Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (1921-1956)
Throughout the history of jazz, mythical places like New Orleans's Storyville, Chicago's South Side, Kansas City's Tenderloin district, and New York's Harlem and 52nd Street were celebrated as the legendary hotspots. Thankfully, this impressive four-CD, 91-track collection featuringNat "King" Cole,Louis Armstrong, andBenny Carterto name a few, puts Los Angeles's famous African-American enclave, Central Avenue, on the historical map and offers the listener a zoot-suited, jitterbugged jaunt through Club Alabam, The Downbeat, and other jumpin' joints where Hollywood stars rubbed shoulders with hep cats under a pulsating Pacific sky. The set covers an important period in the development of African-American music, from the conclusion of World War I to the birth of rock & roll: from the early New Orleans bouncy brass-band sounds of "Get Out of Here" byKid Ory's Creole Jazz Bandand the Spanish-tinged, habanera syncopation on "Mamanita," courtesy of the pioneering pianist/composerJelly Roll MortontoLionel Hampton's boogie-woogie anthem "Flying Home" and the killer keyboard calisthenics onArt Tatum's "Tiger Rag." TheCharlie ParkerSeptet's "Ornithology" blew into town on the wings of bebop innovation and hypnotized local up-and-comers like bassistCharles Mingus--under the moniker of Baron Mingus & His Octet on a rare side called "Bedspread"--and tenor saxophonistDexter Gordon's raw-boned tone on "Chromatic Aberration," which previewedJohn Coltrane's sheets of sound.Miles Davis's cool indigo-impressionism radiance on "Up in Dodo's Room," performed by the Howard McGhee Sextet, contrasts with the harmonic heights reached by theGerald Wilson Orchestra's reading of "Groovin' High." There is a remarkable fluidity of transition from blues to R&B;, as heard in the western wails on "Blues on Central Avenue" byJoe Turnerwith the Freddie Slack Trio, Nellie Lutcher's hip-bopping, tasty, and teasing "Fine Brown Frame" and the Texas-bred, guitar twang ofT-Bone Walker's "Call It Stormy Monday," all of which highlight the sepia-toned, soulful syncretism that formed the bedrock of modern music and the marvelous black neighborhood that provided the foundation for it. --Eugene Holley Jr.