Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Them Rambling Blues - Little Ramblers, University Six
2. Arkansas Blues - Little Ramblers, University Six
3. Tessie (Stop Teasing Me) - Little Ramblers, University Six
4. Hard Hearted Hannah - Little Ramblers, University Six
5. Desdemona
6. Camel Walk
7. She Was Just a Sailor's Sweetheart
8. Fallin' Down
9. Smile a Little Bit
10. Then I'll Be Happy
11. In Your Green Hat
12. Dustin' the Donkey
13. I Love My Baby
14. Georgianna
15. What a Man!
16. Sittin' Around
17. Tiger Rag
18. San
19. Ace in the Hole
20. St. Louis Hop
21. Oh! If I Only Had You
22. I Ain't Got Nobody
23. That's a Good Girl
24. Give Me a Ukulele
25. Wait'll You See (My Brand New Mama)

Disc 2:

1. My Baby Knows How
2. It Takes a Good Woman (To Keep a Good Man at Home)
3. Lonely Eyes
4. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
5. Beale St. Blues
6. Nobody But My Baby (Is Getting My Love)
7. Oh Lizzie
8. Cat
9. It's O.K. Katy with Me
10. So Long Pal
11. Rosy Cheeks
12. Yes She Do, No She Don't
13. Slow River
14. She's Got "It"
15. Lazy Weather
16. Bless Her Little Heart
17. Ain't That a Grand and Glorious Feeling?
18. Roam on My Little Gypsy Sweetheart
19. Pastafazoola
20. Swanee Shore
21. Who's Knockin' at My Door?
22. Oh Doris! Where Do You Live?
23. Zulu Wail

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371611 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
Very rare tracks from the early days of jazz feature longtime underrated artists like Adrian Rollini and Abe Lincoln. Substantial liner notes by Richard M. Sudhalter.

Customer Reviews

Finally!
I've collected 78s for many years, focusing on the jazz and dance bands of the 1920s. The University Six have long been among my favorites: they recorded dozens of sides for Columbia's budget label, Harmony, that feature jazzy arrangements of pop tunes of the day. I have quite a few University Six 78s, but I'm glad to have them on CD now. Essentially, the University Six is just another name for the California Ramblers (which also recorded under the pseudonyms The Varsity Eight, the Golden Gate Orchestra, The Goofus Five, and many others). Somewhat unfortunately, Hamony Records continued to record acoustically well into 1929, so all of the tracks on this set are acoustic. However, Harmony had one of the best, clearest acoustic systems, coupled with superior record pressing quality, so these performances sound pretty good. Adrian Rollini's bass sax just wails! The music is exciting and fun, but best taken in small doses.

Retrieval has done a fine job of presenting thse recordings. The transfers, among the last from legendary engineer John R. T. Davies, are everything you'd expect from the late master: crisp, clear, with minimal surface noise, and completely free of digital artifacts or the overprocessing that plagues reissues from some other labels. The two CDs are packed full, with a total of 48 tracks between the two. The overall package is quite attractive, although the set could have benefited from a quick round of proof reading. The tray card omits track 16 on the first disc ("Sittin' Around"), but fortunately, it is listed on the inside of the booklet. Additionally, the liner notes are riddled with grammatical errors, but never enough to obscure their meaning. The liner notes by Bix expert Dick Sudhalter are, I think, a little too critical of the University Six, but nevertheless provide some valuable insight into the making of these recordings. Just why the editorial description calls these recordings "very rare," I'm not sure. Most of these haven't appeared on CD before, but the original 78s for most of them are relatively common.

Finally, to those who are lucky enough to have this set and the Goofus Five disc on Timeless, I would recommend comparing the versions of "Ain't That A Grand And Glorious Feeling." The two versions were made days apart (in June 1927) by essentially the same group of musicians, performing the same arrangement, for two divisions of the same company, Columbia: as the University Six for Harmony and as the Goofus Five for OKeh. However, the Goofus Five version was recorded electrically and the Harmony acoustically. The difference in sound quality is absolutely astounding--it's amazing to me that commercial recording systems producing such drastically different-sounding recordings could coexist--and within the same parent company, no less. It was definitely a time of change!

Great stuff. Highly recommended.