Long Buried in a Closet, Early Jazz Treasures Emerge

Luis Russell is probably best remembered as a key collaborator to two extraordinary trumpeter-singers of New Orleans, Louis Armstrong and Henry ‘Red’ Allen.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Luis Russell, center, at Tom Anderson's Cafe on Rampart Street, New Orleans, 1919. Also in the band, from left: Paul Barbarin, drums; Arnold Metoyer, trumpet; Willie Santiago, banjo; and Albert Nicholas, saxophones and clarinet. Via Wikimedia Commons

Luis Russell
‘At The Swing Cats’ Ball: Newly Discovered Recordings From The Closet’
Dot-Time Records

In 1953, the great bassist and composer Oscar Pettiford recorded an original tune he titled “Blues in the Closet.” That number has nothing to do with this new Luis Russell release except in the most literal sense: This is a private stash of blues and jazz that was actually in a closet for 85 years.

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