Customer Reviews:
 First-rate revival jazz! November 25, 2008
Here's a band that knew its stuff & played for enjoyment. On two (2) discs there are 32 titles of pre-Trad trad, including a few originals. The band had made a few sides in Australia before setting off on a long European jaunt, if travelling across the world in 1947 can ever be called such. In Prague and Paris they laid down these tracks, which certainly stand the test of time if, like many crusty jazz types, you're stuck in 1957. They sound a lot like the great British bands of the latter decade, for example the Laurie and Paramount oufits, and to some extent the Colyer band of the time. There are no deep blues roots clearly to be heard, more, in the band leader's words, "...a sort of fresh, slightly happy Australian larrikinism". It's good-time music but not trite.
The sound is fine, the re-mastering having been done mostly from shellac discs.
If revivalist jazz is your thing, this release is for you. If you're not so sure, I'd say, take a chance on it.
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