“Panico made this record fifteen years ago? But I’m writing now!”
With terms like “relic, exhumed” and “corny” as well as the handy rating system, the only difference is sixty-five years (or maybe characters).
For a more nuanced i.e. lengthier portrait of Louis Panico (including several admiring comments by fellow musicians), read more here.
For what the fuss is about, check out Panico’s strong lead, clean breaks, keen sense of ensemble balance, smart use of mutes to vary his sound and understated but spurring variations on “Hula Lou” with Isham Jones’s band:
The Pop of Yestercentury 
Nice!!! Thank you, Andrew, for posting this.
Louis Panico is one of those great “rag-a-jazz” hornmen — like Frank Guarente — who never receives the plaudits he deserved.
His playing (and Guarente’s) reminds me a lot of Freddie Keppard’s, and Abbie Brunies’. Anyone who sounds like those guys has my vote!!!
Thanks Hal! Panico’s music continues to fascinate me. Apparently he never considered himself a “jazz musician,” but whatever he plays is also confident, tasteful and interesting.
Panico has to share formative credit for the big band era as being Isham Jones’ first trumpet man – and the first out there with the wah-wah, before the public caught onto King Oliver. Altho Isham did not yet allow improvisation in his band, he insisted his musicians come to hear Oliver as soon as he hit Chicago. In the context of that often sedate early 20s scene, Panico really is playing on the cutting edge.