King Oliver's Jazz Band: Snag It

Once New Orleans musicians started moving to Chicago in the 19-teens, South Side club owners began losing interest in their local players. "Snag It" shows us why. Driven by King Oliver's first "big" bandthe 10-piece Dixie Syncopatorsthe 12-bar track moves like a train. To fill his crew, Oliver had brought in the best of his Crescent City cohort, including Ory, Bigard, Nicholas, Russell, Scott, and Barbarin. We also find Richard M. Jones doing the short vocal.

Under Oliver's opening cornet lead, soprano, alto, tenor and trombone hold a side conversation. Rather than distract, it fuels. The band moves into a bluesy, muted trombone solo, then a Latinesque stop-time soprano soliloquy. (Jelly Roll Morton taught us of the "Spanish Tinge" in jazz, and we hear it here.) Now comes Jones's vocal, a shining Oliver cornet break, two call-and-response ensemble chorusesand the train steams into the station.