Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
Throughout the history of jazz, mythical places like New Orleans's Storyville, Chicago's South Side, Kansas City's Tenderloin district, and New York's Harlem and 52nd Street were celebrated as the legendary hotspots. Thankfully, this impressive four-CD, 91-track collection featuring Nat 'King' Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Benny Carter to name a few, puts Los Angeles's famous African-American enclave, Central Avenue, on the historical map and offers the listener a zoot-suited, jitterbugged jaunt through Club Alabam, The Downbeat, and other jumpin' joints where Hollywood stars rubbed shoulders with hep cats under a pulsating Pacific sky. The set covers an important period in the development of African-American music, from the conclusion of World War I to the birth of rock & roll: from the early New Orleans bouncy brass-band sounds of 'Get Out of Here' by Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band and the Spanish-tinged, habanera syncopation on 'Mamanita,' courtesy of the pioneering pianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton to Lionel Hampton's boogie-woogie anthem 'Flying Home' and the killer keyboard calisthenics on Art Tatum's 'Tiger Rag.' The Charlie Parker Septet's 'Ornithology' blew into town on the wings of bebop innovation and hypnotized local up-and-comers like bassist Charles Mingus--under the moniker of Baron Mingus & His Octet on a rare side called 'Bedspread'--and tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon's raw-boned tone on 'Chromatic Aberration,' which previewed John Coltrane's sheets of sound. Miles Davis's cool indigo-impressionism radiance on 'Up in Dodo's Room,' performed by the Howard McGhee Sextet, contrasts with the harmonic heights reached by the Gerald Wilson Orchestra's reading of 'Groovin' High.' There is a remarkable fluidity of transition from blues to R&B, as heard in the western wails on 'Blues on Central Avenue' by Joe Turner with the Freddie Slack Trio, Nellie Lutcher's hip-bopping, tasty, and teasing 'Fine Brown Frame' and the Texas-bred, guitar twang of T-Bone Walker's 'Call It Stormy Monday,' all of which highlight the sepia-toned, soulful syncretism that formed the bedrock of modern music and the marvelous black neighborhood that provided the foundation for it. --Eugene Holley Jr.









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Related Items:

• Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (Roth Family Foundation Book in American Music)
• West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960
• The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Last African American Renaissance
• The History of Jazz
• Jazz at Massey Hall
• see more

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Disc 1:

1. Ory's Creole Trombone
2. Creole Song - Ory, Kid
3. Get Out of Here - Ory, Kid
4. Blues for Jimmie Noone - Ory, Kid
5. Someday, Sweetheart - Spikes, Benjamin
6. The Pearls - Morton, Jelly Roll
7. Kansas City Stomp - Morton, Jelly Roll
8. Mamanita - Morton, Jelly Roll
9. Harlem
10. California Swing - Thompson, Earl
11. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight) - Creamer, Henry
12. Shine - Brown, Lew
13. When It's Sleepy Time Down South - Muse, Clarence
14. Dixie Rhythm
15. Body and Soul - Eyton, Frank
16. Tiger Rag - DaCosta, Harry
17. Central Avenue Breakdown - Hampton, Lionel
18. T-Bone Blues - Hite, Les
19. Jump for Joy - Ellington, Duke
20. Blues on Central Avenue - Turner, Joe
21. Benny's Bugle - Goodman, Benny
22. Flying Home - Goodman, Benny
23. Mean Old World - Walker, T-Bone
24. Jumpin' in the Groove

Disc 2:

1. Straighten up and Fly Right - Cole, Nat King
2. The Man I Love - Gershwin, George
3. Body and Soul - Eyton, Frank
4. I Wonder - Gant, Cecil
5. The Honeydripper Pts. 1 & 2
6. Swingin' the Boogie - Brooks, Hadda
7. That's My Desire - Loveday, Carroll
8. Harlem Nocturne - Hagen, Earle
9. Driftin' Blues - Brown, Charles [1]
10. Tutti Frutti - Stewart, Slam
11. Laguna - Gaillard
12. Soothe Me
13. Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'
14. These Foolish Things - Link, Harry
15. R.M. Blues - Milton, Roy
16. Groovin' High - Gillespie, Dizzy
17. Bugle Call Rag - Meyers, Billy
18. Ornithology - Harris, Benny
19. A Night in Tunisia - Gillespie, Dizzy
20. Jump Call - Carter, Benny [1]
21. Bedspread
22. Pipe Dream - Mingus, Charles
23. Smooth Sailing - Thompson, Lucky

Disc 3:

1. Dialated Pupils - McGhee, Howard
2. Up in Dodo's Room - McGhee, Howard
3. Crusin' With Cab - Wilson, Gerald
4. Dissonance in Blues - Wilson, Gerald
5. Mischievous Lady - Gordon, Dexter
6. The Chase - Gordon, Dexter
7. Chromatic Aberration - Gordon, Dexter
8. Bikini - Gordon, Dexter
9. I Thought About You - Mercer, Johnny
10. Fine Brown Frame - Cartiero, Guadalupe
11. Stormy Monday - Walker, T-Bone
12. Red Top - Hampton, Lionel
13. Ain't Nobody's Business - Grainger, Porter
14. Big Fine Girl - Witherspoon, Jimmy
15. Blues in Teddy's Flat
16. Teardrop Blues - Liggins, Jimmy
17. Hop, Skip and Jump - Milton, Roy
18. So Tired - Sizemore, Arthur
19. It's April
20. Collette
21. Blues After Hours - Parrish, Avery
22. Mingus Fingers - Mingus, Charles
23. These Foolish Things - Link, Harry

Disc 4:

1. Sippin' With Cisco
2. Gassin' the Wig - Ross
3. Little Wig
4. Double Crossing Blues - Otis, Johnny
5. Pink Champagne - Liggins, Joe
6. Move - Best, Denzil
7. Please Send Me Someone to Love - Mayfield, Percy
8. Black Night - Brown, Charles [1]
9. Money Blues - Wray, Link
10. Deacon's Hop - McNeely, Big Jay
11. Sweet and Lovely - Arnheim, Gus
12. Farmer's Market - Farmer, Art
13. Lover Man - Davis, Jimmy [4]
14. East of the Sun
15. Thrust
16. 3-D - McNeely, Big Jay
17. Nervous Man, Nervous - Davis, Dwight
18. Too Marvelous for Words - Mercer, Johnny
19. Lover Man - Davis, Jimmy [4]
20. The Champ - Gillespie, Dizzy
21. De Silva Wig

Rating: - Life in the Music
I just heard this set and loved it. Before the days of electronic modulation and ripping these artists put emotional soul into their art. Much of this set can qualify as a worthy soundtrack for life. To get the most played it on a system that can present the full dynamic range and breath of the artists efforts. Cheers.

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Rating: - Outstanding, historical jazz collection!
Central Avenue Sounds is more than a compendium of Los Angeles-based jazz from the 1920s-1960s. It's an historical documentation of an age and cultural environment that is sadly long gone and nearly forgotten. Although it stands on its own as an outstanding collection, buy this set with the book of the same title--"Central Avenue Sounds" edited by Clora Bryant (available here at Amazon)--for a multimedia journey back to a unique time and place. Highest recommendations!