Bob Wallis' Storyville Jazz Men: Everybody Loves Saturday Night * Top Rank International * 1960

Le Reve Passe

Down Home Rag

Old Stack-O-Lee Blues

Everybody Loves Saturday Night

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen

Alla Turka

Savoy Blues

Where Shall I Be

Kansas City Man Blues

Captain Morgan

Sons of the Brave

L'Oiseau Bleu

• Trumpet – Bob Wallis
• Clarinet – Doug Richford
• Trombone – Avo Avison
• Banjo – Hugh Rainey
• Bass – Drag Kirby
• Drums – Kenny Buckner
• Percussion – Pete Gresham

I love this album, unconditionally and beyond rationale. There are very few like it for me: it shares a corner of my musical soul with very few others; among them Acker Bilk's The Seven Ages of Acker and Sidney Bechet's recordings with Ernie Caceres. In other words, for me it's beyond criticism, or really discussing in any technical sense. Somehow, a young Bob Wallis managed to get beautifully colored sound and soul from this group of very raucous players. This is not refined jazz, nor is it intellectual--it's rough, loud, rowdy, visceral, and at times very basic. But the tone of each player, the enthusiasm, and the depth of joy has rarely been matched. Everything they touch turns to gold--even the cheesy, nearly cringe-worthy opening quote of Mozart in "Alla Turka", which is redeemed into a winking nod by the subsequent impassioned outcries of Doug Richford's clarinet and driving, sinister riffing in the brass.  Some of the standards, particularly "Old Stack-O-Lee Blues" and "Kansas City Man Blues" are among the finest versions recorded--blunt, strong, obvious, original, they stare you down like a gunfighter and make for some of the best, most straightforward utterances in the Trad Jazz canon.  

An American jazz clarinetist can live a lifetime without hearing the name of Doug Richford, and that's a crying shame, because this album, while a small sample size, is enough to recommend. His playing, while not technically dazzling, is inspired and extremely soulful. Speaking personally, when I first stumbled across this record a few years ago, I thought I'd listen to it once or twice and then put it away in the archives for reference, but I found Richford's clarinet addictive. Soon I was recommending other musicians listen to his solos on "Alla Turka" and the finale of the album, the beautiful clarinet feature "L'Oiseau Bleu." The whole album has become a steady part of my listening diet.  

Central to the band, of course, is the charismatic trumpet and voice of Bob Wallis. Like so many of the great British Trad cornet and trumpet players, Wallis is a pleasure to listen to, with a balanced, golden sound--and his drive as a player and leader yields an exceptionally balanced result, with a band identity that never lets up. Some Trad bands can sound like grab bags stylistically, but not Wallis's Storyville Jazz Men. Whether utilizing Caribbean-tinged beats or gutbucket blues, the same drive and personality dominates. 

Don't expect genteel introspection from this set, but get it for the soul. For clarinetists, the solos by Doug Richford are certainly not to be missed.  

Chris Barber & Hugh Laurie * Abbey Road Studios * 2013

Here's a fascinating YouTube video by Rick Walker featuring famous actor and not-so-closeted bluesman Hugh Laurie with one of his heroes, trad jazz trombone icon Chris Barber. Though short, this brief presentation and interview can help fill in the gaps of our understanding of 20th century music, and the significant role trad jazz and New Orleans style played in the various waves of British rock and pop music.

I'm greatly heartened that Laurie would take the time to honor Barber and the music. I've argued for years that soulfulness and melody will never go out of style: he and Chris Barber have offered further proof!  

When the Jazz Wars Went Global * Ken Colyer & The First Traditional Jazz Band

Below is a short but fascinating YouTube video detailing the outbreak of one theater of the jazz wars: Great Britain in the late 1940s. Around that time, trumpeter Ken Colyer espoused the idea that real, traditional New Orleans Jazz had never left the city of its birth and that those who had moved to Chicago in the 1920s (King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone, et al) represented an innovation. Following the light of his hero, Bunk Johnson, and determined to prove his thesis, he joined the Merchant Navy and worked his way to New Orleans where he sat in with many bands, including George Lewis's.

The result, both before and after his trip, was a split within the British jazz scene between New Orleans Revivalists and New Orleans Traditionalists. However hair splitting that might sound (it actually isn't), the creative tension and dedication of the musicians involved produced decades worth of extraordinary jazz.

Chris Barber, Monty Sunshine, and other seminal figures make appearances in this video--it's a great introduction to the vitality of the professional jazz scene and what players were willing to do for their art in the UK of the '40s and '50s.

 

Nat Gonella's Georgia Jazz Band * Runnin' Wild * 1955

All of Me
Ain't Misbehavin'
Blues
Shine
Confessin'
Runnin' Wild
Satchmo Blues
Indiana
St. James Infirmary
Struttin' With Some Barbecue
On a Slow Boat to China

Nat Gonella, trumpet + vocals
Archie Semple, clarinet
Roy Crimmins, trombone
Fred Hunt, piano
Bill Reid, bass
Johnny Richardson, drums


In many ways, it's difficult to imagine this was recorded in 1955. Jazz in the USA had moved far in the direction of bop and other modern styles, and the various revival bands in America often sounded either too polished on the one hand or too broadly nostalgic on the other. A useful parallel is 1955's Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy, which, while enjoyable in many ways, gives us such broad and grandiose versions of the tunes that it can feel as though we're listening to a tribute to a bygone era rather than experiencing living music.

By contrast, Nat Gonella--a seminal figure in the British Trad Jazz scene, admittedly decisively influenced by Armstrong in his style both as a brass player and vocalist--produced a live set here that, if we set aside our preconceptions, rivals the greats of the previous generation.

I've listened to this album repeatedly for the last couple of years, ever since stumbling upon it in an Intense Media 10 disc box set filled with gems of the European Trad Jazz scene of the '50 and '60s. At first, I wasn't sure what to think of it. I'd never heard Gonella, and the immediate comparison to Armstrong was obvious. As a general rule, we're taught to be wary of imitators, and there are many good reasons for this (some of them social, racial,  economic, etc--and all of them compelling). But I found this disc impossible to ignore for long. The performances are too satisfying to leave behind. Gonella's vocal takes on tunes such as "All of Me" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" are simply among my favorites. However much they might owe to Satch, they aren't copies, but real expression. Likewise, the unflagging energy of the band--the real thing, emotionally--can be difficult to find in any era. Because this is a live date (or a series of them compiled), the band isn't as stiflingly precise as studio dates can get. There is a certain natural raggedness to the group, and the balance of the microphones isn't perfect--the wind instruments tend to overpower the rhythm section. But I wouldn't trade that for the spiritual and emotional impact of this record. It has an elusive quality not even found on many live albums: the feel of a real live gig, unpretentious and un-self-conscious.

Archie Semple's clarinet playing seems the perfect compliment to Gonella's trumpet and vocal, in that his family resemblance to Edmond Hall (undoubtedly his template) is undeniable. But like Gonella, his ideas within the style are legitimate, original, and ring emotionally true. Roy Cummins's trombone, like so many of the British Trad trombonists of that era, is full, crisp and lush simultaneously. It's gotten so that I almost prefer the sound of British Trad brass to Americans at times (and for any American jazz musician, this is not easy to admit).      

For someone raised with the preconceptions of jazz history as taught here in America, all of this raises some interesting questions: if the mainstream of jazz education and criticism will accept generation after generation of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane imitators of various levels of worthiness; if such offerings can be praised as excellent examples of legitimate jazz, why shouldn't the same level of respect be given to those who have worked in the styles developed by earlier jazz giants? If Mozart isn't derided for following in the footsteps of Haydn, Mahler isn't condemned for his learning from Wagner, or Ravel for his debt to Satie and Debussy, why should Gonella and Semple be ignored in America because they learned their art from the likes of Armstrong and Hall? Their work alone is proof that they are not merely derivative, but instead expanded the great music we have by plowing forward in the style after it had been neglected, in many ways, in its homeland.

In general, the British Trad scene of the '50s and '60s demonstrated far less of the crippling anxiety of influence and cultural baggage than Americans carried with them. This is music of vitality, and sounds as though it could have been recorded yesterday. The box I found it in, for a ridiculously low price, is highly recommended, including albums by Acker Bilk, Ken Colyer,  Terry Lightfoot, Sidney Bechet, George Lewis, and others.

Mr. Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band * ACKER * Columbia Record 33 SX 1248 * 1960

White Cliffs of Dover

Snake Rag
2.19 Blues
Fancy Pants
Lazy River
There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder
Original Dixieland Onestep
Good Night, Sweet Prince
Good Woman Blues
Bottom of the Bottle
Milenberg Joys

Personnel [as listed in the album notes]:

Mr. Acker Bilk * clarionet and titular head 
Mr. Ken Sims * trumpet 
Mr. Jonathan Mortimer * trombone
Mr. Roy James * tenor banjo
Mr. Ernest Price * bass
Mr. Ronald McKay * traps and effects

recorded on the 5th, 7th, and 13th days of April, 1960

As with The Seven Ages of Acker and Band of Thieves, I'm sure I like this album way too much for my own good. From the zany liner notes and bowler hat cover to the vocal clarinet and loose but well balanced band, this is exactly what you'd expect from the golden era of Mr. Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band, and it's probably one of their best albums.

The English Trad Jazz scene has historically been a bit of an anomaly to us Americans, though it's so little known in the United States, in a general sense, that to even call it that might be a little strong. Without putting too fine a point on it, the approach to the ambiance of the music, and sometimes to the social meaning of it, tends to be different on either side of the pond. Whereas the American attitude generally ranges anywhere from solemnity to a festive presentation of the music, there almost always seems a zany, Marx-brothers type approach not far in the background of British Trad. This can get annoying for Americans like myself, and it can be prohibitive to enjoyment of some bands, however well the musicians might play. To some very serious traditionalists here in the US, it can seem downright insulting to the music. Why Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band is an exception, despite their use of comedy, is of interest to me, and something I've spent time considering.

My answer is simply that, for all the silliness of the liner notes, striped waistcoats, bowler hats, and hijinx, this is really fine, soulful music making. Bilk's clarinet is immediately identifiable: you can hear right to his heart and soul every time he picks up the horn. He had unique intangibles that were impossible to measure: like how to "lift" an entire performance when he added his voice, and how the band "goes" with him emotionally.

Over the last couple  of years, especially, I've been an advocate for Acker's music here in Cleveland. Many of the musicians I've played with, some of them considerably older than I am, hadn't really heard his playing before I started putting tunes on set lists and scheduling Acker Bilk themed concerts. I'd send bandmates recordings to listen to and we'd talk about them on set breaks or to and from gigs. The response has often been exactly my feelings about the music: that Acker had a unique lyricism, a very touching voice, and the band had an infectious joy about them. The approval hasn't been universal, or without criticism, but many musicians I've talked to have been very impressed. Even the humor that surrounds Bilk's packaging seems specifically good humored, and not just silly.

This album evokes WWII era nostalgia with "White Cliffs of Dover" immediately, then reaches back to early numbers like "Snake Rag" and "2.19 Blues" which originate with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, respectively. Immediately after that, though, we get an Acker Bilk original, "Fancy Pants", which might seem just goofy and simple, capitalizing on the caribbean/calypso fad of the late '50s and early '60s. On the surface, there's really nothing to this song: It's just made of a few simple, arpeggiated chords, modulates very obviously, upwards, and is nothing to write home about. But all that aside, it's a great little tune, and it's Acker's joyful sound, as usual, that makes it more than the notes themselves. Most impressively, despite all of the stylistic shifts and eras represented on the album (including another Bilk original "Good Night, Sweet Prince" and the howling howler "Good Woman Blues") the band has a unified concept and approach, making the whole program sound as though the tunes could have been written the day they were recorded.        

This is the real addictive thing about Bilk and his band, especially of this era: They play with such joy and zest, and interpret tunes with such freshness, that all eras seem irrelevant when they're playing. It's just music, and their happiness to be sharing it is obvious. For me, this is vintage Acker Bilk, and even though I've only known of his music for a few years now, it's become an indispensable part of my regular listening (and as a band leader, my set lists).

Promotional poster from our first Acker Bilk tribute concert, back in 2015

  

Terry Lightfoot's Jazzmen * Tradition in Colour * EMI (Encore! ENC 124) * 1958

Green for Danger

Blue Turning Grey Over You

Orange Blossom (really "St Philip's Street Breakdown" by George Lewis)

Yellow Dog Blues

Red Wing

The Old Grey Mare

Burgundy Street Blues

Black Diamond Rag

Mood Indigo

My Blue Heaven

Black and Blue

Terry Lightfoot * clarinet

Colin Smith * trumpet

John Bennett * trombone

Wayne Chandler * banjo

Bill Reid * bass

Ginger Baker * drums

The British Trad Jazz movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, when acknowledged by jazz historians at all, is generally footnoted among the various revivals of early New Orleans style, beginning with Bechet’s Blue Note recordings and the various renewals of interest driven by Louis Armstrong’s extended career. While there is certainly truth to this categorization, such a pigeon hole can also be misleading and devaluing when we really consider the achievement of the actual music: “Creative Resurgence” would be my choice as a better way of understanding what actually happened. Of the many masterful, and deceptively innovative, albums to be released in a very short period of time, Terry Lightfoot’s Tradition in Colour remains a strong example.

The title of each tune makes a nod to the visible spectrum, and leading off with “Green for Danger” we’re thrown right into the Trad Jazz aesthetic—more modal and streamlined than most revival jazz, Wayne Chandler’s banjo standing out more prominently as an organizational influence, the drums (played by a young Ginger Baker) taking a less dominant, more timbral role. Lightfoot’s clarinet, from beginning to end of the album, is excellent—rich, powerful in all registers, layered, and shot through with meaning. At moments the influences of Albert Nicholas and Edmond Hall seem evident, but any and all role models have been fully integrated into a new voice in the jazz clarinet world—confident, relaxed, commanding without being overbearing, ruminative (especially George Lewis’s “Burgundy Street Blues”).

While Lightfoot is the focus, taking the spotlight on the majority of solo numbers, he gives Colin Smith a chance to show off his strong trumpet in Fats Waller’s “Blue Turning Grey Over You.” Later in the album, he features John Bennett’s trombone on “My Blue Heaven.” Bennett in particular seems to have a sound indebted to the English Brass Band tradition, unique in windplaying for its mellow, round, shimmering quality. This is one of the great treats of British Trad Jazz, by the way: the British brass tradition is less buzzy and directional than many others, and the warmth that they bring can change the repertoire immediately, offering different angles on each tune.

Terry Lightfoot himself, however, must be singled out for high praise. His soloing style, while owing a debt to American forefathers, is likewise a product of a specifically British style of clarinetistry, fused to the New Orleans tradition. The richness of his chalumeau, which seamlessly glides into the clarion register, is unique. He is less impetuous and more methodical in his soloing ideas, opting to use motivic cells throughout distinct choruses. That type of playing, more emotionally circumspect, would seem to be antithetical to blues playing, but in Lightfoot’s case it is not: he impresses by being ruminative and contemplative rather than disengaged or cerebral. His blues are deep and strong, even in their detached quality. Most gratifying is that he managed to play the full rich New Orleans style chalumeau without falling into the trap of so many revival clarinetists—going flat. Lightfoot’s execution of the music and the clarinet itself are therefore of importance. Interestingly, “Orange Blossom”, is attributed to Lightfoot himself (at least on the edition of the album I own), yet it's a copy of  George Lewis's “St. Philip Street Breakdown”, which in turn was almost a direct lift from Benny Goodman's solo choruses on 'Gone With What Wind.' Ain't that jazz for you... 

George Lewis and His Ragtime Band * Jazz At Vespers * February 21, 1954

Just a Little While to Stay Here
Bye and Bye
The Old Rugged Cross
Sometimes My Burden is Hard to Bear
Down By the Riverside
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
Lord, You've Been Good to Me
When the Saints Go Marching In

George Lewis * clarinet
Avery "Kid" Howard * trumpet
Jim Robinson * trombone
Alton Purnell * piano
Lawrence Marrero * banjo
Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau * bass
Joe Watkins * drums

While DownBeat and Time magazines were wondering what happened to the jazz clarinet in the 1950s, George Lewis was flying under their defective and underdeveloped radars, touring the globe and inspiring generations of imitators in Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and even here in the US. The professional jazz press, located mostly in New York and traditionally loathe (even to this day) to look beyond the nightclubs and fashions of that largest of provincial minded cities, simply ignored a vital, and global, trad jazz movement largely spurred by Lewis.

Lewis's story is one of perseverance like few others. He was virtually unnoticed for the first several decades of his musical career, working most of his professional life before his mid-forties as a longshoreman unloading coffee bags in New Orleans. His biggest 'early' break came when he got the call to join Bunk Johnson in NYC in 1945, where he got some notice during one of those rare "revivals" when traditional polyphonic New Orleans style jazz gets noticed in the Big Apple. He was already 45 years old and had been playing professionally since he was a teenager. After Bunk's death in 1949, the band continued under the name of George Lewis and His Ragtime Band.

For a bandleader with as many obstacles to his career as George Lewis, it is remarkable how many landmark, important recordings he made. At a time when jazz was becoming increasingly associated with heroin, anger, and esoteric musical language on the one hand, or tepid commercial sheen on the other, Lewis continued to plow the rough, fertile ground of spirituals, marches, and polyphony developed in his native city. Among those important recordings Jazz At Vespers ranks high.

That the recording happened at all was largely thanks to the Reverend Alvin Kershaw, then rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Oxford, Ohio, whose passion for and dedication to jazz was extraordinary. Around the time of this recording, Rev. Kershaw had gained a bit of national celebrity from appearances on The $64,000 Question (jazz was his chosen category) and on a Sunday religious program, Look Up and Live, where, according to the original album liner notes, he said "To worship properly, we should offer God all of ourselves, our feelings as well as our thoughts. Jazz, which appeals to our emotions, helps us to do this."

The notes to the album go on to say that Kershaw had brought the band to Holy Trinity once before the recording as well, for a Sunday service in 1953. He made it clear to a Cincinnati newspaper at the time that "jazz musicians playing spirituals...are an outgrowth of the suffering of their people [and] have something of universal truth to pass along to his more fortunate congregation." On February 21, 1954, because of a cancellation the band received elsewhere, Kershaw suggested the Lewis band take over the music for Holy Trinity's regular Sunday Vespers service, and this recording was the result.

The recording captures Lewis's ensemble perhaps at zenith. This was the band that had such a powerful impact upon the English trad jazz scene (which in many ways remains more organized and vibrant than the trad jazz community in the US). Monty Sunshine, Acker Bilk, Terry Lightfoot, and countless others imitated and learned from George Lewis, branching out creatively into their own styles afterwards; a young Ringo Starr heard the band and was awed by Joe Watkins's drumming (and once you hear Watkins, you can hear how deeply it impacted the future Beatle). The root of all this music is the spiritual, and the specific depth of uniting human emotion to praise and lamentation, communally. There are few recordings as important as this in jazz history. It does not feature virtuoso playing; it is pure ensemble. It's also something every jazz musician should experience and study.

Mr. Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band * The Seven Ages of Acker * 1959

In a Persian Market (Ketelby)
I'm Going Home (Bilk)
Ory's Creole Trombone (Ory)
Summer Set (Bilk)
The Light from the Lighthouse (Traditional)
The Gay Hussar (Lincke)
Tiger Ray (LaRocca/DeCoste/Shields)
Lucky Rock (Rainey)
Cushion Foot Stomp (Williams)
Run Come See Jerusalem (Blake)
Old Comrades March (Teike)

Columbia - 33SX 1205

Mr. Acker Bilk * clarinet, vocals
Mr. J. Mortimer * trombone
Mr. K. Sims * trumpet
Mr. R. McKay * traps, background vocal on "The Light from the Lighthouse"
Mr. E. Price * double bass
Mr. R. James * tenor banjo
Mr. D. Collett * piano on "Summer Set"


Technological advance, methodical and relentless use of resources, constant innovation understood as a virtue, commercialism as a way of life, gratuitous competition as a means of marketing: these are aspects of the American psyche which tend to spill over from economics and industry into the rest of our culture as well. Jazz history has been no exception. Sometimes this mindset has produced explosively creative results; at other times the inability of the American mind to cease its restless, insatiable consumerism seems to get ahead of itself and leave little ground unscorched before it could be properly developed.

Comparing jazz history to European concert music history reveals this compression--whereas Functional Tonality took centuries to develop, and stylistic epochs in classical music history stretched sometimes for multiple generations, Jazz went from polyphony to an early 'gallant' style to high romanticism to full fledged modernism in about four decades. Some of this was simply a result of the interaction of jazz with modern European music, but certainly much of it had to do with the restless, voracious, and nervous American muse. Because of this, we've often depended upon other cultures to maintain, value, and support styles invented here and abandoned before they've even reached full fruition. France, England, and Japan have often, since the mid-20th century, been more supportive of American jazz musicians than their native country. Because of this, the spread of jazz has not necessarily followed the trajectory abroad that it has at home -- "Trad Jazz" is not only celebrated on other continents, but it has produced heirs from other cultures who have added their particular voice and ethnic flavor to the music.

One of the strongest of these Trad Jazz currents flowed through Great Britain in the 1950s and '60s, and a major focal point was the fascinating and soulful music of clarinetist Acker Bilk. Bilk's contribution is beyond that of being a curator of New Orleans style tunes abroad--he actually advanced the art of jazz in ways that have yet to be fully appreciated on this side of the pond.

First, perhaps, a discussion of his sound is necessary. It's an interesting coincidence of history that the traditionally broad, mellow, full sound of English clarinetists has more in common with early New Orleans style clarinet than the 'American School' of classical clarinetistry. As such there was a natural sympathy between Bilk and New Orleans players such as George Lewis, Albert Nicholas, and Raymond Burke. It would be a mistake to think of Bilk as an English copy of New Orleans sound, though--there were many differences. His chalumeau, while strong and expressive, didn't have the typical New Orleans richness, and while his clarion register could hold with the best of the NOLA crowd, it's his altissimo that is so striking: Bilk's altissimo was actually much stronger than most Crescent City traditionalists, making him able to sustain lines with strength and clarity in unique ways. His intonation was also quite good--and while he always honored George Lewis and other foundational New Orleans players, he didn't fall into the trap of playing too flat so often (which seems to plague many NOLA style traditionalists). All in all, he took the style and brought strength, clarity, and a certain amount of virtuosity (though never descending into mere flashiness).

The Seven Ages of Acker likewise takes New Orleans style as a point of departure, applying it broadly, not only by playing standards (such as Tiger Rag and Ory's Creole Trombone), but in terms of repertoire. In it, Bilk expanded the base of traditional jazz, integrating light music that was popular with British audiences in the early 20th century such as Ketebey's "In a Persian Market," and Lincke's "The Gay Hussar." Significantly, this music was the direct precursor of British Invasion rock (several Brit Rock bands and players of the following decade cut their teeth in trad-jazz groups of the '50s). Like those bands' backbeats, which were based upon American Rhythm & Blues, but didn't really sound or feel like it, there is a distinctive English quality to the way Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band swings--a quality that Americans ought to take more seriously, because to dismiss it is only to lose the creativity and subtle innovative quality that this music offers. The more you listen to English Trad Jazz, the more you hear the long history of the British brass band and light music blending into the New Orleans style. That it is such a good fit is both fascinating and enjoyable. As with so much English music, there's always an admirable emphasis on soul and real emotion rather than mere technique. That's wasn't always the case with American jazz since the bop era, and can serve as quite an antidote to self-conscious modernism.

It's noteworthy that a Bilk original from this album, "Summer Set", was a top ten hit on the UK charts, setting the stage for his biggest: 1961's "Stranger on the Shore"-- the first British tune to hit number one on the American Billboard charts (predating Beatlemania). "Summer Set" is a very simple tune, but the bright sincerity of it serves as foreshadowing to the lighter, optimistic hits of Paul McCartney during his Beatle days.

This band, and this album, is one of the most intriguing of the Trad Jazz contributions from the British heyday of the '50s and '60s. They didn't just serve as a cover band, but as a creative, innovative group in their own genuine and humorous way. There is still much to be learned from what those English traddies did, and for those who haven't yet delved into it, this album is highly recommended.

The Seven Ages of Acker gets The Jazz Clarinet's highest rating: Five Good Reeds, for the command Bilk shows on clarinet (especially his masterful altissimo) while expanding and moving the music forward. While Americans had by 1959 largely abandoned the New Orleans model, Bilk & Co added to it, showing there was still much work to do, and that the style can be developed continuously.