In many respects Nick LaRocca gets a bad rap. There’s seemingly no middle ground for him. His detractors, and those of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band of which he is the member most often singled out as the object of scorn, try, even in these pages, to somehow discount or even deny that he and the ODJB made the initial recordings of jazz music in 1917. The pro-LaRocca zealotry is no better: “Creator of Jazz”? From both directions it’s all a useless clap trap. When you think in a reasoned fashion, what difference does it make? In this context “first” has no relation to quality, it’s not a race, no one got a gold medal as opposed to a silver or a bronze. It’s merely happenstance that the ODJB recorded first and not Freddie Keppard, or the Seven Pods of Pepper. “An accident of history,” John McDonough writes in the notes to the 75th Anniversary reissue of those initial recordings, “Hardly something worth fighting over.”
I take a middling approach and revel in the lively, enthusiastic music they created and thank them for putting many songs that would become standards into the repertoire: “Livery Stable Blues,” “Fidgety Feet,” “At The Jazz Band Ball” and others. Bix loved LaRocca. Armstrong wrote that his favorite version of “Tiger Rag” was the ODJB’s, and the Smithsonian Institution and Jazz at Lincoln Center saw fit to make a transcription of that recording part of its first wave of the Essential Jazz Editions series of musical scores. The composer credit goes to LaRocca. That’s just one of many he composed, or had a hand in the composition of, that became a classic, which brings us to the point of these musings. Louisiana Red Hot Records has released a compact disc by the contemporary incarnation of the ODJB led by LaRocca’s trumpet playing son Jimmy. The recording is notable in that seven of the 13 titles feature the premiere recordings of songs composed by LaRocca later in his life (between 1958-60). The balance are original compositions by his son Jimmy.
Besides LaRocca the younger on trumpet, this “new” ODJB includes Tim Laughlin on clarinet (who shines throughout), trombonist Ben Smith, piano duties are shared by John Royen and Tom Roberts, Al Bernard is on bass and David Hanson on drums. LaRocca’s secret weapon is the fine trombonist Bob Havens (who after stints in New Orleans with George Girard and Al Hirt, had a long association with Lawrence Welk), who steals the show on his four numbers. As for the compositions, many seem derivative, but to my ears the most effective are “Irish Channel Drag,” a pleasing parade number: “Down in Old New Orleans,” certainly infused with the flavor of its namesake: a bit of jazz age exotica called the “King Tut Strut,” and “Let’s Jam It” where Royen, Laughlin, LaRocca and Havens do just that. The younger LaRocca’s “On A Lazy Summer Night” is an evocative ballad, and perhaps his most notable composing effort.
I could do without the Jimmy’s gravelly Armstrong vocals on his own “I Miss Your Loving,” and the final track “Down in Old Orleans.” And while both the opening narration by the elder LaRocca’s widow and “Give Me That Love,” with lyrics by his daughters and sung/spoken by his son, may be a bit too sweet and quaint for my tastes, but it is a tribute to both a husband and a father, and I would be hard-pressed to argue the merits.
By no means will these recordings set the world on fire, as those made by the ODJB in 1917 did, they won’t even cause a spark. But if you like New Orleans jazz, this is a pleasing collection, as well as an historical curiosity.
