Among those music makers who figured largely in the New Orleans jazz revival, no one stands taller than George Lewis. Until the traditional jazz revival of the late thirties and forties, Lewis, along with several of his fellow New Orleans musicians, never did leave that city for destinations north; there he remained relatively unknown outside of the city until he began recording and touring with the advent of the revival.
While Lewis was slender of physique (making it difficult to conceive of him as the stevedore he was at one time, almost losing his life in an accident on the docks in 1943) and soft-spoken in person, through his clarinet he was powerful and intense. This CD gives ample evidence of that, and as in so many of his recordings, Lewis provides virtually a master class on New Orleans style jazz.
Some outstanding instances of his prowess can be heard on “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” and “That’s a Plenty,” both taken at a very fast clip. Then as if to indicate he could be very facile at slower tempos, there is the wonderful rendition of “Tishomingo Blues,” coming in at 10 minutes and not one of them dull, with a breathtaking duet between Lewis (clarinet) and Thomas (trombone). Such a pairing was very congenial to Lewis—we hear it again in other tracks in the first set, such as “Didn’t He Ramble.” He is equally comfortable in supplying counterpoint t
