Legends & The Lost • Rare and Hot Jazz 1925-1930

It has been a few years since I last reviewed an album of Golden Age jazz. The peak of which in my reckoning being that amazing flowering of hot creativity in the second half of the 1920s. Many factors came into that event. One of them was the introduction of electric recording methods. Jazz musicians then and now listened to each other for inspiration. While we have the blessing of slowly absorbing over 100 years of jazz, the top musicians of 1928 were waiting at record store doors to hear what new innovations their rivals had cut just a few weeks prior. The electric process let you hear more out of each record, especially if you had ears to hear. It was an artistic explosion. Rare and good are often in opposition. There are so many rare records, though, that keen collectors can pick out plenty of good ones to share, and new (to you) good is what you will find on Legends & the Lost: Rare & Hot Jazz 1925-1930. The cuts are from artists including Charlie Johnson’s Paradise Orchestra, the Georgia Strutters, The Kentucky Jazz Babies, Eddie & Sugar Lou’s Hotel Tyler Orchestra, and Dixon’s Jazz Maniacs. Included are cuts that are truly rare, some given restorations that astound those lucky enough to have heard the source copy. That said, imperfections exist throughout; the wise listener accepts surface noise as the entry fee for a glimpse into obscure recording sessions