This astounding 23-track compilation deserves a place in everybody's jazz collection -- it's that important, that listenable, and that essential. It takes the cream of
Morton's sessions from his legendary 1926 Red Hot Peppers to his 1939 dates leading a small New Orleans band, with all the essential stops along the way, including a 1927 trio with the
Dodds brothers in Chicago. This is hot jazz nearing the apex of sophistication, just before
Duke Ellington took it even more uptown. ~ Cub Koda