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Hey, if you can listen to "Wrought Iron Rag" and not bust out with a heart-felt laugh, you might already be dead. It goes without saying that I was delighted to find these two classics remixed and reissued on CD. The sound quality is superb, and the music remains as fresh as it did over 40 years ago. My late father (who thought the Dukes of Dixieland were hot) first let me play his Atlantic LPs of Wilbur de Paris in about 1965. This is a highly-recommended CD set for anyone who likes swinging jazz with true melodic lines, high-flying solos, and no self-conscious atonality. We rocked the dorm and subsequent bachelor-pad apartments with the wah-wah trumpet, bigtop trombone, and klezmer-y clarinet solos of the de Paris band. I promptly dubbed them onto reel-to-reel tape and carried 'em off to college. This solid, intricate, and above all HAPPY, straight-up, swinging New Orleans jazz left most rock'n'roll of the era in the dust.
As the latter is a recorded concert ("Live", in modern jargon - so what was he in the recording studio)., the audience's reaction to his first entry says it all. These two albums are typical of this wonderful, sadly neglected and overlooked band. Wilbur's arrangements are superb throughout and his brother Sidney's trumpet/cornet solos are second to none; just try 'Martinique' (on "M & S") or "Majorca" (Symphony Hall) if you don't believe me.
The new releases sound spectacular - this music has never sounded as good - at least not since it was actually played live. and the amazing Omer Simian on clarinet, along with a rotation of fine drummers, piano players, banjo players and string bass players, cranked out a telepathic tapestry of jazz improvisation that makes all other traditional New Orleans music sound 'wanting' (at least to me).This music was completely neglected by Atlantic for decades and was only available through collectible vinyl resellers until this new label, Collectibles, re-released this whole series of De Paris recordings. Highly recommended. The Wilbur De Paris band of the 1950's was the finest example of the 'New Orleans' tradition of jazz taken to the limit. The band comprised of brothers Wilbur and Sidney De Paris on trombone and cornet (and other brass.).
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