Trumpeter/bandleader William Little (1912-1991) – aka King Kolax –earned his place in jazz history based on his early experience in Chicago with Eddie Cole’s band, with brother Nat alongside, and then on the road with Ernie Fields and most notably, with the famed Billy Eckstine Orchestra. He’s seen on-screen in their 1946 movie Rhythm In A Riff. Thereafter he ran his own bands, big and small, using the best local players, and settled into Chicago’s South Side club scene, this collection culled from a number of local labels, and firmly cast in the R&B mould of the day. The eagle-eyed will spot many sidemen listed here who gained later fame in the Hampton and Basie orchestras, and other who made it in modern jazz.

Writer Stanley Crouch summed up Kolax’s music as “laying down that Chicago momentum of strut and shuffle, colored by the taint of true blues”. And that is pretty much what is on offer here, Kolax vocalising capably, heading up the riffs, occasionally emerging to solo, screeching high on the very swingy ‘Side Man’, the band groove just what those South Side dance fans wanted. None of that fancy bebop stuff here!

In and out of the studios, Kolax accompanied a host of blues shouters, Rudy Green, his guitar and vocal style emulating T-Bone Walker, about the best of them. Basie’s Joe Williams repeats his famous version of ‘Every Day I Have The Blues Later’ for Checker here, over-dubbing, the band solid behind him. Treat this material as blues-inflected small band swing, the lyrics often quite wry, much in the Louis Jordan style but with a strong Chicago accent. There are 27 tracks, all worth their place, the album superbly annotated and illustrated, the liner note itself worth the price.