1939-1944 (1999)

About this title: Some of cornetist Muggsy Spanier's all-time best recordings have been poured into this chronologically convoluted compilation, released by the Giants of Jazz label during the first weeks of 1999. Tapping Spanier's classic Ragtime Band sessions of July-December 1939, the marvelous collaborative jams he waxed with Sidney Bechet for the Hot Record Society during the spring of 1940, and his fabulous Commodore Ragtimers recordings of 1944, this 23-track compendium does a marvelous job of illustrating exactly why generations of traditional jazz lovers have never been able to get enough of this ... read more

Tracks:

1. Big Butter and Egg Man [Clare/Friend/Santly]
2. Someday, Sweetheart [Spikes/Spikes]
3. Eccentric (That Eccentric Rag) [Robinson]
4. That Da Da Strain [Medina/Dowell]
5. At the Jazz Band Ball [Edwards/LaRocca/Rag]
6. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate [Piron]
7. Dippermouth Blues (Sugar Foot Stomp) [King Oliver]
8. Livery Stable Blues (Barnyard Blues) [Lee/Lopez/Nunez]
9. Riverboat Shuffle [Parish/Carmichael]
10. Relaxin' at the Touro [Spanier/Bushkin]
11. At Sundown [Donaldson]
12. Bluin' the Blues [Ragas]
13. Lonesome Road [Austin/Shilkret]
14. Dinah [Akst/Lewis/Young]
15. Black and Blue [Razaf/Waller/Brooks]
16. Mandy, Make Up Your Mind [Clarke/Turk/Meyer]
17. Oh, Lady Be Good [Gershwin/Gershwin]
18. Memphis Blues [Handy/Norton]
19. Whistlin' the Blues [Haggart/Spanier]
20. Sweet Lorraine [Parish/Burwell]
21. Four or Five Times [Gay/Hellman]
22. That's A-Plenty [Gilbert/Pollack]
23. Sweet Sue, Just You [Young/Harris]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.