I Love Jazz (Remastered)

This nine-song CD (up one from the eight-song LP version issued by Decca in the early '60s) is an excellent studio representation of Louis Armstrong & the All-Stars at work in their prime as a nostalgia act. And just because they were a nostalgia act didn't mean they did push the envelope within their chosen idiom, given half a chance, as these recordings did. The personnel list is impressive on its own terms, with Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, and Bunny Bigard together in the small group stretching out on "Twelfth Street Rag," and if the later incarnations of the group aren't as eye-catching in their personnel, they're every bit as much of a pleasure to hear on "Skokiaan" (aka "South African Song"), "Frog-I-More Rag," or the title tune. Pianist Billy Kyle gets the spotlight for a chunk of the extended jam of "Otchi-Tchor-Ni-Ya" before Peanuts Hucko and Eddie Miller take center stage on clarinet and tenor sax. The medley of "Tenderly"/"You'll Never Walk Alone" shows off the elegant side of the ensemble's playing and makes a good contrast with the jauntier traditional Dixieland sound on most of the disc. The sound is excellent, though there could have been better annotation.