Personnel: Jimmy Dorsey [cl/asx], Charlie Teagarden [tp], Cutty Cutshalll, Bud Hackman [tb], Frank Mayne, Buddy Bardach [tsx], Al Waslohn, Bob Carter [pn], Bill Lallotte [sbs], Ray Bauduc, Karl Kiffe [dm], Pat O'Connor [v]

Songs: Muscat Ramble 1 & 2, Royal Garden Blues, Sweet Lorraine, Charley My Boy, Tin Roof Blues, Struttin' with Some Barbecue, Memphis Blues, That's A Plenty, Chimes Blues, When You're Smiling, Johnson Rag, Wolverine Blues, Beale Street Blues, High Society, Panama, Jazz Me Blues, South Rampart Street Parade.

Jazz Rag - British jazz magazine

This consists of two sessions from New York's Hotel Stadler in 1950, with Charlie Teagarden providing an object lesson in hot dixieland trumpet and the immaculate Cuitty Cutshall filling the trombone chair on one session. A selection of jazz standards takes a rare lambasting from an uninhibited band that occupies a different universe from some of Jimmy's sweeter big band.
- Ron Simpson

Mississippi Rag - U. S. A.

Jimmy Dorsey is best remembered today as the altoist-leader of a popular swing era big band, an ensemble that reached the height of its popularity during 1941-42 due to a series of recordings that featured the vocals of Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberle. Frequently Eberle would sing a ballad chorus, Dorsey would play an interlude on alto and O'Connell would finish up the song with an exuberant chorus; sometimes the order of O'Connell and Eberle's vocals would be reversed. "Amapola," "Green Eyes," "Tangerine" were all big hits.
However, in listening to this CD, one can completely forget about that big band! More relevant are Jimmy Dorsey's roots in 1920s jazz music. Born Feb. 29, 1904 (22 months before younger brother Tommy), Dorsey actually began on trumpet (which he played on a few occasions in the '20s). By the time he emerged with Red Nichols' Five Pennies in 1926, JD ranked as one of jazz's top clarinetists and arguably its best alto-saxophonist of the time, playing virtuosic lines with little effort. He was greatly in demand for the next eight years for both jazz and commercial dance band dates, and Dorsey never lacked for work during the Depression.
Starting in 1928, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey occasionally recorded together as co-leaders of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. In 1934 they decided to make their recording group a reality and they put together a full-time orchestra. It only took little more than a year before their constant personality conflicts resulted in TD leaving and starting his own big band out of the nucleus of the Joe Haymes Orchestra. Although they soon patched up their differences, the Dorseys had separate careers for the next 18 years. Tommy's orchestra was generally considered the superior one since it could play swing, dixieland-oriented instrumentals (most notably by his Clambake Seven) and dance music (featuring the leader's pretty, muted trombone) with equal skill. Jimmy Dorsey's band was thought of as more of a minor league ensemble until the Eberle-O'Connell hits began coming in. Throughout it all, JD's alto and clarinet playing were part of the group's sound but not overly featured, and his talents tended to be under-rated. Certainly when one thinks of the big three of swing-era altoists (Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Willie Smith), Jimmy Dorsey's name is not mentioned.
JD never lost his ability to play jazz, however, and on rare occasions he would display his talents. In 1949 he had one of his most interesting big bands, an ensemble that was both influenced by bop (the young Maynard Ferguson was one of his trumpeters) and open to revival dixieland. For the latter, Dorsey put together a small group partly drawn from his big band that he called "The Original Dorseyland Jazz Band." The group (which also starred trumpeter Charlie Teagarden, trombonist Cutty Cutshall, tenorman Frank Maynes and pianist Dick Gary) recorded 18 titles for Columbia during November 1949 and January 1950, as well as a few slightly later titles. They also appeared on several radio broadcasts including material put out on LPs by Hindsight and the British Swing House label. ,
Recently Big Bill Bissonnette's Jazz Crusade label put out a full disc of performances by the Dorseyland band, two 1950 broadcasts from the Hotel Statler in New York City. Twelve of the numbers were earlier included on the Swing House LP (which is long out-of-print), but the six others have never been out before. Dorsey, who sticks to clarinet except for some alto on "Sweet Lorraine," is joined on these performances by trumpeter Charlie Teagarden, either Bud Hackman (the first seven numbers) or Cutty Cutshall on trombone, Frank Meyer or Buddy Bardach on tenor, Al Waslohn or Bob Carter on piano, bassist Bill Lallotte and Ray Bauduc or Karl Kiffe on drums. Pat O'Connor takes the vocal on "Charley My Boy" (where she is assisted by Teagarden) and "The Johnson Rag."
Overall the music is no-nonsense and often hyper. "Muscat Ramble" which is over six minutes long. About the "Muscat" vs. "Muskrat" titling, the second version of the song starts out with JD giving a plausible explanation why he believed that "Muscat" was the proper spelling. By 1951 the Dorseyland Band was history and two years later Jimmy Dorsey broke up his big band altogether, joining with Tommy in the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, performing nostalgic swing music during his remaining three years.

Victory Music Review - U. S. A.

The Dorseys' big bands also had small, Dixieland groups. Jimmy's was the most serious and played hot, driving sounds with Jimmy on clarinet, Charlie Teagarden on trumpet, Cutty Cutshall on trombone, Ray Bauduc on drums among others. These two 1950 airshots from the New York Hotel Statler are so alive. Teagarden and Dorsey are crystalline in the kicking "Muscat Ramble" or the loving slow "Tin Roof Blues" with the driving trombone work of Bud Hackman. The sound has good balance and rings clear. The style falls between the swinging Kid Ory and the Condon sounds of the era. Except in a couple of vocals their is no gimmicks just blazing musical fire. Wonderful 18-tune collection of standards very alive 50 years later.
- Chris Lunn

Cadence Magazine - U. S. A.

While younger brother Tommy may have had Sinatra, Jimmy Dorsey's small groups were more than capable of holding their own. (1) brings together two variations of the Dorseyland Jazz Band, both originating from airshots catching the group at the Hotel Statler in New York City. This septet specialized in brassy Dixieland numbers taken at a breakneck pace, which frame the leader's own high register heroics on the clarinet. Part of the group's distinctive sound should be credited to the trumpet of Charlie Teagarden, who blasts out the high heat with authority, yet is equally capable of blowing some aching lines as on "Tin Roof Blues." While the kitsch vocals can certainly be bypassed, the big buttery-toned tenor of Mayne and the versatile trombones of Hackman and Cutshall shoUld have given the Clambake Seven a run for their money as the premier Dorsey small unit.
- Jon Morgan

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