Fidgety Feet
Royal Garden Blues
That’s A-Plenty
Tin Roof Blues
High Society
Stealin’ The Blues
Black Bottom Stomp
Everything’s Wrong (Ain’t Nothing Right)
Annie Street Rock
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Snake Rag
Out Of The Gallion
Dutch Swing College Blues
King Porter Stomp
Original Dixieland One-Step
Absent Minded Blues
Boogietrap
1919 Blues
Mabel’s Dream
Freeze An’ Melt
Buddy’s Habits
Buddy Bolden’s Blues
Them There Eyes
Weary Blues
See See Rider
Cakewalkin’ Babies From Home.
Volume two of Lake’s DSCB
tribute takes us to sessions made between
1950 and 1952. They were amongst the more
cosmopolitan and technically fluent of European
bands at the time and these sides also reinforce
the nature and extent of their stylistic flexibility.
They were fortunate in having a versatile,
indeed outstanding clarinettist in the shape
of Peter Schilperoot. He operated rather as
Humphrey Lyttelton did with his own band;
the Dutch clarinettist doubled trumpet whilst
the English trumpeter doubled clarinet. It
gave versatility to the front line, allowing
an Oliver-Armstrong recreation and with fellow
clarinettist Dim Kesber, Schilperooot formed
a formidable two-clarinet team adding depth
and contrapuntally weaving lines.
Fortunately the DSCB’s rhythm
section was altogether lighter than some of
the more Jurassic European competitors. The
arrangements were also well thought out and
calibrated. And they certainly cover a deal
of ground, from obscure and Classic blues,
standards, New Orleans warhorses, boogie,
rags and originals.
Joop Schrier is the boogie-oriented
pianist whose fire illuminates the introduction
to Stealin’ The Blues. He shows his
strong allegiance to Jimmy Yancey in Boogietrap.
Trumpeter Kees van Dorsser comes on strong
in a confident, brassy Nobody Knows You
When You’re Down and Out. The band is
augmented by the visiting Sidney Bechet for
two numbers. They sound considerably better
rehearsed - and considerably less nervous
- than the Lyttelton band when they recorded
with Bechet. Of the two King Porter Stomp
gets a fine swing revamp that plays to
the band’s strengths; Bechet is marvellous
as ever though he coasts. Mabel’s Dream,
so beloved of revivalists, is given an excellent,
though banjo-dominated, workout and it’s a
measure of their stylistic pluralism that
we go straight to the McHugh-Fields vehicle
Freeze and Melt without too much strain.
Even a guitar solo! Buddy Bolden’s Blues
comes tuba laden and sends us straight
back to the 1920s.
These tracks show instrumental
strengths but also show a lack, as yet, of
real direction, a searching around for a style
that might fit rather than a natural affinity
with a particular idiom. Still, on their own
terms they’re enjoyable and commanding performances
from one of Europe’s very best bands.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE
LACD 251 [79:09]
