The Dixie Stompers - At Westminster College

Delmark 204

Another aural time capsule from Delmark guru Bob Koester's bottomless Dixieland tape trove, At Westminster College presents the racially integrated Dixie Stompers in a variety of settings ranging from the intimate to the surreal. Koester's affection for trad jazz has guaranteed that at least several selections from his vast archive make it into commercial circulation each year. His aged ears are attuned to what makes a quality performance in the idiom and this variable source program maintains the standard over an hour’s span. The bulk of the disc documents a concert at the titular bastion of Missouri academia. Instrumentation deviates a bit from other repertory groups in the bass absent nature of the rhythm team. Pete Patterson's spidery banjo works in loose tandem with Bob Kornacher's Dodds-derived traps play at building pliant rhythms over which the horn frontline of Jim Haislip and Bill and Norman Mason (not related) layer boisterous polyphonic passages and solos.

Clarinetist Norman carries the extra credential of having helped Louis Armstrong to read music during his formative years. Glenn Tintera is passable at the piano, but even better are the trio of tracks where band founder John Chapman, on leave from the Army, slips behind the ivories and sits in as an impromptu guest. George Lewis' working New Orleans group with Jim Robinson is a stated primary influence, but I also hear similarities to Lu Watters in the band's overall feel and design. Two more tracks come from an after-hours Animal House-style gig at the Kappa Alpha fraternity house, a raucous “I Wished I Was in Peoria” replete with a “drunken sailor” vocal and some terrific small percussion play from Kornacher that includes cowbell and woodblocks. The overall feel is vivacious and democratic with audience participation actively encouraged. Spit polish and buttoned down urbanity are strictly curtailed in order to preserve the prevailing party mood of the revelers.

The final three tracks include a single studio taped tune and two more from an informal jam at a friend of the band's residence. As far as the songbook, no left field surprises to speak of, just the usual assortment of blues, shuffles and stomps and the band attacks them with brio. Koester's liners include a string of colorful anecdotes including one from the frat gig recounting how the band was forced to perform with a confederate flag as backdrop. They also drop a tantalizing hint at an upcoming archival trio release from Mason, who, along with the rowdy-toned Haislip, ties for MVP.

~ Derek Taylor