Jimmy McPartland - Dixieland!

Cornetist Jimmy McPartland (1907-1991) was one of the foremost exponents of what came to be known as the Chicago style of Dixieland jazz.

Jazz traveled north in the same migration of poor blacks from the U.S. south that brought the blues to Chicago beginning around 1917. King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong all became stars in Chicago. Later, white jazz musicians like McPartland, Muggsy Spanier, Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman embraced the Chicago style, which was faster and favored more solos than the New Orleans version of Dixieland and substituted the string bass for the tuba and the guitar for the banjo.

The nine selections on the McPartland LP Dixieland! (1968), on Columbia's budget Harmony label, were originally included a 1957 Epic LP, Jimmy McPartland's Dixieland.

Below is a selection from the Harmony re-release. Unfortunately it has been electronically enhanced for stereo, but is nonetheless quite listenable. Besides McPartland, personnel on this date included Peanuts Hucko on clarinet, Tyree Glenn on trombone, pianist Dick Cary, Bill Crow on bass, Al Casamenti on guitar and Cliff Leeman, drums.

Third Street Blues



All 12 selections on the original Jimmy McPartland's Dixieland LP are available for download from all the major outlets. This is likely a sourced-from-vinyl affair.

The complete Jimmy McPartland's Dixieland was also included in an eight-cd box set, The Classic Columbia Condon Mob Sessions (Mosaic, 2001), fronted by guitarist Eddie Condon.

It's out of print and used copies are going for about $150.

To close, another selection that appears on both the original Epic LP and the Harmony re-release.