The John Reid Collection 1940-1944

This is a very unusual CD which will be of greatest interest to collectors of New Orleans jazz of the Bunk Johnson variety. A radio broadcast from 1944 features trumpeter Peter Bocage, and the clarinets of Big Eye Louis Nelson and Alphonse Picou in a septet. In addition there are two piano solos from Burnell Santiago, a "talking record" from 1944 (in which one can hear the voices of Sidney Bechet, Manuel Perez, Nelson, Picou and Santiago), a couple of unaccompanied Bechet solos, his "Message to Bunk" in which he urges the veteran trumpeter to come up north, and a 1940 performance by clarinetist George Bacquet in a small group; Bechet guests on one selection. This is a very historical (if "low-fi") release that fills a few gaps in the story of the New Orleans jazz revival.