Personnel: Darryl Adams [alto sax/vocal], Fred Vigorito [trumpet], Brian Carrick [clarinet], Brian Towers [trombone], Roberta Hunt [piano/vocal], Emil Mark [banjo], Colin Bray [string bass], Big Bill Bissonnette [drums/vocal]

Songs: Runnin' Wild, Lord Lord Lord, The Second Line, Uptown Bumps, Shake It & Break It, Big Butter & Egg Man, St. Phillips Street Breakdown, I Believe I Can Make It By Myself

JazzReview - Internet Magazine

In his first recorded appearance as a leader, reedman Darryl Adams stars on a pair of CDs for Jazz Crusade. or the past couple of decades, Adams confined his activities to the street bands of his native New Orleans. His introduction to music was within the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band formed by the late Danny Barker. Later, he joined Harold Dejan's Olympia Brass Band, a world renowned marching band responsible for adding new jazz fans wherever they played.
In the mid 1980's, Adams appeared with Tuba Fats Lacen's band, the Chosen Few. Their 1985 Syla album was recently reissued by Jazz Crusade. The saxophonist was mystified when he was told he sounded like "Capt." John Handy. He, in fact, had never heard Handy's alto and only acknowledged the similarity after having heard a couple of CDs by the late "Cap." Darryl Adams is a strong player with an equally strong
sense of humor. His solo on St. Phillips Street Breakdown goes a long way to prove my point.
This session was recorded before a live audience in Canada for the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto in March of 2003. The concert also offered the first Canadian appearance of Brian Carrick, one of Britain's finest clarinetists in the George Lewis tradition. Carrick plays a metal Albert system instrument that belonged to the late New Orleans legend. The clarinetist often appears as a guest with various bands in Europe and New Orleans and the Toronto session captures him at his very best. I really liked his solos on Down In Honky Tonk Town and It's a Long Way To Tipperary.
The trombonist on this date is Toronto's own Brian Towers. Brian has captured audiences in the city for more than twenty years with his Hot Five Jazzmakers. His attack is not unlike Kid Ory's and he loves to growl. Always an exciting player, his classy choice of good material contributed greatly to the success of his band. While I haven't visited Toronto in the past few years, a visit to the Cest What used to be a mandatory stopover.
Bassist, Dr. Colin Bray has been a part of the Hot Five Jazzmakers for more than a decade. Bray is, in part, a jazz historian and president of the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto. His bass style is, in my opinion, reminiscent of George "Pops" Foster. Colin appears on a number of Jazz Crusade CDs and is one of the strongest traditional bassists on the scene today. His work on this concert is superb. Bray invited another
Toronto player in the form of pianist Roberta Hunt. Roberta is a rollicking heavy hitter who has been a part of Kid Bastien's Happy Pals for a number of years. Cliff Bastien passed away earlier this year and the Happy Pals continue a thirty-five year gig at Grossman's Tavern. Hunt is another player showing a great sense of humor and a fine singing voice. Listen to her inspired piano solo on Second Line.
It's a treat to hear Connecticut's Fred Vigorito on cornet. Fred has been with Big Bill Bissonnette's various bands since 1964. I've always admired his playing which echoes both Satchmo and Kid Thomas. Vigorito is a tireless improviser with ideas to spare. Shake It And Break It and Runnin' Wild are good examples of the cornetist's hot style.
The rhythm section is completed by banjo-man Emil Mark and drummer Big Bill Bissonnette. Emil Mark has probably been on more Jazz Crusade CDs than any other player. Emil Mark is everything a rhythm player should be. The guy is a human timepiece!What can you say about the perennial Big Bill Bissonnette? He's been playing, promoting, recording, broadcasting and contributing to traditional jazz since 1960. New Orleans jazz owes him plenty for his indefatigable efforts over 40 years. Big Bill laid aside his trombone for this session and takes a seat behind the drums. Echoes of the late Sammy Penn abound for all eighteen tunes. Bissonnette sings on the finale, Home To Bed Blues. Good stuff!
Running Wild In Toronto is recommended listening for anyone who enjoys classic jazz.
- Richard Bourcier

Just Jazz Magazine - England

My good friend Brian Carrick told me he had been invited to record in Canada on the Jazz Crusade label, with Darryl Adams from New Orleans. We both knew of his playing with Tuba Fats, but for my part, I knew little else about this musician. A bit of delving discovers this man coming from the days of the famous Fairview Baptist Church which the late Danny Barker inspired. Now 42 years old, Darryl is very much the pro musician working in New Orleans, and Bill Bissonnette once again shows his capacity for finding these guys and getting their work down on record.
Bill was responsible for so many of those great recordings of yesteryear with Kid Thomas, Sammy Penn, Jim Robinson and many more, including the one and only Capt. John Handy. The liner notes suggest that Darryl has a "Handy sound," but I can't hear it myself. He swings along and has a fire about his playing. He works with Tuba Fats and plays on Bourbon Street, so you will hear the contemporary sound of New Orleans in his playing.
What about the rest of the band? Well, put Colin Bray os bass, Brian Carrick on his old metal clarinet and Emil Mark on banjo and you have the makings of a good band. Roberta Hunt on piano is a lady that I met a few years ago in New Orleans, and what a player, singer and charming young lady she is. Brian Towers, with his fat tone trombone and Fred Vigorito on cornet (I remember his playing with the Easy Riders Jazz Band backing Victoria Spivey on Jazz Crusade circa 1964!) and Big Bill himself, this time on drums, makes this a hot band.
Two points worth a mention: therecording took place "live" at the Classic Jazz Society concert in Toronto. The recording does have a live feeling. The one real query I have is the length of the numbers. I am sure good at the performance, but with an average length of 8:35 minutes per track, a bit long for me from the comfort of the armchair
Is this a re-creation of the Easy Riders, or a salute to Kid Thomas? Whatever the thoughts behind this CD, it comes over as a good night of New Orleans style music performed by some of the best around playing this genre.
- Derek J. Winters

JazzGazzette - Internet Publication

Again Big Bill Bissonnette of Jazz Crusade Records comes up with a session of unadulterated, raw and exciting New Orleans jazz, with which I mean "the real thing". Regular followers of the Jazz Crusade productions will already know who Darryl Adams is, for others the name of this born and raised New Orleanian might be completely new. Those who claim that traditional New Orleans jazz is dead and gone in its birthplace should better look again. Admitted that things ain't what they used to be, there is still a small nucleus of local young black musicians who continue the tradition whilst renewing it at the same time like every other generation before them has done. Their names have been mentioned in this magazine - mainly in CD reviews - so there's no need to repeat them here. Darryl Adams is one of them. He recorded two CDs already on Jazz Crusade under the name of Tuba Fats Chosen Few Brass Band and Jazz Band (Jazz Crusade JCCD-3078 and JCCD-3080). This time he was recorded at a concert for the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto with an international band: American musicians joined forces with three Canadians and one Englishman.
Darryl Adams isn't known as well as he deserves mainly because in New Orleans he plays mostly in marching bands and even for regular visitors to the city it isn't easy to catch one on parade or playing for a funeral. As many of his generation he started out with Danny Barker's Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band. Later he worked with Leroi Jones' Hurricane Brass Band and formed his own Tornado Brass band. When he became a member of the famous Olympia Brass Band he learned a lot about the music from leader Harold Dejan and from tenor sax player Manny Paul. He also played with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band and with Floyd Anckle's Majestic Brass Band. Today he is a regular with Tuba Fats Chosen Few.
Although he had never heard about Captain John Handy before Bill gave him some Handy CDs, his style reminds me (and other people!) of Handy's. He shares with Handy the sheer exuberance, the enormous drive and the terrific swing. Some might frown at some of the unusual sounds he extracts from his horn, but let me remind them that in the early days of jazz very famous and admired musicians included a lot of hokum in their playing like imitating animal sounds. King Oliver was famous for that! He could imitate a complete barnyard on his trumpet. So let's not blame a young (well, he's 42 and that's young in New Orleans terms!) member of that old tradition to return - probably merely instinctively - to his roots by doing the same. Traditional jazz lovers are often more conservative in their tastes than the musicians they admire! Some frowned when Handy made his first recordings on the alto sax. The Riverside people refused to record Manny Paul, the regular reed player with the Kid Thomas Band. Today both are recognised as musical monuments of the revival period. Let's not forget the old credo that in classical music the human voice tries to reach the purity of a musical instrument while in jazz the musicians try to obtain the expressiveness of the human voice on their instrument. So let Darryl use growls and slap-tonguing - at least I think that is what he's doing! - as long as he swings like hell. And that is exactly what he does on these CDs and the rest of the band with him. Like most New Orleans musicians he loves to sing too and does it very well.
This was really an all star group. There's Fred Vigorito, who used to be the regular trumpet player with Big Bill's Easy Riders in the sixties, who is considered to be an exponent of the Kid Thomas style, but who obviously also listened to Louis Armstrong and whose tone reminds me sometimes of Wild Bill Davison. There's Brian Towers on trombone, leader of the Toronto based Hot Five Jazzmakers, influenced by Kid Ory and Roy Palmer and as much at home in a revival band as in a classic jazz band playing music from the twenties and thirties. There's Brian Carrick from England who, at last, gets the recognition he has deserved for so long, as one of the best clarinet players of the George Lewis school. He still uses one of George's old clarinets. Roberta Hunt on piano knows the New Orleans style by heart being one of the regular members of the late Kid Bastien's Happy Pals in Toronto. There's Emil Mark from Connecticut on the banjo, who shuns the lime-lights, but does all the time what he's supposed to do, drive the band with his impeccable rhythm. On bass there is the third Canadian in this band, Colin Bray, recognised as one of the best exponents in the classic New Orleans slap-bass style created by people like Pops Foster and Slow Drag Pavageau. He's no slouch with the bow either! Last but not least there's the man who makes all these wonderful recordings possible, Big Bill Bissonnette, Mr. Jazz Crusade himself, trombonist, record producer, writer and drummer. This time Bill is on drums and kicks the band along inspired by Baby Dodds and most of all by the incredible Sammy Penn.
All these beautiful people made the guest from New Orleans feel completely at home. This is definitely a session for those who like their New Orleans music sizzling hot from start to finish. There is no doubt for me that Darryl's playing inspired his companions. I heard Brian Carrick do things I never heard him do before and Brian Towers has his bit of talking trombone too. Fred Vigorito leads the ensembles with authority and power.
Highlights of this live session? There are many, but I will limit myself to just a few. There is a wonderful, long version of "Uptown Bumps" (aka "The Bucket's Got A Hole In It") introduced by a Baby Dodds lick by Bill. They use the riff that we know from the Kid Shots session with George Lewis behind the second part of each solo. There's the quote from Chaplin's "Smile" at the start of Darryl's solo on "When You're Smiling", great idea! There's Roberta's singing on two numbers, which made me think of early Emma Barrett. There's Darryl's long solo on "Running Wild", building up to an exciting climax. There's one of Darryl's own numbers ("I'm Your Hot Dog Man", well played and sung with fine muted trumpet and trombone. Listen to Colin's bass solo on "Shake It And Break It" with rim-shots from Bill. "St.Phillip Street Breakdown" begins as the usual clarinet plus rhythm solo but becomes later an excursion into boogie-woogie territory for everybody. Instead of playing a fast flag-waver to end the concert, Bill introduces a long slow blues number on which he sings himself. He combines "I Believe I Can Make It By Myself" (Sammy Penn) with "Milk Cow Blues" (Kid Thomas) and adds some autobiographical lyrics as well. Great talking trombone by Brian! They called it "Home To Bed Blues" and I'm sure everybody present at this fine concert went home to bed in a happy state of mind. So will you after listening to these two great CDs!
- Marcel Joly

Cadence Magazine - U.S.A.

Trad Jazz continues to thrive in pockets of our society, and in Toronto, the genre is alive and well. These two very recent recordings, led by native New Orleans alto saxophonist Adams come from the same 2003 Classic Jazz Society Toronto concert. Eleven of the 18 tunes on the two discs are instrumentals, where Adams, clarinetist Carrick, and brass players Vigorito and Towers, stretch out in robust salute to the roots of Jazz. The rhythm team includes drummer and impresario Bissonnette along with pianist Hunt, banjo play Mark, and bassist Bray. Together, the octet bring the house down with a rousing series of tunes in which all the horn players are routinely featured. Although Adams' New Orleans credentials and street brass band exposure place him solidly in the Trad camp, he brings a non-traditional tonality to the session. His sinewy timbre stands out against the more orthodox sounds of his hometown music, making the concert a blending of historic and updated concepts.
Three musicians provide the vocalizing in these happy, foot-tapping discs. Adams injects a bluesy touch on four tunes, Hunt warbles on two songs, and Bissonnette wails the slow Blues on the final cut. The vocals provide diversity to the concert, particularly with the suggestive double entendre lyrics of tunes such as Adams' "I'm Your Hot Dog Man ." The performance, however, is mainly about musicians producing music from the past in a joyous, feel-good manner. Booming trombone, high-flying clarinet, brassy cornet and raucous rhythms merge with Adamas reedy alto to give the atendees an extra large taste of the globe-trotting music of New Orleans. It appears to have been fun for musicians and audience alike.
- Frank Rubolino

King's Jazz Review - England

Conscious that these takes are of the live Classic Jazz Society concert, staged in May last year in Toronto, Canada, I was taken aback on the opening number, Down In Honky Tonk Town, by the unique sound of the star altoist, Darryl Adams, being most unfashionable to my ears. Having for years listened to the likes of Ken Colyer, this Darryl Adams performance was even more anathema to my longstanding likings for the marching bands - military styles in the main. The other front liners here therefore made the day for me when settling down to listen in on the debut tune of this twin album CD set.
In reading of the Dr Colin Bray, president of the Classic Jazz Society liner notes, that Darryl Adams in 1973, joined the Danny Barker Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, New Orleans, as a 12 years old, Junior High School boy, and, that he, Adams, learned much under the tutelage of leading famous figures in the genre the likes of Harold Dejan (alto). and Emanuel Paul (tenor), gave some credence and understanding into what I was encountering.
"Our kind of jazz music", however slowly, is nevertheless evolving, and, much of the credit for that phenomenon must surely rest with the efforts and influences of Big Bill Bissonnette, such as for example in the steps that he has taken here, with reference to the Darryl Adams experience. The alto jazz artist, Adams, is settling in. Pianist Roberta Hunt gives very nice vocals on Down By The Riverside. The string bass, banjo and drums, unflappable, listen-ability, play an accentuated, invaluable part towards making these medium, to medium fast - tempi, nice sounding Darryl Adams recordings in total, such an interesting, invaluable asset.
Good opening on When Your Smiling with cornet influence on collective musical instrumentation, whereupon, it is on this tune that Darryl comes into his own, that is to say, with proven well articulated, agreeable, melody-line vocal chords, excellently phrased, thus, blending in beautifully with the attributes and ambience of the song - yes, and the alto quote; "smile when you're weary - tenderness" noted.
Darryl can be heard in song on three more tunes, I'm Your Hot Dog Man, the penned words are his own, Bye, Bye Blackbird, and on Vol 2 - Lord, Lord, Lord.
Captivating is Runnin' Wild, the opening number on Vol 2, all 10x60 seconds of it, where one can savoir the Fred Vigorito cornet intro attributes, the front-liners adding to make this section of the album swing inspiringly with a touch of Blues' intonations therein giving good measure that speaks here for itself as to how great is the sound of jazz.
This Uptown Bumps with the Brian Carrick clarinet, good New Orleans, marching band styled riff accompaniment movements, trombonist Brian Towers, leader of the Hot Five Jazzmakers of Toronto, and yes, Darryl Adams on alto, will take a lot of beating by anyone running wild from places, a long way away to do so, that is, as spelt out by the ivories and string bass in support.
There is a finale spoken by Big Bill to concert goers that Brian Carrick will be playing the metal clarinet presented to him by George Lewis, and still strung together with rubber bands, to be featured on St Phillips Street Breakdown a number made famous by George. Well, it turns out to be the battle of the two reedmen, stirred along by one daring Cornetist - Great stuff that I'm sure you'll think likewise.
There is a startling outrider to the concert with vocals on it by Big Bill himself entitled Home To Bed Blues and, what a fantastic rounding up to the album. "I believe" that this CD twin set has empathy in its build up that will appeal to a vast listening audience East of London, Middlesex, England, crossing Europe, traversing Asia, reaching the Islands of the East China Sea. Well, well now.
- Ian King

EuroClub.com - Internet Radio Program

This is a truly international recording. Alto sax man Darryl Adams is from New Orleans, clarinettist Brian Carrick from England, trumpet man Fred Vigorito, banjoist Emil Mark and drummer Big Bill Bissonnette are American and the rest of the band is all Canadian - Brian Towers - trombone, Roberta Hunt - piano and Colin Bray - string bass. And as if to emphasize the United National aspect the session was recorded at a Classic Jazz Society of Toronto concert in Toronto. The occasion was one of those special events that Colin Bray as President of the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto is able to organize when he invites special guests to join local men for a series of sessions.
It can be with this type of 'pick up band' session that the different personalities both musical and psychological don't mix with disastrous results. On this occasion they did more than just mix - they gelled in an almost magical manner. Vigorito's Kid Thomas inspired super hot trumpet drives the band to great heights of excitement and feeling.
They really romp and obviously have a ball throughout. Each fits with the other as if they'd been together for years and yet they have a freshness that can only come when each man respects what the next is doing and is inspired by it. We're fortunate that Jazz Crusade was on hand to record the proceedings that night in May last year when this concert took place - it's a gem and gives the lie to those who claim that our music is dying. On this showing it's very much alive and kicking.
- Brian Harvey

Mississippi Rag - April 2005 - American Magazine

I wonder if the jazz fans who live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, realize how lucky they are to have the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto, which puts on such excellent concerts of tradixieland jazz as the one represented on these two fine compact discs.
Darryl Adams, a product of Danny Barker's Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, plays in the line of Captain John Handy and Louis Jordan. He's little known outside of New Orleans where he plays primarily in the brass bands of the New Orleans street parades. He also, like Cap'n Handy and Louis Jordan, is an entertaining singer of jump jazz blues material - witness his double entendre "I'm Your Hot Dog Man." Subtle he's not. Fun he is. Cornetist Fred Vigorito and drummer Big Bill Bissonnette are imported from Connecticut. Clarinetist Brian Carrick comes from the United Kingdom. Trombonist Brian Tbwers, pianist/singer Roberta Hunt and bassist Colin Bray reside in Toronto. In fact, Bray is president of the Classic Jazz Society which put on this concert. I'm not sure just where banjoist Emil Mark is from, but he works a lot around New England and is represented on quite a few of the records put out by Big Bill's Jazz Crusade label. But, as you can tell from the listings above, these guys never get very far from the roots of the Crescent City.
Not that I'd expect to hear numbers like "Honeysuckle Rose," "When You're Smiling" or "Bye Bye Blackbird" in a New Orleans street parade, but many of the same musicians who play in the brass bands play in the clubs and dance halls as well. And whoever picked "Down In Honky Tonk Town" as the opening tune for the concert knew what they were doing; the band plays the heck out of it. Along with Darryl Adams' alto sax and Big Bill's stompin' drums, I'm particularly impressed with Brian Car-rick's clarinet work and Fred Vigorito's cornet, which Colin Bray refers to in his liner notes as being in the Kid Thomas mold. While I'm not familiar enough with Kid Thomas to agree or disagree, I do hear a lot of Muggsy Spanier in Vigorito's playing, particularly on "It's A Long Way lb Tipperary."
In the liner notes to these CDs, Colin Bray points out that this concert of the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto took place during the SARS virus scare. I find it encouraging that even during such a serious epidemic situation the importance of good music was not ignored but, in fact, perpetuated as a document for future reference and enjoyment.
- Joe H. Klee

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