The business cards of nearly all the New Orleans musicians read 'Music For All Occasions'. If you go through some of the interviews done by Bill Russell and Dick Allen for Tulane Jazz Archive, you will notice that all the interviewees are talking about the functional character of the music, dances, weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc. This idea is my guidance when I listen to a record and for my appreciation of a record.

During the many occasions I had to talk to Kid Thomas over the years, he always talked about pleasing the people and make them happy by playing the tunes they requested. During his 1976 visit to Belgium, we were at Nobert Detaeye's house in Gent and Tom said that his fondest memory of his Preservation Hall days were the concerts his band gave in Brazil, because people were dancing to his music. In 1983, I went to France with Thomas where he was playing with the Haricots Rouges. The first night they had a job at a castle. It was a concert like he had played so many during the last twenty years of his live all over the world, until somebody started to dance. The 87 year old Thomas was taken way back to the dance halls across the river and he grabbed into his trick bag and played some of the best music I ever heard him play, during concerts and on records. I know I have told this story already before, but for me it illustrates clearly what this music is all about and above all, how the musicians felt about this music.

The music on this CD we owe to people like John Bernard, Sam Charters and others who were aware of the fact that the occasions and venues which featured this music were dying out, and that the music, or the functional character of this music would not be heard so long anymore. The quality of the recording was not always hi-fi, but this was largely compensated by the music. To be honest, I prefer these recordings above a lifeless studio recording by the same band.

These recordings present the real Kid Thomas band, with Louis Nelson, Joe James and Sammy Penn, musicians who played already for a long time with Thomas. Joe James' association with Thomas goes way back to the twenties, Sammy Penn joined a few years later. Burke Stevenson was a versatile and respected trumpet player before he took up bass. The playing of Edmund Washington is a point of discussion among New Orleans lovers, some like him, some don't, but Thomas liked him and he fitted like a glove in the band, he was a great entertainer.

The songs on this CD are a sample of a typical night at a dance hall across the river when the Thomas band was playing, a boogie, a waltz, a rumba, and a lot of hits of the day.

Some will say this CD is a only for the serious lovers of New Orleans music, the ardent fans. I do not think so, this is real New Orleans music, the way it was and the way it should be. I am eagerly awaiting the other dance hall recordings to be issued on American Music.