King Oliver praised by Nat Hentoff

Nat Hentoff praises the recent reissue of the classic recordings made by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in 1923 ( The Wall Street Journal ). On their small label Off the Record the sound engineers David Sager and Doug Benson succeeded in restoring the sound which made the Creole Jazz Band one of the hottest bands among Chicago musicians in the 20s. Hentoff remembers how in his teens he envied older Chicagoans who had been able to listen to Oliver live. On the new reissue one feels like sitting in the legendary Lincoln Gardens listening directly to the simultaneous breaks by Oliver and Louis Armstrong. More CDs are planned with music by Kid Ory, Clarence Williams and Bix Beiderbecke.