If you want to listen to swing jazz from the 1940s you could do a lot worse than pick up a Louis Jordan compilation, and given how Jordan was royally screwed over financially by the music business, this one from Charley Records, where performers and writers will almost certainly have seen no benefit is probably no worse than any other.
I was prompted to pick up some Louis Jordan after listening to Joe Jackson's Jumping Jive, where he performed a series of numbers from this era, some of them Jordan's.
And while my expectations weren't astronomic, I was pleasantly surprised. There's a lot of great songs, fairly well recorded, all with a jolly swing, and many with a joyously humorous feel. Five Guys Named Moe, and Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby are both well known and fun, but look out for How High Am I, I Like 'em Fat Like That and Nobody But Me.
However, there's also lots of filler which is generically pleasant without making any real impression, as well as some glaring omissions such as Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Choo-Choo Ch'Boogie and Caldonia
3* - a fairly good compilation of Jordan's work
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