Customer Reviews
The First Great Jazz Records - By: J. Gibbons, 05 Jun 2007 
Having lived with these tracks for about 50 years, repeated listening has confirmed that these are the finest recordings of a 'classic' New Orleans ensemble ever made. The front line are completely integrated with no one (not even Louis Armstrong!) trying to hog the limelight. There are no 'star' soloists & the cornets, clarinet, & trombone, although distinctive voices, blend together to create a polyphony so perfect as to almost defy belief.
Sadly, this perfection could not last. The era of the great soloists was about to dawn and, although - for example - Armstrong, Hawkins, Bechet, etc created magnificent music, the very fact of their individual creativity meant the end of the truly integrated ensemble until the early 1940's. Duke Ellington,in the Blanton-Webster band, created just this and, importantly, found a way of integrating important solo voices within the ensemble that detracted from neither. But that's another story!
This edition of the Oliver Creole Band recordings was been splendidly remastered by the late, lamented, John R T Davis & contains the complete Gennett, Okeh, Columbia & Paramount sessions. Alternate takes are included. Allin all, a perfect reissue of some of the most important of all jazz records.
This is how it started - By: Unmack, 02 Jun 2007 There is that marching beat, harking back to the funerals & parades of New Orleans, & the popular songs & tunes of the day that any self-respecting musician hadin his repertoire.
Armstrong's first solo! And you can easily play a track half a dozen times trying to distinguish between the cornets of Oliver & Armstrong, they're so entangled & anyway I'm far from sure who is who. Dodds warbling along on his clarinet is always a joy.
This CD is sheer bliss for a lover of raw & "primitive" jazz with its ensemble playing. Only Hot Five & Hot Seven are better, even if dominated by Armstrong's power.
The authentic jazz sound of New Orleans - By: D. Elliott, 28 Feb 2001 
This double album embraces 41 recordings made after the closing of Storyville & the shift of jazz from its birthplacein New Orleans. No jazz recordings had been made when Joe "King" Oliver formed his first bands & played there alongside such other New Orleans jazz "greats" as Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds & Sidney Bechet. The CDs include 37 tracks by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, 2 tracks with King Oliver & Clarence Williams accompanying vaudeville singers Jodie & Susie Edwards, & 2 tracks of King Oliver cornet solos accompanied by the "great" Jelly Roll Morton on piano.
The initial 8 tracks are revered by jazz enthusiasts & are amongst the first jazz recordings made by a Negro band. This wasin Richmond, Indiana, with the rest of the 37 Creole Jazz Band tracks being recordedin Chicago. All this took placein the year 1923, & with no earlier jazz recordings it can be claimed these are the first real records of the authentic sound of New Orleans jazz. Indeed, it may be argued that there is no real New Orleans jazz other than that recorded elsewhere.
It is not practicable to comment on all 41 tracks, but the 37 by the Creole Jazz Band demonstrate a most important elementin traditional jazz termed "collective improvisation" where all instruments improvisein relation to the melodies & harmonies of the others & blend into an ensemble sound. There is also an element of creating openings for others & taking advantage of openings by others for solo slots, & of siezing opportunities to joinin chorus lines. My favourites are "Canal Street Blues" from the initial recording session, together with "Jazzin' Baby Blues", "Zulu's Ball", "Sobbin' Blues", "I Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody" & "Room Rent Blues" from Chicago sessions. Louis Armstrong is part of the line-ups on all these recordings & there is a rare opportunity to hear him playing swanee whistle. Alternative takes & versions are included for such numbers as "Dipper Mouth Blues", "Snake Rag", "Mabel's Dream", "Riverside Blues" & "Southern Stomps" that allow appreciation of the considerable flexibility of the musicians & the wide diversity of the band.
Surprisingly these multiple numbers do not detract from the easy listening nature of the CDs for the Creole Jazz Band numbers. However, for me the final 4 tracks recordedin 1924 fit rather uncomfortably with the 1923 recordings. It is perhps as well that positioning at the end of the second CD allows the vaudeville numbers to be ignored. Of some interest are the King Oliver cornet solos as these give a glimpse of him playingin isolation. I find "King Porter Stomp" full of inventiveness though rather ragged, & "Tom Cat" has the cornet as subdued staccato to Jelly Roll Morton's more melodic piano.
King Oliver had built on the playing of Buddy Bolden & Freddie Keppard, just as Louis Armstrong was to go on & build on the playing of King Oliver. In his heyday King Oliver was amongst the "greats" of New Orleans horn players, & the Creole Jazz Band was his most famous group. These CDs include the best of what was being played at the time. King Oliver on cornet & the Creole Jazz Band were the sensation of this "golden age" playing the authentic jazz sound of New Orleans.
