In the age of microsizing, every Mosaic Records Box Set booklet is still 11 x 11 inches to allow our customers to appreciate all the extras we put into printing them (and for easier reading).

The Roundtable, located at 151 East 50th Street in midtown Manhattan, was owned by Morris Levy, who also founded and owned Birdland and Roulette Records, among other enterprises. His clubs were occasionally the site of live Roulette albums. The Roundtable played host to albums by Tyree Glenn and Woody Herman as well as Teagarden.

What is striking about the Roundtable tapes, heard in their totality, is the consistent and sincere quality of the trombonist’s playing. Based on this night at this club, his only concessions to show biz were a snappy arrangement of South Rampart Street Parade (redeemed here by excellent solos by the hornmen), a spot for Big Noise From Winnetka and the obligatory When The Saints Go Marching In as a seemingly endless drum feature with Goldie doing a faux-Louis vocal.

Only eight of the 39 performances recorded that night were issued on the original album. So we formed an ad hoc committee with Dan Morgenstern to review the wealth of unissued material. If a track got two votes of approval, it appears in the set. Actually, the ten selections left behind as rejected got no votes as the problems of balance, weak solos, clinkers or music that didn’t gel made their exclusion obvious. It’s not everyday you stumble across a couple of hours of unissued Teagarden and we wanted to give it proper consideration.

Among this wealth of unissued quality material were some surprises. Benny Goodman and Mildred Bailey put Frank Loesser’s Junk Man on the map with their February 1934 recording (heard on The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Mildred Bailey - Mosaic MD10-204), but Teagarden cut his own classic instrumental version eight months later with Goodman as sideman (heard on The Complete Okeh and Brunswick Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and Jack Teagarden Sessions 1924-36 - Mosaic MD7-211). On his 1958 Capitol album Shades Of Night, he recorded a new arrangement with woodwinds. This live version by sextet is closer in spirit to the new treatment. In fact, the band is heard pulling out sheet music before they play it and, except for one trombone clam, they do a beautiful job. The 1951 Rosemary Clooney and Dinah Washington hit Mixed Emotions, also heard here, comes from that Sid Feller-arranged woodwind album.

The only new piece to make the original album was When by Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand. But Teagarden introduced another piece that night on the sixth and last set, done after the audience had left. Riverboat Blues was written in 1955 by his old friend Charlie LaVere with lyrics by Tom Adair for a Disneyland stage show called The Golden Horseshoe Revue. This is the only known commercial recording of the song, and it has been sitting unissued for 44 years. The melody must have been kicking around for some years. Joe Showler spotted that it is identical to Levee Blues, recorded by Jimmy Dorsey on March 7, 1950 with a vocal by Jack’s brother Charlie (heard on Classic Columbia Condon Mob Sessions - Mosaic MD8-206).

That sixth set opened with a most unique reading of Ol’ Man River with Teagarden on baritone horn or euphonium, an instrument that he had played as a child and doubled on with bands in the southwest from 1920 to ’26. Drummer Ronnie Greb recently told Joe Showler that Tea played the instrument occasionally for about three months. The performance is exquisite and the only known recorded example of Tea on this instrument.

Despite the aforementioned trumpet codas, the ballad medleys, I’m Getting Sentimental Over You/I Can’t Get Started and Stars Fell On Alabama/When A Woman Loves A Man are excellent. The theme songs of Tommy Dorsey and Bunny Berigan, which comprise the first medley, would be recorded as separate pieces on the final Roulette session.

Teagarden announces Lover as a tune he’d recorded on Paul Whiteman’s 50th Anniversary album a few years earlier. But his best-known version was as a trombone feature with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars in 1947, issued on Satchmo At Symphony Hal. Joe Showler believes clarinetist Sol Yaged, who played on Tea’s 1954 Urania version of the song, is the unidentified sitter-in on the spirited version recorded here.

A previously unissued instrumental version of St. James Infirmary finds the perfect tempo and groove and offers solos superior to the issued vocal version. Check out Goldie’s Angel Eyes quote.

Added to the great performance of Honeysuckle Rose which appeared on the original album is another Don Ewell feature, W.C. Handy’s Atlanta Blues, which would be re-recorded on the final Roulette studio session.

What’s really surprising is the number of excellent previously unissued performances of standard New Orleans fare. The rhythm section, led by Ewell, is close-knit, tasteful and always swinging; Teagarden guides Goldie and Cuesta in excellent ensembles. One need only hear the opening number That’s A Plenty to hear how this band can breathe new life into familiar territory; the groove is unstoppable and the out chorus is an absolute joy. Original Dixieland One-Step sparkles from first note to last with an exceptional Ewell solo which seems to inspire Goldie and Cuesta to rise to the occasion, as they do on Sweet Georgia Brown. The trumpeter also shines on Tin Roof Blues and Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home.