Big T's Dixieland Band

AMG Review of Big T's Dixieland Band

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

For reasons best known to the powers-that-were, this album -- cut in Chicago over two days in April of 1958 -- was recorded by Jack Teagarden and his own band in stereo and mono, but only ever issued publicly in monaural sound until 1996 (see below). This album was also unique among the six long-players that Teagarden recorded for Capitol, as Teagarden's only opportunity to record with his own band of the period. That said, he's in good form, turning in solos that are distinctive and entertaining, although one also gets a sense of disappointment here, mostly by virtue of the band -- they know Teagarden, obviously, and the interaction is tight, but it's also clear that, apart from Don Ewell's piano playing and Jerry Fuller's clarinet work (and then only fleetingly), they're not up to Teagarden's standard of playing, and his work suffers ever so slightly as a result; he was more impressive on his albums with Bobby Hackett and company. On the other hand, the music is delightful, beautifully upbeat and inventive Dixieland jazz by one of its masters, but one shouldn't expect anything too monumental. [Note: Capitol has never reissued Big T's Dixieland Band on CD by itself, but has licensed it to Mosaic as part of the latter's 1996 Complete Capitol Fifties Jack Teagarden Sessions, which included its first release in stereo].