Upbeat recently reissued a collection originally put out by Big Bill Bissonnette’s Jazz Crusade label that was titled Rare Cuts – Well Done, Volume 8. Featured are three classic clarinetists captured in the 1950s: Albert Nicholas, Edmond Hall, and George Lewis. Their performances are quite rewarding although this set has the caveat that two of the three sessions are not quite complete.
Albert Nicholas (1900-73) was one of the great New Orleans clarinetists to emerge during the 1920s. But because he led few sessions in the U.S. and spent the second half of his life living and performing in Europe, he tends to be underrated if not totally overlooked. Five of the six recordings that he made with an orchestra led by clarinetist Andre Rewellotty (the personnel is unidentified) on Nov. 28, 1953 lead off this CD. Nicholas’ attractive tone, excellent technique and hot ideas are very much in evidence on such numbers as “Deep River,” “I’m Confessin’,” and “Sensation.”
The playing of Edmond Hall (1901-67) could easily cut through a big band. Few clarinetists had as passionate a sound. Seven of the nine numbers that originated as a pair of radio broadcasts from San Francisco’s Hangover Club match Hall with the masterful stride pianist Ralph Sutton, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Charlie Lodice. Performed in 1954 shortly before Hall joined the Louis Armstrong All-Stars,
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