Search - Isham Jones & His Orchestra :: 1922-1926

Lost 1920's "sweet band" jazz

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 12/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A swell selection of the earliest material by "sweet band" jazzman Isham Jones, who was one of the most popular dance bandleaders of the 1920s. The first half of this disc features trumpet work by Louis Panico, a white player whose early-'20s performances were greatly admired by Louis Armstrong, as well as youthful would-be jazzmen such as Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Condon. Panico was apparently lured away from Jones' orchestra by a rival outfit, but was replaced by Frankie Quartell, who was no sloutch himself. All of the songs on here exemplify the sweet, classy style that Jones pioneered, music that was later taken up and refined by big band "swing" musicians such as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers... This early stuff is great, though, too!!"

Excellent transfers of one of the great '20s dance bands

Adam M. Dubin | Chicago, IL USA | 10/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This enterprising independent Dutch label has been doing a great service for all of us interested in popular music and jazz of the 1920s-30s, and this CD devoted to early-to-mid '20s recordings of Isham Jones is no exception. Most of these recordings show the presence, or influence, of the great trumpeter Louis Panico, who was the most prominent instrumentalist (besides Ish himself on tenor sax) in this great band. Most have not been transferred to CD before (that's not saying much, as there are only a handful of CD releases of Isham Jones available). About 3/4 of the songs are acoustically-recorded, but don't let that be a point of hesitation in acquiring this CD. Actually, Brunswick's late acoustic recording process was actually much better than its nacent switch to the microphone, in early 1925. The last few cuts show how primitive its "Light Ray" electrical recording process was (it was only by 1927, after the scope of this CD, that Brunswick began producing really nice recordings). The music shows a heavy jazz and blues influence, without being pure jazz (with rare exception). Some of it is quite hot! And here is one of my favorite songs, "Cotton Pickers Ball", a really great recreation of early New Orleans-style jazz (okay, this is the exception). I have the (rather rare) original record, and love playing it when showing off one of my vintage acoustic phonographs to friends. The transfers are wonderful, and the album is well-annotated.Enthusiastically recommended."

HOT AND SWEET

Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 10/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Isham Jones began recording for Brunswick in mid-1920 with his Rainbo (sic) Orchestra, and there's not much about the early titles to give any indication of joys to come. Things began to change a year later, when a young Louis Panico joined on cornet (the brass had been confined previously to a trombone!). What had begun as a sweet dance band now contained a rising star, who began to attract the attention of jazzmen like Louis Armstrong, and Bix Beiderbecke who would escape from Lake Academy to listen and sit in.



Timeless has selected some of the hotter sides on which the reputation of the Jones band was built, including the later sides after Panico was lured away by Edgar Benson. He was replaced by Frank Quartell, who also knew Bix, and was himself no mean trumpeter, and around the same time Roy Bargy came in on piano.



These sides trace the development of Jones' early band, and in the excellent liner note Ate van Delden argues that late 1925, when the band moved from Chicago to New York, marked something of a watershed in that thereafter the band produced little in the way of jazz until the early 1930s. Which sweeping assertion needs to be countered, because in fact for whatever reason between 1926 and 1931 the band recorded comparatively few sides at all."