This LP was the very first release by the Stash label and, as with its first dozen or so collections, it features vintage material that deals with illicit subject matter. Many of the best marijuana and drug-based recordings are on this set including Stuff Smith’s “Here Comes the Man with the Jive” (which features some hot Jonah Jones trumpet), Trixie Smith’s “Jack I’m Mellow,” Barney Bigard’s “Sweet Marijuana Brown” (which has Art Tatum on piano), Andy Kirk’s “All the Jive Is Gone” and Harry “The Hipster” Gibson’s classic “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine?” Other performers include Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Buster Bailey, Sidney Bechet, the Harlem Hamfats, Chick Webb and Clarence Williams. Some of this material has since been reissued on CD but the original set is still the best. – Scott Yanow