A lost piece of Jazz History
jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 02/06/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Does it ever occur to you to think that Jelly Roll Morton is overrated? Admit it - it does... Don't be ashamed, it occurs to many. Even to some of the greats (Ellington, for example).But when this happens, you should have this disc around to pull out. Dink Johnson (who had some interesting familial connections to Jelly Roll) is like Morton without the genius and the virtuosity. And without the ability to hear diminished chords. Every time they occur in a tune he substitutes something WAY more anodyne. But his singing is eerily like Morton's. Just listen to Pigeon Walk and compare it to Animule Ball or My Home Is A Southern Town. And then there's When The Sun Goes Down with its paraphrases of a couple of Armstrong solos, most notably Savoy Blues. This CD gives us a couple of things: it provides us with some missing links, and it gives us new awareness and respect for how above the pack the Greats of Early Jazz truly were.If you're into that history, that's not nothing. But for the rest of you? It's charming, but so are a lot of things."