Track Listing

1. Dixie Jazz Band One-Step - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
2. Maple Leaf Rag - Sidney Bechet, The New Orleans Feetwarmers, The New Orleans Feetwarmers
3. Weary Blues - Sidney Bechet, Tommy Ladnier
4. Ostrich Walk - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
5. Big Butter and Egg Man - Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band, Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band
6. Tiger Rag - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
7. High Society - Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Jazzmen
8. Indian Summer - Sidney Bechet, Sidney Bechet & His New Orleans Feetwarmers, Sidney Bechet
9. Sensation Rag - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
10. At the Jazz Band Ball - Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band, Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band
11. Margie - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
12. Muskrat Ramble - Sidney Bechet,
13. Broadway Rose - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
14. Jazz Me Blues - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
15. Black and Blue - Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band, Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band
16. St. Louis Blues - Original Dixieland Jazz Band
17. Twelfth Street Rag - Sidney Bechet, Sidney Bechet & His New Orleans Feetwarmers, Sidney Bechet

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268995 in Music
• Released on: 1997-01-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Among the very first jazz recordings commercially released
This CD is essential for historical purposes as among the selections included are the Original Dixieland Jass Band's recordings from 1917 which are the first jazz recordings commercially released, plus you'll also get music from Sidney Bechet, who pioneered the New Orleans jazz sound, and Muggsy Spanier And His Ragtime Band. There is notable noise reduction which can be heard clearly if you listen on a decent hi-fi system carefully, but the music is what really counts and what's here musically is great. All of these songs are standards of any dixieland jazz band repertoire to this very day and are timeless. If you want to learn how jazz started in a commercial sense, look no further than this CD. I also recommend this CD to people who aren't normally jazz music fans who want to go back to the roots of popular music.

Concentrates on only three jazz icons, but still a great sampler
"Dixieland Greatest Hits" suggests a wide range of musicians and songs, but BMG devotes this collection to only three exemplars of New Orleans jazz. The Original Dixieland Jass Band has eight tracks, Sidney Bechet has six, and Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band has three. This limited approach is actually a good idea, because it offers a more concentrated education to novice listeners, and a more satisfying sampling for traditional-jazz fans.

Bechet is the star here, with his soprano saxophone featured on ragtime and early-jazz chestnuts. His band races through "Maple Leaf Rag" like a house afire, and he sits in on "Muskrat Ramble" with the formidable Henry Levine and his "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street" band. But the highlight is "Weary Blues," with Bechet in Tommy Ladnier's band. This old favorite has incredible bounce, and you'll be playing this one again and again.

The Original Dixieland Jass Band, of course, was the pioneer jazz combo, and this CD offers some representative sides dating from 1917 to 1921. The early "Sensation" and "Tiger Rag" are typical ODJB performances, ragged and raw, but full of enthusiasm. These soon give way to the more conventional dance-band stylings of "Margie" and (with added saxophone) "Broadway Rose." All are instrumentals except the rather self-conscious revival of "St. Louis Blues" (with an unfortunate "comic" vocal).

Muggsy Spanier's band is "ragtime" in name only -- these sessions date from swing-crazy 1939, when Spanier's brand of gut-bucket was anachronistic, hence the "ragtime" name. Spanier's best here is "Black and Blue," with Spanier's scorching trumpet offset by the cool saxophone of Bernie Billings (who sounds almost exactly like Bud Freeman).

Fidelity throughout is superior. The 1930s and 1940s cuts sound like they were recorded last week, and even the antique ODJB records, recorded before the advent of microphones, sound fine. Recommended for anyone's library, and a good "beginner" disc for those who are just getting into hot jazz.