Sweet Emma Barrett - Sweet Emma Barrett and Her New Orleans Music

For her second album as a leader, pianist Sweet Emma Barrett (who sings on four of the eight songs) heads two overlapping groups. While she is joined throughout by banjoist Emanuel Sayles, bassist Placide Adams and drummer Paul Barbarin, the frontlines change, with four songs featuring trumpeter Alvin Alcorn, trombonist Jim Robinson and clarinetist Louis Cottrell; the remaining four numbers have trumpeter Don Albert, trombonist Frog Joseph and clarinetist Raymond Burke. Overall, this set gives listeners a good sampling of the state of New Orleans jazz circa 1963 and is one of the few recordings of Barrett mostly without the regular members of what would become the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Robinson and Sayles excepted). The ensemble-oriented renditions of such numbers as "Big Butter and Egg Man," "Bogalusa Strut" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" are fun and joyful. AllMusicGuide