Yes, most of my musical tastes have not shown any of my deep seeded love and admiration for big band music. People usually name drop jazz rather than engage it in any meaningful way. Miles Davis, John Coltrane and a few other artists whose music can be commercially lucrative are usually mentioned.
Which is why this is such a joy to behold. For one, they play a great deal of standards but in a truly lovable way. Plus, those washboards are far more enjoyable than you’d initially believe. They add to a sort of cheerful glee, like the depression is about to end (or recession in our case).
Anyway, the band was made up of some extremely talented musicians. They didn’t focus exclusively on jazz purity, like their rendition of “Tiger Rag” shows. There’s some talk of how “Tiger Rag” informal feel sounds like a precursor to rock. Most of their songs have a bit more looseness than would otherwise be expected for a jazz band, like at the end of “Just another Dream of You” where the guitar sounds almost electric with its high pitched pings.
But my favorite part is how you don’t have to be particularly pre-disposed to this sort of music to like it. In other words, you don’t have to drool over each big band jazz release to find joy in the songs. And whoever did the re-issue did it with a bare minimum of hiss and scratch. This is worth checking out, since it has aged well, unlike some bands from the era (looking at you The California Ramblers).