King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band • Centennial

Centennial is quite possibly the most important, well-conceived and created reissue of recent times. Not only is it a masterful, quality product, but it presents a great historical perspective on an extremely important early jazz group of mostly New Orleans musicians.

Recently I was reflecting on how wonderful King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band was—how they were so skillful in playing improvised ensemble New Orleans jazz. Oliver laying down the lead, Armstrong playing an obligato, Dodds weaving around the two cornets and Dutrey playing just the right, tasteful trombone to compliment the other horns. Then the banjo, piano and percussion offering just the right rhythmic moment and swing. This was not a band playing a musical free-for-all (or as the musicians of those days called it, “every tub on its bottom”). This was group collectively improvising but in a definite, exacting manner.

I’ve been listening to the CJB for more than 50 years. My introduction was a long play record my father had, Young Louis Armstrong on Riverside, covering most of the Gennett sides. I wasn’t quite sure what to think, but I knew this was music of great importance, as by then I had read the book Jazzmen telling the story of the early days of jazz in New Orleans. The more I listened, the more I wanted to hear the Okeh, Columbia, and Paramount sides by this band. Sadly at that time in the USA (early 1970s), none of the CJB recordings were available on LP. A reissue of the Okeh and Columbia sides, released by Columbia’s subsiduary Epic, was out-of-print. Eventually I was able to get a copy of that material on a UK Parlophone release.

In the 1970s the indie label Herwin issued an LP of all the Gennett sides, including for the first time the incredibly rare “Zulu’s Ball”/“Workingman Blues.” Also by that time, technological improvements and availability of quality discs made the Herwin reissue an improvement on the Riverside LP I first heard. At the same time, a Milestone LP was released with the Gennett sides and the Paramounts. But still, the Okeh and Columbia sides were unavailable in the US.

Fast forward to the compact disc era. Over several years, all of the King Oliver 1923 sides were available on various reissues—including an excellent set by Archeophone.

It’s likely this new reissue by Archeophone is the definitive reissue of these historically important sides. The sound quality is amazing, making it much easier for the listener to understand the complex music played by Oliver’s group, due to the wonderful sonic work done by Richard Martin. In addition to the Oliver sides, there’s a CD of 26 sides of material covering a variety of groups from 1920 to 1923 (“Joe’s Jazz Kingdom”), and a CD of mostly non-jazz discs, “Louis’ Record Collection,” items Armstrong favored from his earliest days of listening to the sounds on a Victrola—and continued to find inspiration from for the rest of his life.

Included with the music is a hardback book with historic photos, discographical information, and impressive notes by premier Louis Armstrong historian Ricky Riccardi. But wait—there’s more! You’ll also receive two long-playing vinyl records of the 1923 Oliver sides, and a marvelous 44 x 22 inch poster of the formally-posed photo of the Oliver jazz band.

Looking back to the year the Oliver band was recorded (1923), not only was this an incredible historical achievement—the largest output from a Black jazz group at that time, but the number of issued sides was only slightly less than the issued output by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, one of the most popular white groups at that time, but more than another popular band, that of clarinetist/saxophonist Ted Lewis.

Those of us who love early jazz and the jazz of New Orleans owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone at Archeophone who made this possible. A “must have,” for sure!

Centennial
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (and Various Artists)
Archeophone ARCH 6014
www.archeophone.com

Chris Tyle wrote about King Oliver for our January 2021 issue. Chris Tyle has also written extensively about jazz history for the website jazzstandards.com.