I've talked about this musician before but let me reiterate. This dude was great, so great in fact that Louis Armstrong admired him during a time when everyone else admired Louis Armstrong. Today of course his talent and influence will fly over our head if we don't understand the context and chronology but his music without context still stands as some of the best dixie compositions made during its heyday. For those uninitiated: dixieland jazz was arguably the first fully fleshed out form of jazz. It essentially sounds like wild marching music coupled with short solos and instruments that were later on pretty much abandoned as jazz evolved further. It's fast, happy and unpredictable. No matter how much time passed this music will never feel outdated, to me at least. This anthology will provide you with his records that were made throughout his short career. Starting with the very raw and wild early recordings and slowly proceeding to his much smoother "swing"-like records made at the end of his career. Give it a honest try and you might just find a new genre to adore.
Tracklist and general info here.
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Bix was one of my homeboys, even though he died 33 years before I was born. As for his later influences whom he did not wait for, we include the very respectable names of Miles Davis and Oscar Pettiford. I'm sure I have everything here, but I was still disappointed I couldn't get it. The Zippy links are dead. Some of your Mediafire ones are OK because I've downloaded 2 items from them.
ReplyDeleteAlso-I find a lot of jazz of this period rather timeless even with the very primitive recording tech. Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens are really amazing and even make an old coot like me want to dance a bit!
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