Twelfth Street Rag (Remastered) - Single

During the mid- to late '50s, a lot of U.S. jazz record collections consisted mainly of Dixieland titles. Many family rooms were dominated by a large wooden console containing a radio and a three-speed electric phonograph, equipped with a sunken compartment within which a sizable selection of records could be stored. The average family might possess a stack of 78-rpm platters; a 45-rpm album of selections from the soundtrack of Pete Kelly's Blues with narration by Jack Webb; a long-playing edition of Clyde McCoy's Sugar Blues; at least two or three LPs by the Dukes of Dixieland; a latter-day offering by Red Nichols & His 5 Pennies; and hopefully a few of the more substantial names like Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, and Bob Scobey. Truly hip households would also know about Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Eddie Condon, Bix Beiderbecke, or even Sidney Bechet. Somewhere in this shuffled deck of traditional jazz records your average Dixieland fan probably had something by trombonist and Dixieland revivalist Pee Wee Hunt. Indeed, his 78-rpm purple label Capitol recording of "Twelfth Street Rag" was a million-selling number one hit, as any collector of original pressings will testify. Recorded in Hollywood in April of 1946, this bracingly bright and bouncy number helped to usher in an era of almost painfully loud sound reproduction, as Capitol seemed to specialize in larger than life ultra-high fidelity. With its patented "oo-wacka-oo" trumpet chorus, "Twelfth Street Rag" quickly became a staple at patio parties and basement beer gardens throughout mid-century, middle-class Middle America. Living Era's portrait of Pee Wee Hunt — a native of Mount Healthy, OH — briefly takes the listener back to his days as a founding member of the Casa Loma Orchestra, a solid outfit with which he worked from its inception at the end of 1929 until 1943. The Casa Loma portion of the survey covers the years 1935 to 1942. Several examples of Hunt's affable vocalizing are included in this chronology, along with a version of Hoagy Carmichael's "Rockin' Chair," where Hunt shares the vocal with special guest Louis Armstrong. Yet most of this compilation is devoted to Hunt's hard-hitting traditional Dixieland jazz, played accurately and with plenty of pep. A slow and earthy rendition of King Oliver's 1926 opus "Snag It" contrasts wonderfully with the hot stuff that dominates most of the album.