Search - Firehouse Five Plus Two :: Dixieland Favorites

Terrific album hits the mark

microjoe | 05/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD of the group is actually a compilation put together by band leader Ward Kimball in 1986, well after the group retired in 1971. Each song was remastered from the original source specifically for the Good Time Jazz label. It has over an hour of music, longer than any of their other CD's since all the rest are just straight conversions from the original albums.



The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a band that played Dixieland Jazz and had the unique distinction of being animators and other employees that worked at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. One of the most famous animators to work for Disney was Ward Kimball's who played classic Dixieland records in his office during lunchtimes to blowoff some steam. Soon the guys brought in instruments and began playing along with the record. One day when the record player broke down and they played anyway. They kept on playing without the record player and the rest is history. Their jam sessions caused animators, storymen, and inbetweeners to dance with the ladies from the color and ink crew right in the soundstage. As members of the group were some of his best studio animators, Walt Disney liked them and let them do their own thing on the side. But he also loved their music and onstage antics. He even invited them to play in the Disneyland park on Opening Day in 1955 and made repeat visits for the next 15 years after that, and later to even appear on his TV show.



The group made 12 albums over the years, some of which included original artwork on the cover by animator Ward Kimball. They even released a very special album called "At Disneyland" which is a live concert in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon at Disneyland Frontierland. Even today you can still hear their music on a visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. When you take a ride on the Mark Twain riverboat, it has a music loop playing Dixieland Jazz as part of the background theme music on board that includes tracks from this LP (now a CD) including, "Muskrat Ramble", "Fidgety Feet", & "Come Back, Sweet Poppa".



Over the years they performed on the Bing Crosby radio show and his golf tournaments, were featured in several Walt Disney TV specials. They also appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club's "Anything Can Happen Day" on and performed two numbers, "I Want to be a Fireman" and the "Tiger Rag". This appearance is available on the DVD "The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club" here at Amazon.com. It is mislabeled on the DVD as November 12, 1964 which was actually a re-run of the original episode that almost 10 years earlier;





The band was not owned or controlled by the Disney Company in any way. They moonlighted, recorded albums, played in nightclubs, and had a lot of fun along the way. The FF5+2 was not some polished studio band with tight engineering, but an exercise in spontaneity and improvisation. They truly didn't even believe in practicing, just havin' fun. Maybe that is the best part of listening to them, because they sound great and are very full of life and laughter. They still make you want to dance along. Interestingly, as animators they were used to creative sound effects and included this art in their music too. For example they used an anvil on one track, sirens, bells and whistles.... and it works."