Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra • The Gennett Suite

To celebrate the legacy of Gennett Records in the 1920s, the Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, co-led by trumpeter Mark Buselli and arranger Brent Wallarab, have recorded the latter’s four-movement Gennett Suite. The deluxe two-CD set has extensive liner notes by John Edward Hasse and David Brent Johnson that not only cover the music but the history of Gennett and its main artists. While the 17-piece orchestra performs vintage songs associated with the label and four specific giants, the resulting music is outside of the usual styles featured in The Syncopated Times. For while one hears “Dippermouth Blues,” “Riverboat Shuffle,” and even “Grandpa’s Spells,” the music is forward-looking postbop jazz, not a revival of 1920s jazz. The arrangements sometimes hint at Gil Evans (rather than Don Redman) and treat the compositions as if they were newly written, even with occasional references to the earlier recordings (such as transcribing Louis Armstrong’s solo chorus on “Chimes Blues”). It does seem a bit strange that Wallarab’s suite never has the big band even briefly playing in the earlier style or simply jamming a chorus or two but it does hold one’s interest throughout. The four movements pay tribute to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (“Royal Blue”), Bix Beiderbecke (“Blues Faux Bix”), Hoagy Carmichael (“Hoagland”)