Spencer Williams' jazz masterpiece gets a nice treatment here, though a bit on the gimmicky side: ODJB's first record, "Livery Stable Blues", while having the distinction of being the first jazz record, also did jazz a disservice by associating it with the
production of animal noises with musical instruments. That trend continued into the mid 1920's, this example being recorded for Edison Labs on April 18 of 1923. Despite this echo of million-sellers past, however, this record has some natural charm to it
that transcends the gimmick quite well. I don't yet know who was in this outfit, or even if the same people were involved from one record to the next, but there's some relaxed joviality that still comes across eighty years later. The record was in very
nice shape, and only needed a minor amount of noise reduction.
