LOUISIANA FIVE

One of the first ensembles hired to record something resembling jazz, the Louisiana Five are, interestingly enough, accused of having a flora fetish by an observer astute enough to notice song titles such as "Orange Blossom," "Golden Rod," and "Weeping Willow," even a sheet music folio with a picture of the group studying the notation for "California Blossom." To be fair, the septet recorded dozens of titles between 1918 and 1920, examining a number of topics of which "Big Fat Ma," "Clarinet Squawk," "Down Where the Rajahs Dwell," and "Yelping Hound Blues" seem intriguing and unconcerned with any sort of vegetation. This string of recordings started only a few months following what are considered to be the first jazz sides in history, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Clarinetist Alcide "Yellow" Nunez had played with that group prior to numbering among the Louisiana Five. The Emerson, Columbia, and Edison labels all read more...