Search - Jack Purvis :: 1928-1935

Outstanding collection -- typical of Jazz Oracle's high stan

MusicFilm Fan | Wash., DC | 02/26/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I fully agree with the other, more detailed reviews that this is a truly outstanding collection of hot jazz and dance music, featuring a mostly forgotten trumpeter who has a lot to offer.



Jack Purvis may not be as well known as some his contemporaries, like Bix, Louis, Red Nichols, or Bunny Berrigan, but his playing is well worth hearing, with a very nice tone and the ability to perform beautifully both on the written arrangements and in his improvised parts.



One thing I really like about this collection is that Purvis is playing with quite a few different groups. His trumpet ties the collection together, but you also get a wide variety of vocalists and instrumental performers, both well known and obscure, as well as everything from instrumental jazz to vocal performances of popular tunes. So even though there are 74 cuts here, I never tired of listening because there was always something a little different around the next corner.



I want to put in a good word for the Jazz Oracle label. I've gotten several of their releases recently, and every one of them has been outstanding -- excellent choices for the cuts, very good sound quality (here via transfers by the late, great John R.T. Davies), and well-researched, well-written booklets. Among others, I also have their Isham Jones, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and Red Nichols collections, and I hope to get many more of them -- each one has been exactly what it should be.



If you like hot jazz/dance music, don't overlook this 3-CD Jack Purvis collection. He may be obscure today, but he literally played a part in a lot of good music."

MYSTERIOUS JACK

Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 10/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jack Purvis is one of the more arcane jazz musicians, whose name I would never have stumbled across but for the fortuitous inclusion of five of his eight solo recordings within the Parlophone First Rhythm Style Series of 78s. Those recordings, made just as the Depression began to bite, revealed him to have been an exceptional player, whose technical ability was allied to great improvisational skill. Unfortunately, those artistic attributes came at the price of a highly eccentric personality, which meant that he was at best unreliable and unpredictable, or else mad, bad and dangerous to know.



Thus the compilers of this set have done him proud by assembling 74 sides of mainly hot dance music by the likes of Arnold Johnson, Smith Ballew, Hal Kemp, Ted Wallace, the California Ramblers, and Frank Froeba, not forgetting the eight sides cut under his own name. Not so long ago these commercial recordings of popular tunes of the day were derided by collectors of hot jazz. Happily, thanks to sterling remastering by the late John R.T. Davies these sides stand revealed as miniature masterpieces, the grooves of which contain contributions by the cream of New York's musicians.



The set is complemented by a magnificent 60-page booklet setting out his biography, a commentary on the music, and a discography, together with rare photographs of Mr. Purvis and colour illustrations of some of the various labels on which his output was featured. In short, it is a magnificent enterprise."

The horn of plenty

JJA Kiefte | Tegelen, Nederland | 03/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a truly wonderful and generous collection of rare hot dance music which pivots around the enigmatic trumpeter Jack Purvis, whose excellent trumpeting, both as lead and as a hot soloist, would have yielded more recognition if it hadn't been for his extremely erratic behaviour (Ben Selvin professed never to have heard of Purvis, although he had employed him on at least one recording session, see TOM cd vol 1). Perhaps that's the reason why on this three cd set you'll stumble across such obscure bands such as Arnold Johnson and his Orchestra, Rube Bloom and his Bayou Boys, Lloyd Newton and his Varsity Eleven, Nick Lucas and his Crooning Troubadours, Roy Wilson and his Georgia Crackers, Frank Froeba and his Swing Band next to the more well known California Ramblers, Hal Kemp, Smith Ballew, the Boswell Sisters and Ted Wallace (a pseudonym for Ed Kirkeby). The music (only four items were recorded in 1935, the remaining 70 titles date between 1928-1931) however is delightful, with not a dull moment in sight. Purvis is a technically assured player (he reputedly was an excellent sight reader), possessor of a big, warm, tone with a strong emotive quality (his style perhaps best described as a cross between Louis Armstrong, Red Allen and Bunny Berigan).

His career as a musician ended in 1935 with a ten year term in prison ahead of him; his death (and the actual date of his passing) is shrouded in even more mystery than Adrian Rollini's. This set, which was produced with an infinite amount of dedication and care (there is a very informative 58-page booklet with many photos), is a fitting tribute to one of the forgotten trumpet heroes of the pre-swing era and an almost four hour long feast for the ears.

"