintage. The Louisiana Music Factory is an excellent CD and record store.

Derrick Shezbie, The Ghost of Buddy Bolden. Features Louis Ford and Carl LeBlanc (ex-Sun Ra guitarist).https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/derrick-shezbie-the-ghost-of-buddy-bolden/

Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses, The Lookback Transmission. https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/aurora-nealand-the-royal-roses-the-lookback-transmission/

Leroy Jones with Wendell Brunious, New Orleans Brass Band Music volume 2 https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/leroy-jones-with-wendell-brunious-new-orleans-brass-band-music-vol-2-cd/

Charlie Gabriel, Eighty-Nine https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/charlie-gabriel-eighty-nine-cd/

[Big Beat Steve]

On 3/28/2024 at 12:45 AM, danasgoodstuff said:

Atlantic recorded some classic New Orleans players in the '50s.  I have some but not all.  Henry Red Allen made some very nice albums in the late '50s and early '60s, but although his roots in New Orleans were deep (his father ran a brass band in the 19th century) these are not strictly traditional in approach.  I'm particularly fond of Ride Red Ride on RCA with Coleman Hawkins as a sideman.

Wilbur de Paris!
This is one artist who came to mind when I read the opening post.

I am having a hard time deciding one "one album per artist" so will suggest the two I lean towards:

- His NEW New Orleans Jazz - Atlantic 1219
- Marchin' and Swingin' - Atlantic 1233

 

On 3/27/2024 at 8:32 PM, Niko said:

since you're a "one album per artist" man, I stay to that convention with one exception (Kid Thomas)... generally, I've been following the pianists when exploring, Art Hodes, Don Ewell and - more recently - Earl Hines (who I left out here because he's too modern)...  also spent quite a bit of time learning about this music in the past three years or so, our generation was not properly informed about it... 

American Music By Emile Barnes (e.g. Storyville)
Marty Grosz And His Honoris Causa Jazz Band – Hooray For Bix! (Riverside)
Kid Thomas And His Algiers Stompers Featuring Emile Barnes (Riverside)
Billie And DeDe Pierce – Blues And Tonks From The Delta (Riverside)
Don Ewell Quartet – Free 'N Easy! (Good Time Jazz)
Joe Sullivan – Mr. Piano Man (Down Homes)
Luckey & The Lion: Harlem Piano Solos By Luckey Roberts & Willie 'The Lion' Smith (Good Time Jazz)
Barbara Lea With The Johnny Windhurst Quintets
Art Hodes With Volly DeFaut – Up In Volly's Room (Delmark CD)
Raymond Burke, Pinky Vidacovich – Clarinet New Orleans Style (Southland)
Armand Hug and His New Orleans Dixielanders / Eddie Miller and His New Orleans Rhythm Pals (Southland, actually, the Southland Label was one of my starting points but I haven't found the perfect albums yet)
Kid Thomas At Kohlman's Tavern (New Orleans)
Lee Collins – A Night At The Victory Club (New Orleans)
Burt Bales And Paul Lingle – They Tore My Playhouse Down... (Good Time Jazz)

Revival musicians playing other music

Bud Freeman Esq (Fontana)
Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers (Folkways, the first track was my most played track in 2023 according to spotify)

One missing from your list of latter-day recordings by classic/traditional jazz pianists:

PECK KELLEY!

No use limiting oneself to "one album" here because his recorded legacy is slim anyway.
So here goes:
- Peck Kelley Jam (Comodore XF2 17917)
- Peck Kelley and Lynn "Son" Harrell - Arcadia 2018D

Though these records may show Peck Kelley past his (totally unrecorded) prime they are ear openers in more ways than one IMHO.

 

 

 

[JSngry]

Pee Wee Hunt? 

[Big Beat Steve]

26 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Pee Wee Hunt? 

Some may find him way too commercial?

 

From this corner of the (better-known) revival artists (who had mainstream appeal back then) I for one would rather opt for

PETE FOUNTAIN.

And along the "one album one artist" lines I'd pick and suggest "Pete Fountain Day" on Coral.

[JSngry]

Early Fountain and early Al Hirt, ok. But not too far in, it goes off someplace else.. 

[Big Beat Steve]

I was referring to the Coral period of Pete Fountain. Never been too keen on Al Hirt, OTOH.
But I am not so sure I would WANT to hear the (Coral) album of Pete Fountain album being backed by Lawrence Welk. (Just listened in on that album on YT and my misgivings have been confirmed in full. )

[clifford_thornton]

what do we think of Eli's Chosen Six? I have their Columbia LP (but not the other one, which is quite rare I think). Rudd is pretty obviously Rudd, even at 20. 

[JSngry]

28 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

I was referring to the Coral period of Pete Fountain. Never been too keen on Al Hirt, OTOH.
But I am not so sure I would

WANT to hear the (Coral) album of Pete Fountain album being backed by Lawrence Welk. (Just listened in on that album on YT and my misgivings have been confirmed in full. )

Fountain got famous as part of the Welk orchestra. That lasted a few years. At some point he left. At some other point, Peanuts Hucko came on the band and stayed a while. 

I guess this is as good as they did:

 

[JSngry]

 

 

[Rabshakeh]

I mean, all of this is part of the scene, I guess. The classic jazz revival was as much about Al Hirt, Pee Wee Hunt, and the Firehouse 5 as anything else.

Hence the reference to records which were "important historically", i.e., records that made a big splash of were influential but which we, being honest, might not like very much. 

[JSngry]

My understanding is that both Hirt & Fountain made a "splash" in trad circles when they first hit the scene. Not necessarily a warm one, but still...

Not sure about Fountain, but Hirt's first records were on Verve & Audio Fidelity, and were all strictly New Orleans(style) repertoire. Both him and Fountain were natives, and whatever future directions they went, neither can be accused of being ignorant or hardly aware of their hometown traditions. 

You could make a half-ass case that this type of music was not part of a revival, but was instead an evolution of one current of native New Orleans jazz that never died.

Both Hirt & Fountain opened and sustained their own clubs in New Orleans after their pop glories were over, and both played trad New Orleans music almost exclusively. That's one side of the coin, but the other is that it was "tourist-friendly" trad. But isn't it all in some form or fashion? 

[Rabshakeh]

"Tourist-friendly trad" is a good description. Do the Dukes of Dixieland fall into that category?

[Rabshakeh]

By the way, the One Album Per Artist thing is my logic for what I own in my hard copy collection, and is mainly a matter of space restrictions, as well as my own insecurity about owning excess things. 

We don't need to restrict ourselves in that way here.

Edited March 30 by Rabshakeh

[JSngry]

6 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

"Tourist-friendly trad" is a good description. Do the Dukes of Dixieland fall into that category?

I think most of it does to one degree or another. 

[Rabshakeh]

17 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not sure about Fountain, but Hirt's first records were on Verve & Audio Fidelity, and were all strictly New Orleans(style) repertoire. Both him and Fountain were natives, and whatever future directions they went, neither can be accused of being ignorant or hardly aware of their hometown traditions. 

You could make a half-ass case that this type of music was not part of a revival, but was instead an evolution of one current of native New Orleans jazz that never died.

There is a writer called Tex Wyndham who did a series of columns called Texas Shout on dixieland (currently available to view for free on the Syncopated Times website here: https://syncopatedtimes.com/tex-wyndham-texas-shout/). They are a bit dated but still interesting.

His theory was that there were seven "styles" of classic jazz.  Three historic and four revivalist. They were:

Historic

- White New Orleans (ODJB, NORK, etc)

- Hot dance (non-jazz or partly-jazz white and black pre-swing dance orchestras)

- Downtown New Orleans (Oliver, Armstrong, De Paris, etc). 

Revivalist

- Chicago style (Eddie Condon, Wild Bill Davison, etc)

- Uptown New Orleans (Bunk Johnson, George Lewis)

- West Coast revival (Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, etc)

- British trad (Ken Colyer etc)

Obviously any taxonomy has glaring holes. Even within revivalist terms, this one makes no allowance for ragtime players or Bix-enthusiasts (surely a major feature in Dixieland world). It also ignores that stylistic middle ground between swing, trad and blues that I suspect is the one area of post war classic jazz that most of us on this forum actually really do enjoy.

But one interesting idea, which ties in to what you mention above, is the idea that the lineage of stiff, and not particularly bluesy, white New Orleans musicians, which stretches from the Original Dixieland Jass Band through to the likes of Al Hurt and Pee Wee Hunt, was its own distinct "style", with continuity from the 1920s. 

Also interesting is that Wyndham, who was writing from the perspective of the 1980s Dixieland festival circuit, regards that style as having since the 60s become "extinct". 

Edited March 30 by Rabshakeh

[JSngry]

Stiff is relative... whatever else those guys were or were not, they could be as boisterous as they wanted to be. And boisterous is a core element of so much of this stuff.

Do you know about Jim Cullem Jr.?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cullum_Jr.

You mention Bix... there's a Bix Festival evet year in Davenport, Iowa. If you want to see who's playing that music today, look there: https://bixsociety.org/festival.php and https://bixsociety.org/index.php