In his notes to this CD, Roger Marks informs us all of these tracks, recorded on cassettes and CDs, had lain forgotten in a cake tin for years. Although they come from live sessions back in 2001, he found enough of sufficient quality to assemble this CD.
As a glance at the tune list shows, almost all the selections are “war horses” or trad. “standards,” except for the swing classic “Hawaiian War Chant,” the song “You’re Just in Love” from the Broadway musical Call Me Madam, and the rather obscure “On the Moors.” Of these three anomalies, only the first two are familiar to me; the last I had never before encountered. “Hawaiian War Chant” opens with a tom tom figure, as do those other renditions I am familiar with, such as Tommy Dorsey’s, then after a couple of times through, goes into swing with solos. Drums tend to stay on toms throughout in low volume, increasing that somewhat in the out choruses as the band reverts to the opening sequence. “You’re Just in Love” is a show tune given a jazz treatment, and “On the Moors” is a dark mood instrumental piece on alto sax accompanied by the rhythm section only.
The band’s approach to the standards is one which includes various devices which renders them “different” and thus interesting. The first track, “Original Dixieland One-Step,” is taken at a bright clip with very nice descending arpeggi
