Willie Humphrey & Brian O’Connell - Two Clarinets on the Porch

The mentor and pupil relationship has been a musical staple since the first proto-sapiens struck wood on stone. In jazz, there exist innumerable albums where youthful students join aged teachers in celebrating the lineage they share, so it’s always a welcome occurrence when one stands out. At the time of this ’91 studio recording, thirty-year old O’Connell was sixty years Humphrey’s junior. Willie, brother to trumpeter Percy, was a peer to licorice stick legend George Lewis and a New Orleans mainstay since the Roaring Twenties. Banjo player Les Muscutt, bassist Frank Fields and drummer Ernie Elly serve as a revolving miniature bullpen and the generously sequenced disc features ensemble aggregations ranging from trio to quintet in size. There’s also a solo steel string guitar version of “Lover Come Back” that shows off Muscutt’s nimble arpeggiated fret play in fine fettle. All of the tunes originate from the august Crescent City songbook with renderings of “Stardust,” “Bourbon Street Parade” and “Little Liza Jane” winning my ears over as lively standouts. Humphrey wears his advanced years through sometimes slightly dodgy phrasing, but his jowly tone and infectious pep eclipse any chops troubles. He even finds inspiration to sing on a trio of tracks, most beguilingly on a droll rundown of the double entendre-driven “The Cabbage Song.” O’Connell quickly corners the distinction as the more technically adept of the duo. His seven numbers with only Fields and Muscutt in tow draw delightful parallels to Louis Cottrell’s Bourbon Street album for Riverside, both in terms of basic instrumentation and temperament. I’m sucker for this sort of chamber style Dixieland and this is as agreeable an example of the custom as I’ve yet come across. The titular porch may only be figurative, but the dulcifying vibe of a laidback afternoon hang amongst congenial compadres comes across loud and clear.