Apex Time 1928-1930

New Orleans clarinetist Jimmie Noone (1895-1944) made what are considered his primary recordings with his Apex Club Orchestra, named for the Southside Chicago speakeasy (upstairs at 330 East 35th Street) where the group performed regularly from 1928 to 1930. Released in 2000, EPM's Jazz Archives collection Apex Time focuses exclusively upon this time period, with 20 of the best recordings in the Noone discography. During the period covered by this collection, the Apex Club Orchestra was staffed by musicians of the caliber of cornetist George Mitchell, trombonist Fayette Williams, alto sax/clarinetist Joe Poston, tuba titan Lawson Buford, banjo/guitarists Bud Scott and Junie Cobb, and pianists Zinky Cohn, Alex Hill, and Earl Hines, then a working member of the Louis Armstrong Hot Seven and soon to be leader of his own big band. Although other more complete Noone anthologies paint a more thorough and detailed portrait of this great clarinetist (a four-CD set on JSP is perhaps the very best of the lot), Apex Time delivers the kernel of the Noone legacy in an easily digestible dose of well-chosen tunes.