Set forth below is most of the twenty-second "Texas Shout" column. It first appeared in the October 1991 issue of the West Coast Rag, (now Syncopated Times).
I recently received a review copy of a compact disc of Christmas-related blues and jazz. Its arrival brought to ten the number of holiday-season jazz albums on the Wyndhams' shelves. Things weren't always so good for Dixielanders at Yuletide. For many years, the only vintage jazz Christmas recording I knew about was Jazzology J-9, "Let's Have An Old-Fashioned Christmas,” by George Jackson's Jazz Band.
J-9 is a respectable journeyman session of brash Dixieland by a British band that maintains a nice balance between Chicago and British trad styles. First thing each Christmas morning, I'd throw it on the turntable and we'd open our presents. It did a fine job of maintaining a festive spirit around the hearth in keeping with the general Dixieland orientation of our household.
The problem was that we only had the one record, but the holiday season lasts longer than just Christmas morning. Lots of activities, for which we wanted accompanying music, had been going on during the preceding weeks — addressing cards, trimming the tree, etc. — and would continue through New Year's.
Nancy and I like Dixieland, ragtime and related music so much that we've never discovered what, if anything, is second on our list. So, to
The full run of “Texas Shout” has been collected into a lavishly illustrated trade paperback entitled Texas Shout: How Dixieland Jazz Works. This book is available @ $20.00 plus $2.95 shipping from Tex Wyndham. On request, Tex will autograph the book and add a personalized note (be sure to tell him to whom the note should be addressed).
