Two unrelated but rewarding sessions by the great Dixieland cornetist
Wild Bill Davison are combined on this delightful CD. The first session -- a six-song ballad-oriented date that also includes trombonist
Jimmy Archey, Garvin Bushell on clarinet and (on "Yesterdays") bassoon, pianist
Ralph Sutton, bassist Sid Weiss, and drummer Morey Feld -- has some particularly ferocious playing from
Davison (who takes his first recorded vocal on "Ghost of a Chance"). The remaining dozen tunes come from a very successful matchup in 1976 between
Davison and the Classic Jazz Collegium Orchestra, a talented ten-member Czechoslovakian group. Some of the numbers (most notably a classic rendition of "Sunday") have inventive arrangements that make the band sound like a unit from the 1920s. Wild Bill is quite inspired throughout, making this one of his most rewarding sets of the 1970s. Highly recommended. ~ Scott Yanow