San Francisco Starlight Orchestra, "Rose Colored Glasses." (Stomp off CD1334) 78:57 min.

The San Francisco Starlight Orchestra holds monthly cotillions where dancers are pleasantly transported to the 1920s and early 1930s. "Hot dance music" is the order of the day, and the 14 musicians of the ensemble do a fine job of conjuring up the spirit of the era. "Rose Colored Glasses" is thus an apt title number for this CD, their third for Stomp Off.

As a glance at the program shows, there is a mixture of the familiar and the obscure: "Doin' the New Low Down" and "Varsity Drag" are to 1920s dance band jazz as "Muskrat Ramble" and "Panama" are to trad/dixie, but most of the numbers recorded by SFSO are not heard very often these days, if at all. Take "Maori (A Samoan Dance)," for instance, a 1908 tune by WIlliam H. Tyers, composer of "Panama." Then there is "Rumba Negro (Spanish Stomp)," by Bennie Moten and Count Basie, who evidently had been listening to Ellington's "The Mooche." "Some Sweet Day" is decidedly more up tempo than the Armstrong version. The sassy "Bandanna Babies" is from Blackbirds of 1928. There are several ballads, including the well-known title number, and other great standards like "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" and "You Took Advantage of Me."

"Rose Colored Glasses" features cornet solos by Bob Schulz and Bruce Vermazen. Schultz, who landed first place as favorite living trumpet/cornet player in the recent Mississippi Rag poll, shows a marked Armstrong influence. Vermazen, musical director of SFSO, leans more toward Beiderbecke for inspiration. Schulz, who was third place winner in the male vocalist category in the RAG poll, delivers the lyrics on five numbers in the warm and happy style that accounts for his popularity.

This is a disciplined orchestra that negotiates the period arrangements with precision and vitality, while leaving room for frequent improvised solos. The shades of Whiteman, Olsen, Ellington, and Goldkette must nod down approvingly.

Available for $16 postpaid from Stomp Off Records, P.O. Box 342, York, PA 17405.