Greg Poppleton 20s 30s Tin Pan Alley Vol​.​1

Greg Poppleton vividly remembers the day he fell in love with jazz. Aged just three, he saw a Louis Armstrong soundie on TV, replacing a broken-down broadcast like a hot jazz test card. Ever since then—and particularly since turning professional in 2004—he has doggedly pursued an authentic 1920s sound. After dozens of reviews praising his aural “accuracy” and “authenticity,” he can unashamedly claim to have achieved that ambition with the awkwardly-named ’20s ’30s Tin Pan Alley, Vol. 1. It’s a mix of the very familiar and the lesser-known. “My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes” is a particular pleasure, featuring the occasional comedy bird whistle and clearly sung with a big smile. In fact, Greg must have been sore from grinning throughout his studio sessions, if his unwaveringly upbeat tone is anything to go by. Some swing revivalists go for a big, bright sound, turning up the acoustic saturation to neon. These dense discs (think Royal Crown Revue, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Casey MacGill and so on) ooze interwar opulence, but lose something in heart. (They remind me of a ponytailed jazzman in a zoot suit, or a glamorous gal in a chic vintage dress, but modern makeup.) Others use battered old microphones, sacrificing clarity for a characteristic, period fuzziness (or use electronic filters to achieve the same effect, leaving one wondering how well the song would