The Charleston Chasers - 1925-1930 (CD)

All Music Guide

Nobody ever heard this group perform in front of the public, although each of the players had plenty of bandstand experience. The Charleston Chasers existed only as a studio recording ensemble, first as another way of saying Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, then as Columbia's allpurpose jazz machine. Nichols himself appeared on the 1927 and '28 recordings, while Miff Mole, stern emperor of the trombone, held everyone together over several years' worth of solid jazz, beginning in 1925 with “Red Hot Henry Brown" and its flipside “Loud Speakin' Papa". These sound like Bix Beiderbecke in all the right ways. “Someday, Sweetheart" is a masterpiece of evenly paced group reflection. “After You've Gone" is really a smoker There are wonderful moments with Joe Tarto (posthumously proclaimed “Titan of the Tuba") and pianist Arthur Schutt, most notably on his own composition, “Delirium". We're lucky to be able to savor the authentically pixilated personality of Pee Wee Russell, or the magnificence... of the mighty Fud Livingstone, who's “Red Hair And Freckles" is the definitive example of how this band sounded in 1929. The 14 instrumentals included in this package are by far the most satisfying of the lot. Jimmy Dorsey had much to do with that, as he and trumpeter Leo McConville pop up more often than anyone else. As for the singers: Kate Smith sounds surprisingly okay in 1927, hardly the flagdraped matron she later became. With a little cocaine she could've maybe done time as one of the dozenorso women whose voices went into the making of Betty Boop. The closest she ever got to being even remotely hip was on “I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now". Craig Leitch's vocal on “Sugar Foot Strut" would have fit well with one of Harry Reser's gollygee ensembles. Leitch sounds like his ears stuck way out and he must have worn a tiny, checkered bow tie. Tentative vocalist Scrappy Lambert, backed by guitarist Carl Kress, sings about “darkies" on the song “Mississippi Mud". Bing Crosby also recorded this tune with Bix and Tram, and thought nothing of pronouncing the offensive word. (In later years some thoughtful individual replaced that racial slur with the generic term “people". In fact “people beat their feet" tripled the rhyme.) The best vocalist to sing with this band was Eva Taylor, wife of Clarence Williams. Her presence lends luster and charm to “What Wouldn't I Do For That Man?" and “Turn On The Heat". - arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide Read more Less