The middle of a World War, during a national shortage of shellac, might seem the craziest time to start a specialist record label, with audiences and musicians being drafted, and no security of raw materials for making 78s. But that is exactly what jazz enthusiast Les Schreiber did, recording musicians he liked, and pressing small runs with whatever he could scavenge. First in New York (and occasionally Chicago) and then in Los Angeles, the tiny Black & White label documented the mingling of traditional and modern musicians, the dawn of several big band careers, and an impressive roster of musicians, male and female, black and white.

Mosaic has made a beautifully-presented set: the 11 CDs here draw together as much as possible from a label whose masters generally don’t now exist, pressing a legion of collectors into service to find the best extant copies.

The liner notes are generally impressive too, though Homer nodded in two of Dan Morgenstern’s otherwise excellent essays, where he suggests an Art Hodes and a Stan Levey appearance were their ‘first’ on disc, though Art had already recorded before Schreiber’s inaugural session, and Levey (shown in the self-same booklet) played two sessions before his supposed ‘debut’!

The music itself, though, is so good and so plentiful that there’s barely space to do more than mention a few highlights. The opening 1942 Art Hodes session shows several sides of the fine Ukraine-born pianist, particularly his mix of sensitivity and power on his own ‘Art’s Boogie’. Better recorded, and a revelation, is the solo date by Cliff Jackson. His ‘Royal Garden Blues’ slips from boogie into stride, while his mastery of left hand patterns shows on ‘It Had To Be You’ – a mere curtain-raiser for his Village Cats octet with the DeParis brothers and Sidney Bechet. Other traditional-style pianists get a look in – Gene Schroeder (later house pianist at Condon’s), Dick Cary (before the All Stars) and Hank Duncan (Waller’s relief pianist).

Then there’s Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith in his interracial ‘Cubs’ sextet, and James P Johnson in clarinetist Rod Cless’s fine quartet, notably on a spirited version of Morton’s ‘Froggy More’. Barney Bigard’s 1944-5 band teams him with Art Tatum on one session, and shows off the less-well-known-than-he-should-be trumpeter Joe Thomas.

One thing Schreiber ensured was that female musicians were not overlooked, and Lil Armstrong delivers some of her most assertive playing on record in her six-piece band with Jonah Jones and JC Higginbotham, check out ‘East Town Boogie’.

The fourth CD includes some excellent vocals: Helen Humes with a muted Buck Clayton behind her vocal, Ivie Anderson in her post-Ellington period backed by Phil Moore’s powerful big band, revisiting Bessie Smith repertoire, with fine solos from Lucky Thompson. Best of all are the Hip Chicks from 1945, an all-female septet, all on longer-playing 12-inch 78s.

The second half of the box charts the emergence of modern jazz and big bands in LA. It’s a fine counterpart to Rhino’s Central Avenue Sounds set, and covers early sessions by Wilbert Baranco, Gerald Wilson and Earle Spencer. Most reassuring is the easy co-operation between bebop and swing players, on both sides of the continent, comprehensively giving the lie to the old ‘trad versus modern’ antipathy.