Personnel: Brian Carrick [clarinet], Gregg Stafford [trumpet], Emil Mark [piano], Colin Bray [string bass], Sven Stahlberg [drums]
Songs: When You're Smiling

Personnel: Brian Carrick [clarinet/tenor sax], Freddy Lonzo [trombone], Reide Kaiser [piano], Emil Mark [banjo], Colin Bray [string bass], Doc Houlind [drums]
Songs: The Bucket's Got A Hole In It, I Want to Be Happy, Make Me A Pallet On the Floor, Sing On, Melancholy, You Can Depend On Me

Personnel: Brian Carrick [clarinet], Big Bill Bissonnette [trombone], Peter Wright [trumpet], Mac MacDonald [banjo], Ken Matthews [string bass], Malc Murphy [drums]
Songs: Lead Me Saviour, Canal Street Blues

Personnel: Brian Carrick [clarinet], Darryl Adams [alto sax], Fred Vigorito [cornet], Brian Towers [trombone], Roberta Hunt [piano], Emil Mark [banjo], Colin Bray [string bass], Big Bill Bissonnette [drums]
Songs: Who's Sorry Now, In the Sweet Bye & Bye

Boxell's Jazz Website - New Zealand

Big Bill Bissonnette had a problem with a title for this CD. Seeing as it was a mix of unused tracks from recording sessions that had been done for earlier albums he toyed with 'Left-Overs' and 'Out-Takes' but felt that they would put potential buyers off. Myself I think 'A Brian Carrick Sampler' would best describe this CD.
BBB is a very wise man in that, rather than select tunes and then get the band he is recording to keep playing them till he gets what he thinks is the best recording, he lets a band play a selection of tunes without repeat and then chooses what to put on the CD. The reason a tune may be left off is rarely because it is duff. Now, if like me, you make compendium CDs, you will be aware of the problems of fitting the maximum number of tracks on a CD: one tends to pick and mix to get the maximum 'fill', even if it means leaving a really good one off. Most of the tracks here come from that scenario, whilst some of the tracks with Freddie Lonzo were left off the earlier CD as BBB only wanted to use Brian playing clarinet as opposed to tenor sax on that album.
What you get here is a chance to hear a wonderful reeds player lining up with other world class jazzmen from around the world in a selection of line-ups. If you like what you hear, you can then buy JCCD-3053 where Brian plays with trumpeter Gregg Stafford; JCCD-3077 with trombonist Freddie Lonzo; or JCCD-3090 with alto-saxophonist Darryl Adams. Then, maybe you would just like to hear more of Brian with either his Heritage Quartet or his Algiers Stompers, both available on Jazz Crusade. The first tune on this CD is 'When You're Smiling'. Buy this CD and you will be!
- Geoff Boxell

JazzReview.com - Internet Magazine

Brian Carrick is one of the most prolific recorders on the current traditional jazz scene. The British clarinetist clings tightly to the style popularized by New Orleans reedmen George Lewis, "Polo" Barnes and Albert Burbank. Carrick plays a rare metal clarinet gifted to him by George Lewis' daughter and played by her father decades ago.
Because of his faithful adherence to the pure Crescent City sound, Carrick is in high demand as a guest artist with traditional bands in Britain, Europe and North America. His recent recordings with New Orleans jazzmen Gregg Stafford, Darryl Adams and Freddy Lonzo received rave reviews by the traditional jazz press. Another highlight, in this writer's opinion, was Carrick's performance with Jensen's Jazz Serenaders at the Sorgenfri Kirke church concerts in Denmark.
The new CD, "Oh Brian! - Play That Thing" features unreleased material from four Jazz Crusade albums recorded in Britain, Canada and New Orleans. There is a lot of top-notch music on this CD and some favorite players show up in the form of Danish drummer, Doc Houlind, trumpeter Gregg Stafford, cornetist Fred Vigorito and bassist Colin Bray. Brian Carrick swings nicely with the four bands presented on the album but I must single out the Freddy Lonzo group as delivering the "knockout punch." The "Ready For Freddy" CD became a favorite of mine when it was issued and it's great to hear the additional material from the session. Carrick and trombonist Lonzo are a near-perfect combination. Freddy Lonzo echoes many of the growls and low notes that endeared fans to Kid Ory. He's a truly exciting player. Emil Mark, Reide Kaiser, Colin Bray and Soren "Doc" Houlind back the Carrick / Lonzo duo. Bray, Kaiser and Mark are commonly referred to as Jazz Crusade's All-Star rhythm section, and with good reason. Sound samples will be available at the Jazz Crusade website. Have a listen!
- Richard Bourcier

JazzGazette.com - Internet Publication

This excellent CD contains material from 3 different Jazz Crusade sessions that didn't get on the original CDs because of the time limit. In Bill Bissonnette's opinion - and I agree with him wholeheartedly - they were too good to be kept in the vaults forever. The 3 original issues were JCCD-3053 Gregg Stafford, JCCD-3077 Freddie Lonzo and JCCD-3089/3090 Darryl Adams. In addition there are two tracks from a live session in England when Bill was a guest with Brian's band.
The Freddie Lonzo CD and the two Darryl Adams CDs were reviewed in The Jazzgazette of respectively October/November/December 2002 and May/June/July/August 2003. Because you can still read these reviews on our website, I'm not going to repeat everything I said there.
I'm sorry there was only one track left from the Gregg Stafford session, which I gave a very positive review in the printed version of The Jazzgazette - that was before we went on line and it was in Dutch anyway! - because it was one of my favourite recent New Orleans sessions. Gregg has mastered the art of mixing the hot with the sweet, one of the most important qualities of good New Orleans music. He started on cornet and it is amazing how well he transposed the warm sound of that instrument to the trumpet, the instrument he is playing now. I apologize if I used the following description of his playing before, but it is still valid: like Mohamed Ali, he flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee! His singing matches his trumpet playing. He has a lovely warm voice with a natural growl that reminds me of young Louis. The way he sings is influenced by the great Satchmo but it surely is not one of those stupid mimicries we hear so often and which I've learned to hate. Just listen to his lovely rendition of "When You're Smiling" on this CD . I'm sure that if you don't have JCCD-3053 already, you'll want to buy it now! Gregg and Brian played together for the first time on this session, but they sound like they had been playing together all their lives.
The reason why some of the Freddie Lonzo tracks were omitted from the original CD was that Brian played tenor-sax here and Bill wanted to have him on the clarinet for the complete CD. Where it is clear for everybody that Brian belongs to the George Lewis school on the clarinet, he was influenced on the sax by at least three saxophone players from New Orleans: Manny Paul, Andrew Morgan and Captain John Handy. On both instruments he forged his own individual style that sets him apart from everyone else influenced by those musicians. You'll hear him on the sax on tracks 2 and 5 and on 4 where he solos on clarinet and sax, not together because his name is not Roland Kirk, but Brian Carrick. The dared combination of the really old style playing of Brian and the more sophisticated approach of Freddie Lonzo had marvelous results, supported as they were by the wonderful Jazz Crusade rhythm section of Kaiser, Mark and Bray with the multi-instrumentalist Swede Sören Houlind on drums this time. My favourite tracks on this part of the CD are "Pallet On The Floor" with Reide's fine bluesy choruses at the start and Brian first soloing on clarinet and then, after Freddie's solo, on the tenor, and "Melancholy", a delicate piece of music. Listen to ace bass player Colin Bray with his bow behind the ensembles and his pizzicato solo.
The two tracks recorded live in England show that Bill Bissonnette felt completely at home with Brian's band. Why shouldn't he? They're talking the same musical language after all.
I'm happy to have two additional tracks from the live concert in Toronto with Darryl Adams from New Orleans, who can be rightfully called the successor of the great Captain John Handy. This must have been a hell of a concert! "Who's Sorry Now?" is taken at a relaxed tempo. I'm particularly fond of "In The Sweet Bye And Bye". At times it sounds as if it was played by a New Orleans brass band on the way home from a funeral, except when Roberta Hunt plays that Joe James-like piano solo of course. After Brian Towers' powerful trombone solo, Brian Carrick starts his clarinet solo, but is joined by Darryl on the alto for an exciting duet. The ensembles may sound a little bit too exuberant to ears not used to a New Orleans marching band in full flight, but to me it is - to use Bill Russell's words - a miracle of uninhibited joy.
If you have already the original CDs you will not need my advise to buy this one too. There are 73 minutes of fine New Orleans music on it.
If you don't, this is a great opportunity to have a taste of them. It will be bad for your wallet, because I'm sure you will want the original CDs as well.
- Marcel Joly

Jazz Journal International - British Jazz Magazine

These tracks recorded in New Orleans, Canada and England underline the continuing international health of New Orleans music. Interestingly photos provided show that both Stafford and Lonzo are not only black but obviously younger than Carrick, who is of course white and British. All four rhythm sections bounce along cheerfully as does Carrick's clarinet (a metal one according to the picture on the booklet). He's obviously listened to George Lewis but his less impressive tenor playing is a dilution of Emmanuel Paul's. After Carrick the musician heard from most is Lonzo, who has the rhythmic punch of his antecedents and impressive tonal variety which compensates for occasional overdependence on the melody.
Jazz Crusade's owner. Bill Bissonnette, though more often heard on drums shows himself as a very capable trombonist on the Upton recordings while Malc Murphy rolls things along nicely on Canal Street Blues. The final two tracks have the excellent Fred Vigorito on cornet. Confidently emotional and distinctively hot he's the most impressive musician on this CD.
- Graham Colombe

Mississippi Rag - American Rag

Sometimes it helps to complain. In reviewing Jazz Crusade's JCCD 3077, Ready for Freddy by Freddy Lonzo and Brian Carrick, I lamented the neglect of clarinetist Brian Carrick with the general feeling of if the guy plays this well, how come it's such a well-kept secret? Thanks to Jazz Crusader Big Bill Bissonnette, the secret is out in a CD that he was tempted to call "Left-Overs" or "Out-Takes" were it not for the implication of second-class citizenship that these names might signify. BBB's philosophy of making records is that once you have one good take of a tune, why bother trying for an alternate version. Better to move on to the next tune and give yourself more options that way. Therefore, these are addenda from various Jazz Crusade sessions that didn't make it on to the final product for reasons of time and space, not of quality. If you have JCCD-3053 with Brian Carrick and Gregg Stafford, JCCD 3077 with Freddy Lonzo and Brian Carrick and the two volume Toronto Concert featuring Darryl Adams on JCCD 3089 and 3090, well, here's another hour and a quarter of the same.
If this means the quality isn't exactly even from track one to track 11, that doesn't mean that any of it is inferior. If my personal favorites are tracks two to seven, which are from the session with Freddy Lonzo, it has as much to do with the presence of one of my favorites among contemporary stomp pianists, Reide Kaiser, as it does the two-part inventions of the Carrick/Lonzo front line. In fact, Big Bill, how about a best of Reide Kaiser CD? That would be another welcome addition to anyone's wish list. Another plus for this session is that Carrick is heard on both clarinet and tenor saxophone. In fact, most of these sides were put aside so that the earlier CD could concentrate on the interplay between Carrick's clarinet and Lonzo's trombone. More of same can be heard on "I Want To Be Happy" by the Carrick/Lonzo team — the hottest two-man front line since Jim Robinson and George Lewis went Bunk-less into the American Music Studio in the mid-'40s for a helping of "Ice Cream."
Jazz Crusade CDs can be ordered from www.jazzcrusade.com or Jazz Crusade, 585 Pond Street, Bridgeport, CT 06066. All of them are good, even though the ones which include the great Brian Carrick are the best!
- Joe H. Klee

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