Wild Bill Davison: The Commodore Master Takes

This CD features the kind of straight-ahead traditional jazz that drew patrons to Nick’s and Eddie Condon’s bars decades ago. Most of the tunes here are standard-repertoire Dixieland warhorses and Davison and his cohorts play them exuberantly. In the 1950s Davison gained more attention as a regular performer at Condon’s, but he never played better than on these 1943-6 sides.