Aside from a few compilations consisting of previously released 78 rpm recordings, the 1959 United Artists LP
Petite Fleur represents the first album by New Orleans clarinetist
Edmond Hall. Accompanied by pianist
Ellis Larkins, bassist
Milt Hinton, and drummer
Jimmy Crawford,
Hall revisits
Sidney Bechet's "Petite Fleur" and another Dixieland classic, "Clarinet Marmalade," with great feeling. His perky original "Cook Good" was inspired by a folk tune he heard as a young man called "Cook Good Cabbage." The group expands to a sextet with the addition of trumpeter
Emmett Berry and trombonist
Vic Dickenson on four tracks. A medley of six songs from the vast
Duke Ellington songbook showcases a different side of
Hall and some excellent muted horn by
Dickenson. The leader even takes a rare vocal on the swinging closer, "Don't Give Me No Sympathy."