Acrobat's 93-track compilation of Nichols sides recorded for Brunswick as the Five Pennies and as the Charleston Chasers for Columbia is culled from an immensely prolific period for the Utah-born cornetist.

These days, Nichols might be forgotten, but it's estimated that he appeared on some 4,000 tracks during the 1920s alone, and it is from that decade that this material is principally drawn. As can be seen from the partial personnel listing above, Nichols had his pick of the best white New York session players-cum-jazzmen of the day and it is on their presence, quite as much Nichols’ own playing that the reputation of these small jazz groups rests.

Nichols was much valued by earlier pre-revival enthusiasts here in the UK and these sides were given a degree of appreciation that must now seem overstated. At the time, the recorded work of the great Black stylists like Armstrong was far less accessible. Then again, to some, Nichols was just a poor alternative to Bix Beiderbecke, whose cornet sound he emulated. Even so, he was clearly an excellent technician with what The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings called a ‘precise, lightly dancing’ attack, his sessions invariably clean cut, the writing clear, the tempos mostly perky and danceable, even if they do seem a touch effete now. There were soloists of high quality scattered among the Pennies like Dorsey, gutsy on alto, guitarist Lang, Adrian Rollini bustling on bass sax, and trombonist Mole, Nichols’ closest associate, who seemed far ahead technically compared with Black contemporaries like Dutrey or Ory. A determined if strait-laced improvisor whose talent, energy and organising skills placed him at the centre of things in 1920s New York and beyond, it's good to be reminded of Nichols’ worth and his still influential amalgam of hot dance music and jazz.