One Step to Chicago-Featuring All Star Jazz Legends

Saint Louis In Tune

Rivermont Records, a Virginia-based label that specializes in early jazz and ragtime, is proud to announce the premiere release of One Step to Chicago, a 14-track album that features an all-star lineup of jazz music legends. Recorded in 1992 and then laid aside until now, the album is the product of legendary producer George Avakian. Avakian brought three generations of jazz giants together in RCA’s New York studio to record the exciting music of Frank Teschemacher (a pioneering jazz clarinetist of the late 1920s) and the Austin High Gang. The album features a Who's Who of notable jazz instrumentalists, including pianist/arranger Dick Hyman, clarinetists Kenny Davern and Dan Levinson, guitarist Marty Grosz, Grammy-winning bass saxophonist Vince Giordano and nearly a dozen more.

Bryan Wright, the founder and executive producer of Rivermont, says about the album, “This extraordinary recording documents the once-in-a-lifetime meeting of so many jazz greats — all playing in top form and recorded in state-of-the-art sound under Avakian’s personal guidance. All-star bands don’t always work artistically, but here, the chemistry is palpable. The musicians blend beautifully and sound as if they are having the time of their lives.”

One Step to Chicago was released on July 15, 2022, in deluxe CD and vinyl packages.

[00:50] Background

[02:12] Definition of Ragtime

[04:15] We don't use the word Dixieland

[07:45] Discovering the recordings

• George Avakian
• Dick Hyman
• New York Public Library

[14:27] More on George Avakian and Chicago Jazz

[18:05] Two different bands performed

• Dick Hyman's band-note for note creation
• Kenny Davern's band-spirit of the original but their own interpretations

[22:11] Details of the package

• Photos
• Details of the performers and sessions in an 80-page book
• CD, digital, or vinyl

[26:37] Surprise it was never released

[27:53] Jazz Styles

[31:34] Bryan Wright's interest in ragtime

• Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival

[36:07] Jazz songs and the lyrics

[39:49] Show-Me the homeland of ragtime

[40:44] Great Jazz musicians working together

• Thoughts on why this worked
• Behind-the-scenes information about the sessions

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