Live at Mahogany Hall

AMG Review of Live at Mahogany Hall

Ron Wynn
All Music Guide

Longtime New Orleans mainstays The Dukes of Dixieland celebrated their 40th anniversary in 1989 with a robust live recording at Mahogany Hall on Bourbon Street. The festive occasion saw them take warhorses like "Tiger Rag," "Swing That Music," and "Wolverine Blues" and extend them, playing with less polish and more energy. This doesn't have the rehearsed, stiff quality that plagues much traditional jazz. Instead, things are loose, audience response is genuine and spontaneous, and the music has a crackling, unpredictable air that characterized the early groups that The Dukes of Dixieland deify.