CCMusic.com

• Track Listing

Jesse Allen remains one of New Orleans' "Great Unknowns", and his entire recording career is believed to be encapsulated in the twenty tracks featured on this set. Yet the quality of these sides is so impressive that you can't help wondering (a) why he didn't register hits, and (b) how come he didn't cut more records. In particular, powerful discs like 'Rockin' and Rollin' and 'Love You Baby' b/w 'After A While' have become highly-touted collectors' items. For many years very little was known about Allen - even from where he'd originated - and the various written articles and sleevenotes about him were largely conjecture. But in the Internet era his daughter contacted the bebopwino. Blogspot. com website, after they'd done a track-by-track analysis of a collectors' LP, and was able to correct several factoids and fill in some of the gaps.