Various Artists - 10th Anniversary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (CD)

All Music Guide

This compilation of excerpts from the

-New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival was first released in 1979, though it isn't made clear if all of the music was recorded that year or

from several different festivals. It doesn't really matter, as this collection is a wide-ranging sampler of many styles of music. Cajun accordion master Clifton Chenier interprets Louis Jordan's RB hit from the 1940s, “Caldonia." Blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes offers “Ice Cream Freezer" to cool the hot crowd. Classic New Orleans jazz by the Onward Brass Band with Louis Cotrell and the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra is definitely in the spirit of the festival. Gospel is represented by the traditional “Doxology" sung movingly by the Youth Inspirational Choir. Charles Mingus' powerful “Themes From a Movie" is stunning featuring him on solo piano. But it is impossible to top pianist Eubie Blake, in his mid 90s, performing, “Charleston Rag," which he had composed 80 years earlier. This sampler is a great audio snapshot of the ~New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival, though it deserved more detailed liner notes than were put together for this release. ~ Ken Dryden, All Music Guide