The Saints & Sinners was one of the most highly regarded American Dixieland jazz ensembles of the 1960s. The band includes several swing giants, including trombonist Vic Dickenson, who worked with such greats as Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, and Billie Holiday and pianist Red Richards whose playing credentials include Sidney Bechet and Frank Sinatra; then there’s reedman Rudy Powell who played with the likes of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and Ray Charles. The band includes another Waller alumni, Trumpeter Herman Autrey. The album gets a rousing start with ensemble play and gutbucket trombone on Sugar, then moves on to the beautiful horn harmonies and soulful solos on Blues In My Heart. Little Rock Getaway is a jumping up-tempo piano trio showcase, while the ballad If I Had You features Powell’s emotive sax. If the popular early R&B tune The Hucklebuck sounds familiar, it’s because the melody was lifted from Charlie Parker’s Now’s the Time. Here it’s played with an infectious medium tempo grove. There’s an exemplary version of the classic Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans with more than a taste of Satchmo in the vocals. Soft Buns shows off the band with a more modern feel, whereas After Hours is a leisurely barroom piano blues with a bit of double-time at the end. Canadian Sunset once again has a more contemporary feel – a suiting close to an album that features players who honed their skills during the height of the Dixieland era to become masters of swing.
