For the last year, along with an active tour schedule, appearing on recordings for others, and contributing his great column with Jeff Barnhart analyzing choice tracks from important jazz bands, Hal Smith has been rolling out albums for what he is calling the West Coast Jazz Heritage Series. Three albums have been released with two more coming this fall. These are remote recordings for which he has assembled a variety of musicians, most of them too young to have had a real-time connection to the material covered.
Volume 1 of the series is a tribute to the Firehouse Five Plus Two. Volume 2 is a tribute to Papa Ray Ronnei with Vince Saunders’ South Frisco Jazz Band. Volume 3 is a tribute to the El Dorado Jazz Band of the mid 1960s. Forthcoming are tributes to Benny Strickler with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, coming soon, and to Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll Jazz Band, hopefully out this fall.
This is not entirely new territory for Hal, whose On The Levee Jazz Band was a tribute to Kid Ory’s revival years on the West Coast. They released an excellent album in 2018, made a well received appearance at the New Orleans Mint, and traveled to several festivals including a hit showing in San Diego. The original group included Kris Tokarski, Don Ewell, Clint Baker, Josh Gouzy, Ben Polcer, Joe Goldberg, and Alex Belhaj. I am not sure how often the group has performed since but On The Levee appear
