Personnel:  Kid Sheik Cola (tp,v), Brother Cornbread Thomas (cl,v), Peter Goetz (tb),Niels Henrik Ross-Petersen (sbs), Peter Nissen (bn), Keith Minter(dm)

Songs:  Bye & Bye, Just A Closer Walk with Thee, Tulane Swing, St. James Infirmary, I Wish I Was in Peoria, Eh! La Bas, Yes Sir That's My Baby, Down by the Riverside, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Back Porch, The Second line

Mississippi Rag: - U.S.A.

The session at hand was recorded at Copenhagen's Hot House Jazz Club in 1974 with Peter Nissen's New Orleans Band...Sheik kept working through the years, and for a period in the early 1980s had the best band working at Preservation Hall. Like most New Orleans trumpeters, Sheik has his own bag of tunesJust as you'd expect Rip Em Up Joe from Percy Humphrey and Love Songs of the Nile from DeDe Pierce, you'd expect Tulane Swing and Last Night on the Back Porch from Sheik. They're here, along with nine other good old ones. Sheik has a wonderful ability to drive a band along. You don't think he's really doing that much, but he can generate momentum like few men out there today. And the band falls right in line behind him as if they've always been there. There is a good time feeling to the music. Joe "Cornbread" Thomas came as a last minute replacement for Albert Burbank...and it is a treat to hear him at length.I don't think I ever heard him with Sheik. They work well together and he plays infectiously, though not always in tune, in a manner similar to that of Willie Humphrey. He was a well loved fixture on the New Orleans scene...so it is good to have a healthy dose of him here. The Nissen band does a good job backing their imported guests and trombonist Peter Goetz sounds uncannily like Louis Nelson on several of the numbers, particularly when he digs in for a second chorus. The rhythm is solid and not flashy, and they are content to supply support.
I'd have enjoyed this conceit if I was in the audience and I think that it travels pretty well. I've been listening to it on and off for several months and like it a lot. They were two of the warmest, most entertaining showmen in New Orleans.
- Paige Van Vorst

West Coast Rag: U.S.A.

Two New Orleans veterans, trumpeter Kid Sheik and clarinetist Joseph "Brother Cornbread" Thomas were supported by four local uptown New Orleans style musicians. Sheik plays a forthright but ordinary lead.
However, this may be the only CD on the market that features Thomas. His playing is absolutely wonderful. He has a pure round tone, imagination, agility and a logical sense of solo construction (often tossing out an idea and then answering it with a similarly shaped phrase). His husky, heartfelt vocalizing also is appealing. Fortunately, he is well miked on all tracks. If I were someone who had not collected Thomas on LP, I would not want to be without this excellent example of his work.
- Tex Wyndham

Jazz Rag New Zealand

This musicAwas recorded at the Hot House Jazz Club, Copenhagen. Remarkably good sounding New Orleans style music without the continental "oompah" sound which seems to mar so many European jazz recordings. I particularly enjoyed the drumming of K. Minter. Kid Sheik himself does, as always, a fine credible job, down the middle, no fuss melody lines, not particularly powerful but certainly pleasant. Cornbread Thomas does a very good job on clarinet. My favorite number was the pop hit of yesteryear, Alexander's Ragtime Band, though not strictly regarded as jazz by some, nevertheless, good swinging music on this CD. Back Porch, St. James Infirmary & Yessir Thafs My Baby and other well known tracks are featured on this well produced CD from Jazz Crusade.
- Terry K. Offord

JAZZ JOURNAL - British Jazz Magazine

This is from a live session at the Hothouse Club, Copenhagen, with the two visitors from New Orleans guests of Peter Nissen's band. Kid Sheik always endeared himself to European enthusiasts with his warm personality and sense of humour. This is a performance full of charm and good feeling as long as one is prepared to accept the technical shortcomings of the two principals. The local lads provide sympathetic support, and the audience is responsive. Most of the tracks have a vocal by one or the other of the visitors, none of them especially beautiful but all contributing to the atmosphere of the occasion - an atmosphere which we can enjoy too if we enter into it. This is New Orleans jazz in its humble 'social music' vein. If it is approached on its own terms, it can give those who are prepared to accept its limitations a good deal of pleasure
- Christopher Hillman

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