Personnel: Wilbur DeParis [tb], Sidney DeParis [tp], Omer Simeon [cl], Don Kirkpatrick, Norman Lester [pn], Eddie Gibbs, Danny Barker [bn], Freddie Moore [dm]

Songs: Down In Jungle Town, Oceana Roll, Yama Yama Man, Somebody Stole My Gal, Savoy Blues, Barcarolle, Rampart Street Ramblers [Marchin’ & Swingin’], Change of Key Boogie, Tres Moutard [Too Much Mustard], Shim-Me-Sha-Wobble, Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula #2, Bill Bailey, Tin Roof Blues

Jazzreview.com - Internet

This release is the sequel to Jazz Crusade's Another Evening At Jimmy Ryan¹s issued earlier this year. The same musicians are featured and all the nice things we said about the previous CD also apply to this one. It¹s a fine opportunity to hear some classic De Paris brothers caught while they were in their prime during the early 1950s. All were recorded at Jimmy Ryan¹s legendary nightspot in New York. Opened by Jimmy Ryan in 1940, the club wore his name until his death in 1963 when it became merely Ryan's. The 52nd Street watering hole was host to hundreds of musicians who called "Hot Jazz" their kind of music. Routine gigs turned classic when performed under Jimmy Ryan¹s roof, as the crowds were both demanding and knowledgeable. The group of musicians on this session come from a wide geographic area but are united in their love of spontaneous improvisation and the urge to swing. A special treat is in store with the appearance of Omer Simeon who blows in the classic New Orleans style. Simeon was a veteran of the Jelly Roll Morton band during the late twenties. Fans of classic jazz will enjoy this album.
- Richard Bourcier

AMG Expert Review - U. S. A.

Jimmy Ryan's was the outpost for traditional jazz on the street which was the Mecca for jazz from the '30s to the early '50s, New York's 52nd street. Wilbur DeParis played at this famous watering hole on several occasions leading his Rampart St. Ramblers. This album is the last in a series of CDs issued by the enterprising Jazz Crusade label which documents DeParis' visits to this important jazz venue. This performance closed the club for its summer recess. Unlike most traditional jazz bands who usually played loosely, often just a nod toward what was written on the score sheet, if anything was written at all, DeParis' group worked from a regular book of charts, making their ensemble work much more taut. They even played classical pieces, such as "Barcarolle," with ease. Written charts notwithstanding, they still swung with a vengeance. While charts assured that the group didn't fall into a rut, they didn't inhibit the individual performers from going all-out on each cut. One of the stars and major swingers of this group was banjo player Eddie Gibbs. His quicker-than-lightening banjo strumming is prominent throughout this album, likely because he must have been a sight to behold during a live performance. One will probably not hear a banjo played with such speed as Gibbs does on "Somebody Stole My Gal." The legitimate New Orleans clarinetist Omer Simeon was a major actor in the success of this group. His playing contrasted the warm, rich beauty of the middle register with the biting intensity of the higher octaves as heard on such cuts as "Bill Bailey." Although DeParis' group never reached the pinnacles achieved by other trad jazz groups, it wasn't because they couldn't deliver the music, as this recommended album amply demonstrates.
- Dave Nathan

Jazz Gazette - Internet

This is is the third and final volume in the series "A Night At Jimmy Ryan's" with the Wilbur DeParis band on Jazz Crusade. The other two were on JCCD-3009 and JCCD-3061. A fourth one by this band, but this one recorded in Canada, is on JCCD-3032. To the readers who already have the previous volumes I can only say: same thing, different tunes, just as good. It is remarkable that this hard to classify band, fifty years after these recordings were made, still has a lot of admirers. At Jazz Crusade the DeParis CDs are bestsellers. The reissues of their later recordings for Atlantic on Collectables are also much in demand and people keep asking for the final volume which isn't out yet.
The fact that the DeParis band was neither a New Orleans revival band - although later on Wilbur called his band the "New New Orleans Band" - or a dixieland band, and a swing band neither, made them somewhat of a curate's egg in the eyes of the critics. Although all the members had been active in swing groups and even big bands, the style of the band was definitely pre-swing. It is obvious to me that Wilbur was in a way following his great example, Jelly Roll Morton, with whom he had worked before. They both favoured the combination of tight head arrangements and improvised solos. Another link with Morton was the presence of Omer Simeon on clarinet. Simeon was Morton's favourite clarinet player. In his excellent book "High Society" Henning Bokelund calls him the hottest of the Creole clarinettists and I agree with him. With his limpid tone he cuts through the ensembles. Brother Sidney too had worked with Morton. His pungent muted solos added much to the excitement produced by the band, but make no mistake, it was Wilbur who was responsible for the special sound. Even later when Garvin Bushell had replaced Simeon on clarinet, when Doc Cheatham was added as second trumpet and with a totally different rhythm section the character of the music was still the same. Wilbur maybe wasn't the most imaginative soloist but he was a virtuosic trombonist whose solos were always full of humour and unexpected twists. Another virtuoso was banjoist Eddie Gibbs (who also played guitar and bass) who does impossible things on the banjo. Sometimes it sounds like two musicians were playing together! On five tracks he is replaced by New Orleanian Danny Barker whose more simple style I prefer. Don Kirkpatrick's stride like piano suits the band very well and in combination with Moore's dynamic drumming and Gibbs strong banjo we have a driving rhythm section.
For his repertory Wilbur often went back to the early days of jazz and even pre-jazz days. "Down In Jungle Town" dates from 1908, "Oceana Roll" from 1911, "The Yama Yama Man" from 1908, "Très Moutarde" from 1911 and "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula" from 1911. Like John Kirby's Sextet the DeParis band also enjoyed "jazzin' the classics". This time the victim is Offenbach's lovely "Barcarolle (from the "Tales Of Hoffman") with great low register Simeon. Wilbur favoured up tempo numbers. The exceptions here are the two blues numbers and an unexpected moderate tempo version of "Bill Bailey". After a menacing first bars the Yama Yama man proves to be a jolly good fellow. "Somebody Stole My Gal" is a feature for Eddie Gibbs, who doubles the already swift tempo at the end. "Change Of Key Boogie" has the gimmick of changing keys all the time, but is an exciting excursion in boogie-woogie territory. In this number the band comes closest to a kind of swing style.
I don't need to say that for the many Wilbur DeParis fans this last set of live recordings from Jimmy Ryan's in New York is an absolute must.The sound is remarkably good for radio recordings with Jack Towers excellent re-mastering.
- Marcel Joly

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