Personnel: Louis Armstrong, Mutt Carey [tp], Billie Holiday [v], Barney Bigard [cl], Kid Ory [tb], Charlie Beal, Meade Lux Lewis [pn], Bud Scott [gu], Red Callender [sb], Zutty Singleton, Minor Hall [dm]

Songs: Flee as A Bird/When the Saints Go Marching In, West End Blues, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, Brahm's Lullaby, Tiger Rag, Buddy Bolden's Blues, Basin Street Blues, Raymond Street Blues, Milneberg Joys, Where the Blues Were Born in New Orleans, Farewell to Storyville, Beale Street Stomp, Dippermouth Blues, Shimme-Sha-Wabble, Ballin' the Jack, King Porter Stomp, Mahogany Hall Stomp, The Blues Are Brewing, Endie, Honky Tonk Train.

Marcel Joly - Jazz Critic for JazzGazette.com

NEW ORLEANS - THE SOUNDTRACK, OUT-TAKES AND ASSOCIATED MUSIC FROM THE 1947 MOVIE
(a) Louis Armstrong And His Band: Louis Armstrong (tpt,vcl) Kid Ory (tbn) Barney Bigard (clt) Charlie Beal (pno) Bud Scott (gtr,vcl break)George "Red" Callender (bs) Zutty Singleton (dms)
(b) as (a) but with unidentified studio musicians added to obtain a marching band effect.
(c) as (a) but Bigard omitted and Armstrong only vcl
(d) Louis Armstrong (tpt) Charlie Beal (pno) Red Callender (bs)
(e) as (a) but Armstrong and Beal omitted
(f) as (a) but Thomas "Mutt" Carey (tpt) and Eli "Lucky" Thompson (ts) added
(g) Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra: Louis Armstrong (tpt,vcl) Robert Butler, Louis Gray, Andrew
"Fats" Ford, Ed Mullins (tpt) "Big Chief" Russell Moore, Waddet Williams, Nat Allen, James Whitney (tbn) Don Hill, Amos Gordon (as) Joe Garland, John Sparrow (ts) Ernest Thompson (bars) Earl Mason (pno) Elmer Warner (gtr) Arvell Shaw (bs) Edmond mcConney (dms) Billie Holiday (vcl)
(a) Louis Armstrong (tpt) and probably Charlie Beal (pno)
(b) Billie Holiday (vcl) and probably Charlie Beal (pno)
(c) as (a) but with Billie Holiday and Choir (vcl) added
(d) Meade Lux Lewis (pno)
All the above were pre-recordings for the movie and started on September 11, 1946 at Studio And Artists Recorders, Hollywood, California.
Following tracks were regular commercial recordings made in conjunction with the film.
(a) Louis Armstrong (tpt,vcl) Kid Ory (tbn) Barney Bigard (clt) Charlie Beal (pno) Bud Scott (gtr) Red Callender (bs) Minor Hall (dms), Los Angeles, October 17, 1946
(m) same as (g) but without Billie Holiday, Los Angeles, October 17, 1946
1.Flee As A Bird To The Mountain / When The Saints Go Marching In (b) 2.West End Blues (a) 3.Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (i) (BH vcl) 4.Brahms' Lullaby (h) 5.Tiger Rag (a) 6.Buddy Bolden Blues (c) (LA vcl) 7.Buddy Bolden Blues (c) (LA vcl) 8.Basin Street Blues (a) (LA vcl) 9.Raymond Street Blues (d) 10.Milneberg Joys (a) 11.Where The Blues Were Born In New Orleans (a) (LA vcl) 12. Farewell To Storyville (j) (BH + choir vcl) 13.Beale Street Stomp (e) 14.Dippermouth Blues (slow version) (f) 15.Dippermouth Blues (fast version) (f) (Bud Scott vcl break) 16.Shimme-Sha-Wabble (f) 17.Ballin' The Jack (f) 18.King Porter Stomp (f) 19.Mahogany Hall Stomp (slow version) (a) 20.Mahogany Hall Stomp (fast version) (f) 21.The Blues Are Brewin' (g) (BH vcl) 22.Endie (g) (LA vcl) 23.Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (a) (BH vcl) 24.Honky Tonk Train (k) 25.Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (l) (LA vcl) 26.Where The Blues Were Born In New Orleans (l) (LA vcl) 27.Mahogany Hall Stomp (l) 28.Endie (m) (LA vcl) 29.The Blues Are Brewin' (m) (LA vcl)

First of all, the discographical information found here differs somewhat from the one on the CD, but it IS correct and more complete.
When the movie "New Orleans" was in the planning stage, the man responsible for the pre-recording of the music knew more or less what he was doing. They actually went to New Orleans and recorded a real marching band, Kid Howard's Brass Band.. The music was not used in the film, you'll understand why later on. When I said the man knew MORE OR LESS what he was doing, I'm thinking about the presence of Louis Armstrong in the band that appears in the movie. His choice of Louis was obviously a commercial one. On pure musical grounds it is obvious that the style Louis had developed on the trumpet by then, was not the kind of trumpet playing that could be heard in New Orleans in 1917, the year Storyville closed and the time that the events in the movie are supposed to have happened. If that would be all that went wrong, we would have been much happier with the movie. In fact, the movie stinks! The story was originally meant as a history of the birth of jazz in New Orleans and Louis, Billie and the other black musicians were signed to ensure the authenticity of the music. Charlie Emge in his Downbeat column in the fall of 1946 confirmed that a second unit crew had been dispatched to New Orleans to film an authentic street parade and funeral with among others George Lewis. Afterwards everything was changed. Instead of a story glorifying black music the emphasis throughout the film was on whether or not a young white opera singer would throw over her career and run off with a gambler restauranteer. Louis and Billie were relegated to secondary roles, Louis as the leader of the band playing in the basement restaurant of the gambling house, Billie as the personal maid of the opera singer! Very little of the (excellent) pre-recorded music ended up in the movie. Most of it was edited and interrupted by the inane dialogue of the script. For the jazz lovers at the time, the movie was a very disappointing and frustrating experience. Fortunately someone kept the acetates with the pre-recorded music and that's what we are talking about here.
Judged on its own merits, and disregarding the stylistical differences between the music actually heard and what was really played in the 1917 New Orleans, the music on this CD is captivating at all times and deserves a place in everyone's jazz collection. With two exceptions, Louis would never again in his career be surrounded by so many New Orleans born musicians or play such a completely down home repertoire. The exceptions were the recordings he made with the white New Orleans band, The Dukes of Dixieland, now on CD on Blue Moon, and a concert he did with Kid Ory's band in Disneyland in 1962. His reunion with old side-kicks from the earlier and later Hot Five (Ory and Singleton) was most interesting. It gives us a glimpse of how the All Stars could have sounded if Louis had chosen nothing but New Orleans born musicians for that group. But he didn't!
The length of the tunes heard here varies from less than a minute (Buddy Bolden's Blues, Brahms' Lullaby) to almost 5 minutes (Basin Street Blues, Where The Blues Were Born In New Orleans). These are the COMPLETE pre-recordings and not the snippets of them as heard in the movie. "Raymond Street Blues" offers the rare opportunity of Louis growling away on muted trumpet. Mutt Carey can be heard soloing on "Simme-Sha-Wabble" and playing the lead on the second chorus of "Ballin' The Jack" and on the second strain of "King Porter Stomp".
And what about the brass band recorded in New Orleans? At the time this music appeared on LP for the first time, no discs of those recordings could be found. Today we know more about them. We even know who played in the brass band: Kid Howard, Louis Dumaine, Henry Allen Sr (tpt) Jim Robinson, Bill Matthews (tbn) George Lewis (clt) Howard Davis (sax) John Porter (baritone horn) Ricard Alexis (mellophone) Sidney Brown (sous) Cie Frazier (sn-dm) Lawrence Marrero (bs-dm). Two tunes were recorded in several takes: "Going To The Graveyard" ( "Flee As a Bird To The Mountain") and "Marching From The Graveyard" ("St.Louis Blues"). Recording dates were August 31, 1946 and September 1, 1946, respectively. But where are the discs? The last thing I heard about them was - if I remember well - Tom Stagg telling me in New Orleans he had a tape of the music. Because there was so little of it, he was looking for suitable material to add. So, MAYBE, there is still hope we will hear this historically important music in the future. For the time being, we should be grateful for what we get here, which is much more than we expected after seeing the movie!
As Big Bill says in his liner notes: "So here is some great music from a not-so-great film. Close your eyes and visualise your own virtual movie". I second this wise advise.
- Marcel Joly

Richard Bourcier - JazzReview.com - Jazz Critic

Most jazz buffs will list New Orleans as one of their favorite films. It was a rare chance to hear authentic vintage jazz in a "relatively undiluted" format. Hollywood seems to feel that it's their God-given right and duty to "seek and destroy" all remnants of America's only true art form. Do they honestly believe that the film viewing public is too ignorant to recognize good music? If it's good jazz or good classical music, the pundits in Hollywood will "water it down" so the public can "understand" it.
Certainly, nobody will contest the editor's right and duty to separate the good from the bad. All the tracks on this CD are "out-takes" and that's fine. Even professionals like Satchmo made their share of fluffs and threw away "less than perfect" arrangements.
Thankfully, due to albums such as this, the hard-nosed collectors can immerse themselves in a duck soup of edited material. We can now be the "armchair quarterbacks" and decide what would have been the best "call."
The part that really bothers this writer is the fact that, for no apparent good reason, a musical treasure was snuffed by Hollywood's "heartless." The legendary George Lewis was originally in the film performing with Kid Howard's Brass Band. The section was cut before the final release of the film in 1947. To the best of my knowledge the song was "Maryland, My Maryland."
The Jazz Crusade CD offers 29 tracks by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Meade Lux Lewis. The collector will feel like a kid on Halloween when opening this bag of musical candy. Billie Holiday owned the tune "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans." It appears no less than three times in one form or another.
Louis Armstrong is always a major attraction but there is more here than just great Satchmo. There is some fabulous work by Kid Ory, Barney Bigard and pianist Charlie Beal. Thankfully, Charlie Beal was working in L.A.'s Jococco Room during the period that the soundtrack was being recorded in 1946. His contribution to the music in the film cannot be minimized. You'll have to listen closely to hear Beal's artistry but it's worth the time. That's what albums like this are all-about. Listen and discover! Certainly, there are some musically poor moments here but that's to be expected. This is a neat collection of blunders and wonders.
- Richard Bourcier

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