Andy Schumm and Enrico Tomasso • When Louis Met Bix

When I assert that this is the best time to be alive if you are a jazz enthusiast, I'm not just whistling Dixieland. I am perpetually astonished by the incredible musical treasures that wash up on the otherwise stark beach that is American popular musical culture. I speak not only of the lovingly-restored reissues of classic and obscure recordings (on labels such as Take Two, Rivermont, and Archeophone) that represent a quantum improvement over the sound of the shellac originals that have been repeatedly plowed with steel needles. I am delighted and deeply grateful to hear performances recorded almost a century ago that pulsate with fresh vitality. More than salvaged and reclaimed historical audio, what I find truly remarkable is the work of present-day musicians whose technical proficiency, impeccable scholarship, and conscientious determination to Get It Right in the realm of Hot Jazz equal and sometimes surpass the shimmering brilliance (as heard on record) of the originators of the form. There is so much magnificence today that it begins to feel commonplace. Nonetheless, when I received and played my copy of When Louis Met Bix (Lake LACD 345) a few days ago, I wept tears of joy. Along the lines of the previous alternate-history jazz project Bix Off the Record (Lake LACD339), this new release represents recordings that might have been, should have been, but never were. The