New Orleans Blues, Soul & Jazz Gumbo

Inspired by the success of the HBO TV series Treme, a drama serial set in New Orleans and brimming with musical touches both subtle and overt, the master marketeers at Union Square Music have issued this 50-track, 2CD set. New Orleans Blues, Soul & Jazz Gumbo does a reasonably thorough job of delivering the goods promised in its title. The jazz hit-parade leads off with Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven's seminal recording of ‘Potato Head Blues’, followed by Jelly Roll Morton (‘I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say’), Sidney Bechet (‘Ballin’ the Jack’), and King Oliver performing the quintessential Crescent City classic, ‘St James Infirmary’,

The blues and soul ingredients, boosted by pinches of zydeco and Cajun, are represented by names both well-known and obscure, from Champion Jack Dupree (‘Mail Order Woman’) and Fats Domino (‘Walking to New Orleans’) to Clarence Garlow (‘Bon Ton Roula’) and Guitar Slim (‘The Things That I Used to Do’). More localised fare is served up by native sons and daughters including Allen Toussaint, Art Neville, Shirley & Lee, Professor Longhair (with his Shuffling Hungarians) and Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr John.

Conveniently packaged for casual consumption, while there's nothing wildly exceptional in this collection, it does make for an authentically seasoned, thoroughly enjoyable, New Orleans-style gumbo.