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 1