Search - Connie Boswell :: Original Memphis Five in Hi-Fi

Boswell Among the Best !

Dr. Robert Hackler | Orlando, Fl. USA | 04/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although I do not yet own the CD, I have owned the original LP for years and concur that when you put Connee Boswell in the company of the great sidemen in the Memphis Five, you have a winner! Connee, a longtime associate of Bing Crosby, in making some of the best sides ever and with her sisters doing a terrific job, makes her voice another instrument in these excellent takes. My late friend, Tony Sparbaro of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, is on drums and Billy Butterfield of the Bob Crosby Bobcats and several big bands is the lead horn man, with Frank Signorelli and others making up a tremendous driving unit. I totally recommend this CD and hope that it will be available soon at reasonable prices."

A fun CD to listen to

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 03/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had my doubts about how good this CD might be, not because I doubted the high musicianship of the participants but because of their rather advanced age and, in the case of trombonist Miff Mole, his state of health. That the performances are hard-driving and exciting are beyond question; they very obviously had a ball making this record. How could anyone who recorded with Connee Boswell NOT have a good time? She and Louis Armstrong were New Orleans personified, and by that I mean their relaxed attitude towards life as well as their relaxed beat.



Connee's voice is, as I expected, somewhat hard of tone and showing an occasional loose vibrato, the result of years of singing in smoke-filled clubs and studios. But yes, she DOES swing, almost as hard here as on some of her old classics such as "Home on the Range" with Bob Crosby's Bob Cats. Most interesting to me were her versions of Victor Herbert's "Giannina Mia," complete with her pre-recorded voice triple-tracked to provide a riff for her to sing over, and what has to be the most enjoyable version of that hoary old klunker "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" I've ever heard. But on some of the other tracks, I missed the "go-for-broke" Connee who swung so madly on "Crazy People" and "The River's Takin' Care of Me" back in the early '30s. Oh, well...time marches on, and sometime takes us with it.



Much more disappointing to me was Miff Mole. His command of his instrument was obviously not what it was even in the early 1940s; he could no longer perform those incredible leaps into arcane harmonic territory that he showed us on his Molers, Red Heads and Five Pennies discs of bygone days. In most of the tracks where you'd expect the trombone solo, in fact, you get Tony Sbarbaro - the original drummer for the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (though, oddly, not credited as such in the liner notes!) - playing rather lame solos on his kazoo. The two solos Miff does take, on "Say it Isn't So" and "Singin' the Blues" (most people don't know that he played the counterpoint trombone on Bix Beiderbecke's original disc of this song), are good but...they could be just anyone. In a blindfold test, I might pick Abe Lincoln as the trombonist, but certainly not Miff. Of course, this is just me talking, but I love Miff's solos SO much from the old days that I found it sad.



On the other hand....



Billy Butterfield just floored me. Totally. I hadn't expected him to play this inventively, but he truly surpasses himself here; in fact, he's even more creative on this disc than he was playing with Artie Shaw in 1940-41. I've always felt that Jimmy Lytell and Frank Signorelli were underrated, especially by the boppers who dismiss ANYONE from the '20s, and though I'd have preferred Artie Schutt on piano, Signorelli is quite fine here. Lytell doesn't really update his style, but he didn't have to...he was interesting in the 1920s, and he's still interesting here.



Mind you, I'm taking this perspective as someone who not only likes early jazz but who knows how much some of these people (Connee, Miff and Signorelli especially) influenced the jazz that came after them. So yes, maybe I have a higher standard. If you just enjoy Connee Boswell and Dixieland jazz, of course this disc won't disappoint. Yet even with the flaws I've mentioned, it's STILL a four-star album. The interesting mix here of New York Dixieland with the more Southern accents of Connee Boswell make for an interesting listen. My only complaint was that, at 38 minutes long, the disc was too short. One mo' tune, Connee, puh-leeezze!"

Flawed Remastering

Stacy Atlas | 05/18/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Beware of this remastered import release from BMG Japan. On track 2,"Say It Isn't So, the song begins in-progress; the first two notes are missing. I have this great album on vinyl, so I am well aware of how the song begins. Someone in Japan must have fallen asleep. BMG Japan should correct their error and issue replacements to everyone who purchased a copy. Very frustrating and very disrespectful to mistreat a great album like this."