Live At Club Hangover, San Francisco Jan.-Feb. 1954

This is the latest in Acrobat’s continuing series of releases of material from the Ackerman Collection, an archive of largely unreleased jazz recordings held at Stanford University, which has already spawned a number of highly collectable gems. This collection comprises the four complete half-hour radio broadcasts, previously completely unreleased in this form (although a few individual tracks have come out on Storyville compilations) by a band led by the great jazz pianist Earl Hines. Muggsy They were the first four broadcasts from a six-week season at Doc Dougherty’s Club Hangover in San Francisco, the first of many which Hines did there over the years. Every weekend, radio KCBS in San Francisco took a live feed from the Club, and the tapes were retained by the programme’s announcer. Although the Club was a hotbed of the New Orleans revival in the city at that time, Hines’ band has very much an R&B and jump blues flavour, featuring the great tenor saxophonist Morris Lane. The sessions also feature intermission piano solos by the rarely heard New Orleans personality Fats Pichon. The recording quality is excellent, admirably capturing the uninhibited nature of the performances by Hines and his band. It is a fine showcase for Hines versatility as a pianist – he could span the different shades of the genre from swing to post-war modern jazz with ease - and there is some entertaining and uninhibited solo and ensemble improvisation from Hines and the band