by Brian Rust
(from the liner notes of Jazz In California 1923 to 1930 on Timeless Records)
Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders as a name may mean little to European enthusiasts, perhaps because only one side "New Kinda Blues" was ever released outside of America at the time. Such names as Lawrence Brown, the trombonist, Lionel Hampton the drummer (and on "Moonlight Blues", "Stuff", "Cuttin' Up" and "California Swing" he is the vocalist) and Reginald Foresythe are at once familiar to us. Brown was soon to join Duke Ellington and stay in his band for many years; Hampton joined Benny Goodman's Quartet as a vibraphonist par excellence in 1936, and played drums on several Goodman sides in the later 1930s, while Foresythe came to London in 1933 and for some years produced very forward-looking compositions, scored for a most unusual assortment of woodwinds against a standard rhythm section. The quality of the Quality Serenaders, however lies in their arrangements by their lead saxophonist, Charlie Lawrence, who composed most of their recorded repertoire, although the brilliant Alex Hill, who died before he was thirty, wrote the score of "Quality Shout". Trumpeter George Orendorff was an exciting soloist. Open or muted, he drives the band along with an attack that never becomes frenzied.

If you would like to order the Timeless Records' CD of Jazz In California 1923 to 19301 you can do so through Worlds Records or direct from Timeless Records.