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.

American Folk Blues Festival - 1962-1965

Some of the most influential American blues musicians, including harp player Big Walter Horton, were introduced to European audiences through the American Folk Blues Festival, a 10-year series of events that began in 1962. The festival's early years were documented in a five-CD set issued by Evidence in 1995. Many of the selections had been previously issued on vinyl but there were also plenty of unreleased gems in the CD release.

The All Music Guide describes Horton (1918-1981) as "one of the most influential blues harmonica players of all time, and a particular pioneer in the field of amplified harmonica." But Horton, a shy man, was never as popular as other harp greats like Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson II, preferring the more anonymous life of a sideman. He played on classic Chess recordings by the likes of Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines and Otis Rush, as well as recording some sides of his own for producer Willie Dixon.

I remember seeing Horton perform with Dixon at a college in Nelson, British Columbia, in the early 1970s, a show that also included pianist Lafayette Leake and other musicians from the Chess studios. Seating was on a concrete floor, no chairs, and the opening act was a horrible white blues-rock band. The main attraction was worth the discomfort, however.

Four of the discs in the American Folk Blues Festival set are live recordings, but the fifth is a studio session. From it comes Blues Harp Shuffle by Horton.

Blues Harp Shuffle



The box set of the festival's first years is still available from various sources. Expect to pay about $60; not bad for a five-disc set. As well some tracks from festival performances are available as downloads from the usual places. And there are DVDs of many of the concerts. A Google search will give you all the information you need.

Here's a great YouTube video of Big Walter Horton playing at an American Folk Blues Festival concert in Copenhagen in 1970.