Sax and clarinet man
Tony Parenti made his first records in New Orleans during the years 1925-1929. Throughout much of his lengthy career, he was a busy sideman who worked with
Ted Lewis and
Eddie Condon and led his own group at the old and new Jimmy Ryan's jazz clubs in New York City. Tony Parenti & His New Orleanians is one of the very best examples on record of this man's approach to the tradition after the Second World War. Recorded on August 16, 1949, released on LP in 1958, and reissued on CD as the first entry in the Jazzology catalog in 1994, this is Dixieland jazz at its very best, played by six veteran masters of the style. Flanked by cornetist
Wild Bill Davison and trombonist
Jimmy Archey and backed by pianist
Art Hodes, bassist Pops Foster, and drummer Arthur Trappier,
Parenti delivers a potent assortment of old standards and war horses. The one original is "Blues for Faz," an elegy for Crescent city clarinetist
Irving Prestopnik (nicknamed
Irving Fazola by
Louis Prima and subsequently called
Faz by everyone, including himself) whose short life had ended abruptly five months earlier. If you're crazy about Dixieland jazz, this album would be ideal for driving around in your ride with the volume turned all the way up. Three consecutive takes of "Bugle Call Rag" are guaranteed to get you wherever it is you need to go. ~ arwulf arwulf