At The Club Hangover 1954

In these recordings a then young Jazz giant, Ralph Sutton who in the 1950s was already (in Leonard Feather’s words) ‘one of the best of the later stride pianists’ meets a figure who in any terms was seminal to Jazz’s classic era: clarinetist Edmond Hall. Hall was one of the greatest of clarinettists, who possessed every quality required for Jazz immortality; a bitingly original sound, unique creative conception and absolute mastery of his instrument. Furthermore he was filled with the kind of creative drive that carried him on from local gigs in New Orleans to musical equality with master-geniuses of Jazz such as Art Tatum and Louis Armstrong. By the time of these recordings Ralph Sutton was already one of the finest mainstream Jazz pianists. And his work with Hall locks into a unit of tight musical professionalism at its best.