When he started making records well before the First World War,
Al Jolson was a brilliant comedian capable of disarming patter, skillful mimicry, and vaudevillian finesse. This Living Era compilation covers a timeline from 1913 to 1942, perhaps fortunately stopping short of
Jolson's brassy late-'40s comeback material. Recorded variously in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Hollywood,
Jolson is heard backed by
Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians,
Isham Jones & His Orchestra, the fictitious
Carl Fenton & His Orchestra,the Vitaphone Orchestra, Bill Wirges & His Orchestra, and several studio orchestras operating without anyone's name tacked onto them. This is a nice mixed bag of samplings from all over
Jolie's early to mid-career. As there are only three examples from before 1920, the main emphasis is upon his vibrant 1920s recordings with occasional forays into the following decade. This better than average
Jolson retrospective would be even richer and more exciting had the producers included more of his earliest recorded works, best typified here by his highly theatrical behavior during "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life," a magnificent acoustically recorded tidbit from 1913. Recordings of this vintage demonstrate exactly why
Jolson caught on as quickly as he did.