When
Delmark Records
President
Bob Koester
acquired the catalog of
Blackbird Records
and decided to reissue
the Chicago Footwarmers
' '60s LP
Hip Flasks and Hotcha
, he had an interesting -- and very good -- idea: how about combining the contents of that old LP (which was recorded in 1966 and 1967) with material from a new
Footwarmers
session he would produce? Tuba player/
founder
Mike Walbridge
and long-time
clarinetist/alto saxophonist
Kim Cusack
both liked the idea; thus, a new session was scheduled in 2007.
Crazy Rhythm
, a 63-minute CD, contains eight new tracks that were recorded in 2007 as well as nine selections that were recorded in 1966 or 1967 and originally appeared on
.
Walbridge
and
Cusack
are heard on both the new performances and the
performances, but while the '60s lineup includes the late banjo player
Eddie Lynch
and the late drummer
Glen Koch
(pianist
Johnny Cooper
is added in 1967), the 2007 version of
Mike Walbridge's Chicago Footwarmers
employs
Don Stiernberg
on banjo and guitar and
Bob Cousins
on drums. Regardless, there are no major stylistic differences between
the Footwarmers
in 1966-1967 and
40 or 41 years later in 2007;
have remained firmly planted in jazz's pre-bop era, providing classic jazz with a strong '20s/early-'30s appeal. Classic jazz, the jazz that came after Dixieland but before the swing era of 1935-1945, could easily be described as early swing because that's what it essentially was -- and that classic jazz/early swing perspective serves
well whether they are turning their attention to
"On the Alamo"
"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"
in 2007 or
"Big Butter and Egg Man,"
"Sunday,"
"Darktown Strutters Ball"
in the '60s.
haven't lost anything in the chops department, and consistency is the rule on this pleasing disc. ~ Alex Henderson