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Clip description
This is an excerpt from 'Swanston St Shamble’, one of the first jazz recordings of Graeme Bell’s Dixieland Band, from a session in January 1944.
Curator’s notes
Graeme Bell and his Dixieland Band were one of the first bands in Australia to be inspired by the music coming out of New Orleans. In this recording you can hear the influence of jazz greats like Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and especially that of Louis Armstrong in the phrasing and melodic riffs of the trumpet part. The band plays in a characteristic slow tempo and rhythmic style known at the time as the 'Melbourne bounce’.
The title refers to traffic in Melbourne’s Swanston St. The recordings were made on a shellac 78 disc for the specialised recording label Ampersand, run by lawyer William H Miller.
