While his name is barely known in the United States and even many jazz fans in England may not be that familiar with him, pianist-bandleader George Webb was a major influence and inspiration for the British trad jazz movement. Before the rise of Humphrey Lyttelton and Chris Barber, and certainly before Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk, Webb put together the first significant British trad jazz band in 1943. Although there had been some earlier British Dixieland jam session dates and trumpeter-singer Nat Gonella was a major star, most jazz musicians in England primarily played dance music in big bands. Many listeners did not believe that a British band was even capable of playing early jazz.
Webb was the first to form a fulltime band that emulated jazz of the 1920s but without too closely copying the early recordings. While both the Lake and Jazzology labels in the past came out with collections of some of Webb’s recordings, the recent CD from Upbeat titled simply George Webb’s Dixielanders adds more music to his band’s legacy. The original band (cornetist Owen Bryce, trombonist Eddie Harvey, clarinetist Wally Fawkes, banjoist Buddy Vallis, drummer Roy Beckwith, and Webb) is first heard on Jan. 7 1945 at their earliest recording session. They cut three titles that day, all of which went unissued probably because of the band’s nervousness. For the first time, two numbers (“Georgia Ca
