"Sweet Emma" Barrett - "The Bell Gal" & Her Dixieland Boys featuring Jim Robinson

with Percy Humphrey, Jim Robinson, Willie Humphrey, Emanuel Sayles, McNeal Breaux, Josiah Frasier

Emma Barrett (1897-1963) was the pianist in Papa Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Band in the 1920s, and an indefatigable leader of the New Orleans jazz revival who continued to perform with one hand after a 1968 stroke left her partially paralyzed. She was both healthy and inspired on the 1961 recording, cut at the beginning of her Preservation Hall period, with driving piano and her trademark bell-bedecked beanie and garters throughout, plus her raw and unique vocals on several titles. Her septet includes traditional trombone great Jim Robinson and the underrated brothers Percy and Willie Humphrey on trumpet and clarinet, respectively.