St. Louis Blues
LP Storyville SLP 115
Elderly gentlemen playing like young guys, but I wonder if they felt that they had to use as much energy as here, back in the days when Oscar “Papa” Celestin on cornet and maybe some of the others on the LP played in Tuxedo Hall in New Orleans. I guess not.
This number is a bit less frenetic than the others performed at a concert in 1951. All the members of the band were born in the 19th century, including Celestin himself in 1884.
The clarinet solo by Alphonse Picou is, like his famous solo on High Society, a fixed one. I have not studied the case, but I think that the origin, or at least the inspiration, of this is the recording of the tune by Original Dixieland Jazz Band, on which Larry Shields plays what is considered the first jazz solo. It’s more or less accurately quoted in numerous recordings of the number by New Orleans jazz bands. It’s also the inspiration for Johnny Dodds’ clarinet choruses on Canal Street Blues with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band.
After the vocal by pianist Octave Crosby, Papa Celestin plays until the end in a sensual way with a harmon mute, something that he did already on recordings from the 1920s.
The band is still called “Oscar Papa Celestin and his Tuxedo Jazzband,” and besides the leader on cornet and the aforementioned Picou and Crosby, it consists of Bill Matthews on trombone, Richard Alexis on bass, and Christopher Goldstone on drums.