Jazz Goes Hawaiian

This is an odd and delightful little album that features jazz groups doing music with Hawaiian themes, as well as Hawaiian musicians playing jazz, and the end result is like having a long afternoon to walk along some sandy beach on the Pacific. Louis Armstrong appears on five tracks here, performing "Song of the Islands" and sitting in on four additional cuts with Andy Iona & His Islanders. Fats Waller and Red Nichols also have their moments on this compilation, but the big treat, at least for record geeks and music historians, is the inclusion of "Chili Blues" by the Castle Farm Serenaders. Only one copy of this strange 78 from 1928 is known to exist. Virtually nothing is known about the Serenaders, but their one cut is notable for its steel guitar line, interesting horn charts, and for what sounds like an all-kazoo front line.