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1931.
    Trombonist Paul Rutherford said (1985): ‘Here’s where the trombone starts to become a really strong voice in jazz groups, with an equal status to the cornet and the clarinet or saxophone. It changes the nature of the sound quite a bit and it challenges the other front-line soloists.’
    Ladd’s Black Aces and the Original Memphis Five were actually one and the same, one of the first white bands to follow up the success of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Phil Napoleon, a Bostonian born in 1901, originally Filippo Napoli and uncle to pianists Teddy and Marty Napoleon, formed a group as far back as 1917, but the band-name, first used by Napoleon in 1920, was generic rather than very specific and was later used by several other leaders, including Red Nichols and Miff Mole. Remarkably, Napoleon lived on – and continued using the OMF name – until 1990.
    The Ladd’s Black Aces identity was used for three years and all of their work under that flag is included on the Timeless CD. The Aces were a leaner, more streamlined outfit than the ODJB. Roth’s drumming was simpler than Tony Sbarbaro’s and the rhythms less relentless but no less driving. There’s a relatively early use of saxophone which gives a solidity, if not much individual detail, to some numbers. Though Lytell was the outstanding improviser, actual solos were still few in number and breaks based around stop-time routines were more the norm. Napoleon’s little arpeggiated rip, which he uses to start a phrase, is how he decided to swing, and while he played a firm lead, he sounds pedestrian alongside Miff Mole, who was the most advanced musician by far to play with the group. When he’s present, which is on fewer than half of the 26 sessions, the front line swings as it never does elsewhere.
    Yet the Aces were a remarkably consistent band. The feel got looser and more daring as time went on, but even the earliest sides have their own giddy momentum: the very first track, W. C. Handy’s ‘Aunt Hagar’s Children’s Blues’, already sounds like a group that knew what had to be done. Jimmy Durante, in his first and, alas, last real jazz records, can just be heard stomping away on the piano on the first eight tracks. There’s a curious, addictive quality to this music and the recordings, made acoustically (in other words, not yet electronically) for the Gennett company, stand the test of time very well indeed.
    For the time being, there’s only one available disc dedicated to the earliest work of the Original Memphis Five, although even this one goes as far forward as 1931. It’s still very much an ensemble music, without the solos that modern ears expect in jazz, but it would still be good to see this huge body of music – more than 400 78rpm masters – given proper reissue. Napoleon plays his useful steadfast lead, and Lytell delivers some very decent work, though he showed no capacity for progress as a stylist and is comprehensively shown up by Jimmy Dorsey, who is on the 1931 ‘reunion’; Tommy is there as well.
    Rough as they may be, these are key documents in the early years of jazz recording. Newcomers often react to them with surprise: any initial impression of crudity tends to give way to lasting fascination.
    NEW ORLEANS RHYTHM KINGS
    Formed 1922
    Group
    New Orleans Rhythm Kings 1922–1925: The Complete Set
    Retrieval RTR 79031 2CD
    Paul Mares (c); George Brunies, Santo Pecora (tb); Leon Roppolo, Omer Simeon (cl); Don Murray (cl, as); Boyce Brown (as); Charlie Cordella (cl, ts); Jack Pettis (Cmel, ts); Elmer Schoebel, Mel Stitzel, Jelly Roll Morton, Kyle Pierce, Red Log, Jess Stacy (p); Lou Black, Bob Gillett, Bill Eastwood (bj); Marvin Saxbe (g); Arnold ‘Deacon’ Loyacano, Chink Martin, Pat Pattison (b); Frank Snyder, Ben Pollack, Leo Adde, George Wettling (d). February 1922–1925, January 1935.
    Clarinettist Kenny Davern said (1992): ‘I did grow through a phase of grabbing people by the throat in New York and saying this was