Various – Paramount Jazz – Early Master Jazz Recordings – 4 CD

Track Listing:

CD1:
King Oliver’s Jazz Band: 1. Mabel's Dream - 2:52   2. Riverside Blues - 2:57   Charlie Straight and His Orchestra: 3. Buddy Habits - 2:56   4. Henpecked Blues - 2:50   Windy Rhythm Kings: 5. Piggly Wiggly Blues - 2:48   6. South African Blues - 3:15   Jelly Roll Morton's Steamboat Four: 7. Mr. Jelly Lord - 2:52   8. Steady Roll - 2:35   Lovie Austin & Her Blues Serenaders; 9. Steppin' On The Blues - 2:27   10. Traveling Blues - 2:38   11. Charleston, South Carolina - 2:52   12. Heebie Jeebies - 2:52   13. Peepin' Blues - 3:07   Lovie Austin & Her Serenaders: 14. Chicago Mess Around - 3:08   15. Galion Stomp - 3:11   16. Rampart Street Blues - 2:56   Ida Cox: 17. Kentucky Man Blues - 2:58   18. Death Letter Blues - 3:03   19. Don't Blame Me - 3:01   20. Scottle Me - 2:58   Viola Bartlette: 21. Go Back Where You Stayed Last Right - 3:33   22. Tennessee Blues - 2:44   Wisconsin U Skyrockets: 23. Dizzy Corners - 2:51   24. Postage Stamp - 2:30   Boyd Senter: 25. Fat Mama Blue 3:21

CD2:
Clarence Williams & His Orchestra: 1. Shake 'Em Up - 2:54   2. Jingles - 2:48   3. New Down Home Rag - 3:09   4. Squeeze Me - 2:57   Barrel House Five Orchestra: 5. Hot Lovin' - 3:01   6. Mama Stayed Out - 3:11   Edna Taylor: 7. Good Man Blues - 3:02   8. Jelly's Blues - 2:56   Sara Martin: 9. Death Sting Me Blues - 2:55   10. Mistreating Man Blues - 2:51   Lucille Hegamin: 11. High Brown Blues - 2:59   12. State Street Blues - 3:16   Jeanette & Her Synco Jazzers: 13. The Bumps - 2:34   14. What's That Thing - 2:44   Midway Garden Orchestra: 15. Lot's O' Mama - 2:57   16. Sobbin' Blues - 3:04   Bill Haid & His Cubs: 17. A Good Man Is Hard To Find - 2:58   18. Doin' The Racoon - 2:53   Charles Pierce & His Orchestra: 19. Jazz Me Blues - 3:04   20. Sister kate - 3:00   Alberta Hunter: 21. Don't Pan Me - 3:03   Ida Cox 22. Fogyism - 2:51   Devine's Wisconsin Roof Orchestra: 23. New St. Louis Blues - 2:50   24. Tiger Rag - 2:35 Bertha Henderson: 25. Let Your Love Come Down - 2:29

CD3:
Bertha Henderson: 1. Black Bordered Letter - 3:02   2. Six Thirty Blues - 2:36   Nelson's Paramount Serenaders: 3. Phillips Street Stomp - 2:41   4. Nelson Blues - 2:34   5. New Orleans Breakdown - 2:51   6. Coo Coo Stomp - 3:09   Hannah Sylvester: 7. The Wicked (Dirty) Fives - 3:09   Ethel Waters: 8. Brown Baby - 3:00   9. Ain't Gonna Marry - 3:00   Louisiana Stompers: 10. Hop Off - 3:13   11. Rough House Blues - 3:08   Trixie Smith: 12. Log Cabin Blues - 3:20   13. Voodoo Blues - 3:08   14. The World's Jazz Crazy And So Am I - 3:04   15. Railroad Blues - 3:00   The Original Memphis Five: 16. Back O' Town Blues - 3:09   17. St. Louis Gal - 3:03   Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra: 18. Off To Buffalo - 2:55   19. Swamp Blues - 3:00   Madlyn Davis & Her Hot Shots: 20. Kokola Blues - 2:56   21. Winter Blues - 3:20   Richard Jones & His Jazz Wizards: 22. Hot And Ready - 2:54   23. Its A Low Down Thing - 2:59   Harlem Harmony Kings: 24. Hard Time Blues - 3:13   25. John Henry Blues - 3:07

CD4:
Blythe's Washboard Ragamuffins: 1. Ape Man - 2:45   2. Your Folks - 2:39   Blythe's Sinful Five: 3. Pump Tillie - 2:40   Jimmy Blythe: 4. Lovin' Been Here And Gone To The Mecca - 2:48   5. Mr.Freddie's Blues - 3:13   Elzadie Robinson: 6. Elzadie's Policy Blues - 3:16   7. Pay Day Daddy Blues - 3:10   Dixie Four: 8. Kentucky Stomp - 2:30   9. St.Louis Man - 2:32   Jimmy O'Bryant’s Famous Original Washboard Band: 10. Midnight Strutters - 3:19   11. Three J Blues - 2:50   12. Stepppin' On The Gas - 2:53   13. Clarinet Getaway - 2:41   14. Back Alley Rub - 3:12   15. Shake That Thing - 2:39   Jasper Taylor: 16. It Must Be the Blues - 2:31   17. Stomp Time Blues - 2:36   Dixon's Jazz Maniacs: 18. Crazy Quilt - 2:53   19. My Man Just Won't Don't - 2:50   Preston Jackson & His Uptown Band: 20. Harmony Blues - 2:46   21. It's Tight Jim - 3:05   Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools: 22. Day Break Blues - 2:58   23. Fade Away Blues - 2:59   Jelly Roll Morton: 24. Thirty Fifth Street Blues - 2:30   King Oliver’s Jazz Band: 25. The Southern Stomps - 2:39

Reviews:

1. AllMusic - arwulf arwulf
Working in collaboration with archivist Joe Bussard, the amazing JSP label has made large quantities of vintage music available in beautifully remastered and surprisingly affordable four-CD sets. Breaking Out of New Orleans documents the early northern migration of Crescent City jazz bands, while Gennett Jazz and Paramount Jazz each sample the thriving Chicago music scene during the '20s. Paramount Jazz forages even wider and deeper than the Gennett set, covering the years 1921-1929 with 100 titles credited to a profoundly diverse procession of singers and instrumentalists. For every familiar name like Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters and Ida Cox, there are dozens more who are well-worth investigating, regardless of how little or how much you think you know about this kind of music. For those who are so inclined, this reservoir of historic recordings may serve as a seed bed for individualized musicological research. Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders, for example, was both the house band for Paramount Records and an important showcase for the talents of cornetist Tommy Ladnier and clarinetist Jimmy O'Bryant. Multi-instrumentalist Boyd Senter is often branded with the word "obscure", (a term that could be taken to mean "out of sight") but his presence in several early Jelly Roll Morton ensembles seems to bring him ever so slightly forward out of the shadows. As for the Wisconsin U Skyrockets, Charlie Straight's Orchestra, the Midway Garden Orchestra and Devine's Wisconsin Roof Orchestra, these charming dance bands work nicely as stylistic counterweights in the same package as Jeanette's Synco Jazzers, Vance Dixon's Jazz Maniacs, Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools, Jasper Taylor & His State Street Boys, Preston Jackson & His Uptown Band, and Jimmy Blythe's Washboard Ragamuffins. Note that JSP has also released Paramount Masters, a survey of classic early blues, and Paramount Old Time Recordings, a tour of early white rural and hillbilly music. Each compilation in the JSP catalog is intended as both an introduction to and a celebration of the musicians and their music. None of these sets are exclusively designed or narrowly recommended for specialists and connoisseurs. The Gennett Jazz anthology's copious explanatory notes, the inclusion of well-known classic jazz recordings that most experienced early jazz lovers are sure to already own, and the absence of alternate takes are clearly in line with JSP's mission to make historic recordings accessible to anyone who wants to dive in and experience music played and heard so very long ago. The fact that the Paramount Jazz box is richly stocked with a higher percentage of rare material makes it all the more exciting and entertaining for experts and newcomers alike.