The band is a natural development of Tomas Örnberg's Blue Five, with added emphasis on international tours. Bent Persson's unique capacity for interpreting early Armstrong is one of the basic premises of the band, which consists of a small "stable" of musicians, because everyone can't always be available to go on tour. The band got its name from Bob Erdos in 1985, after Clarence Williams' Jazz Kings, when an expanded Blue Five recorded a tribute to Clarence Williams for Stomp Off Records. Since then, with varying personnel, the band has had many tours on the continent, the UK, the USA in 1987 and several long tours to Japan and Australia. This CD is the first "real" Jazz Kings record with the regular musicians, and as the band does not have a regular trombonist, the obvious thing was to invite Roy Williams.

The Swedish Jazz Kings' repertoire is somewhat broader than that of the Blue Five, and due to the variety of pianists used by the band, a somewhat more varied breadth of styles within the genre has contributed to the possibility for a more varied choice of tune material. This is also helped on this record by using three different bass instruments. FRANS SJÖSTRÖM plays bass sax and tuba player BO JUHLIN also plays the double bass. Banjoist OLLE NYMAN also plays the guitar, and then we have three pianists with different styles: JOEP PEETERS can be said to have a style all of his own, KEITH DURSTON reminds one of Clarence Williams, Lovie Austin with a touch of Morton, and CHRISTIAN HOPKINS has a somewhat later perspective, with reminiscences of Hines, Stacy and his own interpretation of "stride piano".

1. Shake It And Break It (Friscoe-Clark)       A       5'43   2. Jazzin Babies Blues (R.M Jones)       C       6'20   3. Mr Jess (Bob Greene)       C       5'41   4. Gulf Coast Blues (C.Williams)       D       5'35   5. Sugar Foot Strut (Pierce-Myers-Schwab)       C       4'25   6. Cake Walkin' Babies (C. Williams - Smith - Troy)       A       5'46   7. Weatherburn Blues (Keith Durston)       D       5'40   8. How Come You Do Me (Austin-Bergere)       A       5'18   9. Potato Head Blues (L. Armstrong)       D       2'59 10. It's Right Here For You (P Bradford)       C       4'50 11. Buddy Burton's Jazz (Unknown)       D       3'04 12. Melancholy Blues (Bloom-Melrose-Schoebel)       A       6'39 13. Chattanooga Stomp (Oliver-Picou)       C       6'04 14. Moody Melody (J Noone)       B       4'53 A. Roy Williams, tb - Bent Persson, trp - Tomas Örnberg, sop & cl -       Joep Peelers, pi - Olle Nyman, bj, Frans Sjöström, bass sax       (Aug. 1 -1994) B. Bent Persson, cnt - Tomas Örnberg, cl - Christian Hopkins, pi -       Olle Nyman, gtr - Bo Juhlin, b       (Feb. 18 -1996) C. Roy Williams, tb - Bent Persson, cnt & trp - Tomas Ornberg, sop & cl -       Christian Hopkins, pi - Olle Nyman, bj & gtr - Bo Juhlin, sous & b       (April 21 - 1996) D. Bent Persson, cnt & trp - Tomas Örnberg, sop & cl - Keith Durston, pi -       Olle Nyman, bj - Bo Juhlin, sous & b       (July 13 -1996)