Live 91: The Dixieland We Lo

That this live recording of Rick Fay's Dixieland band makes it to disc 20 years after it was recorded is not so unusual, given that the music and the performances could have come from the 1920s rather than the 1990s. But what may have kept the show in the can until 2011 is the limited sound quality. The album sounds as though it had been recorded from another room; certainly, the musicians don't seem to have been worrying too much about staying on-microphone, and as a result the vocals and sometimes the instruments sound far away. That's not true of the all-important horns, of course, which are loud enough to make an impression. Actually, the mediocre sound increases the sense of authenticity in the music, as if it really had been performed many decades earlier. The set features standards from the early jazz of the ‘20s, including Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That" and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue." The main thing the show has going for it is its spirit. The players sound like they're having as much fun as the audience.