Take 5 with I Want a Little Girl

This edition of Take 5 is devoted to several versions of the song "I Want a Little Girl." This song is probably most familiar from the Count Basie recording with Jimmy Rushing handling the vocal. We start this playlist with this classic recording.

There have been so many versions over the years. Here is the great Ray Charles.

Then there is a memorable version by T-Bone Walker. As I write this, Hal 'Cornbread' Singer, who plays tenor sax on this track, is still alive.

I must confess a video of Doc Cheatham performing this inspired this blog post. He did record this for the French Black & Blue label.

Next up, and last, is an instrumental rendition by the Kansas City Six featuring Lester Young on clarinet and other Basie-ites without the Count. Eddie Durham is on trombone and electric guitar, Freddie Greene on guitar, Walter Page on bass, Jo Jones on drums, and Buck Clayton on trumpet.

There are versions by Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine with the Three Sounds, Big Joe Turner and more that folks can explore.

Take 5 With Some Jazzy Holiday Music

Yesterday we had a brief playlist of Blues Holiday Music. Today with have a brief selection of Jazz Holiday Music. We open with a Christmas 1948 radio broadcast of Charlie Parker from the Royal Roost playing "White Christmas."

Next up is Louis Armstrong with 'Christmas in New Orleans."

I wonder if the same folks who claim "Die Hard" isn't a Christmas movie, would argue "Good Morning Blues" by Count Basie isn't a Christmas song, even though Jimmy Rushing wants to see Santa Claus.

Here is Duke Ellington with "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."

  Finally, we have Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing "Jingle Bells."

Take 5 With Lester Young With Count Basie

For this installment of Take 5, we have a brief playlist of Lester Young, the great tenor saxophonist who was not merely a great tenor saxophone stylist, but also a significant influence on saxophonists who came after him. This is limited to his early sides with Count Basie. First up is Lester Young as part of the Jones-Smith Five date for Vocalion with Count Basie on piano, Young on Tenor sax, Carl Smith on trumpet, Walter Page on bass, and Jo Jones on drums. The song is "Lady Be Good."

The original "Boogie Woogie" was recorded at the Jones-Smith date. Here it is done by the full Basie Band with Jimmy Rushing handling the vocal as he did on the original. Besides his brief intro and obligattos, Prez takes a simply sublime solo. Incidentally, this number would be performed by a variety of Jump Blues acts, including Wyonnie Harris and Roy Milton. Redd Foxx's "Shame on You" is musically a cover, although Foxx's recording has different lyrics. Chicago blues pianist Little Johnnie Jones also recorded this with Elmore James on guitar.

There are so many Count Basie recordings that one can choose. "Taxi War Dance" is an outstanding one.

Young is, of course, featured on some of the Basie classics, including "Jumping at the Woodside." Herschel Evans is the clarinetist on this track.

Finally, here is the original recording of his blues that became a jazz standard, "Lester Leaps In."

I will be posting some of Lester Young's recordings backing Billie Holiday in a few weeks.

How Long How Long Blues

One of the most celebrated blues recording is " How Long How Long Blues," most famous from Leroy Carr's recording. It was so popular, Carr recorded a number of sequels. Today, we explore a variety of recordings and performances of this number starting with Carr's hit.

It derives somewhat from Ida Cox's "How Long Daddy" by the great Ida Cox with Papa Charlie Jackson on the accompaniment.

Here is T-Bone Walker doing this classic.

Jimmy Yancey may be my favorite blues and boogie-woogie pianist. Here is his poetical version.

Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing singing.

Here is one by Big Joe Turner, who recorded the song several times.

The great slide guitar master, Kokomo Arnold, an influence on Robert Johnson, recorded this.

The late Lou Rawls did a marvelous rendition.

Last up for this playlist is Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and Leadbelly.

There are many I could have selected, but this gives an idea of the range of interpretations.

The Complete Jazz Casual Series
EFOR Films

Many of you may be aware of the legendary public TV show, Jazz Casual, that was hosted by the late music critic Ralph Gleason. Shows from this series featured a number of jazz legends including John Coltrane, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Art Farmer, Jimmy Witherspoon with Ben Webster, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Earl Fatha Hines, Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Charles Lloyd Quartet (with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette), Joe Sullivan, Mel Torme and others. A number of these performances have been available on VHS tapes and DVD. EFOR Films has issued a box with 8 DVD's containing the complete series of performances mixed with Gleason's cogent interviews of these artists. Also included is a booklet with an overview of the series and the artists included.

I purchased this video box set. This is one of a number of short reviews I have written for the 2015 Holiday Guft Guide edition of Jazz & Blues Report.  Here is John Coltrane performing "Alabama," from his performance on this show.

How Long How Long Blues

Today's blog is devoted to simply presenting a number of renditions of a song most associated with Leroy Carr, How Long, How Long Blues. This was a major hot for Carr and became one of the true blues classics.

First up is Carr's original recording

Second is Tampa Red although I wish we just had the music, not the video and audio of a 78 playing.

Ida Cox's How Long Daddy speaks about that southbound train. It predates Carr's recording. Cox was one of the early blues greatest talents.

Kokomo Arnold also did a terrific rendition of this

Let us not forget some superb instrumental piano renditions including Count Basie

And no instrumemntal rendition touches me as much as that by the great Jimmy Yancey.

A year before he died, Jimmy Yancey did this with Mama Yancey singing wonderfully

Carr' song was a favorite of blues shouters like Jimmy Rushing, Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner. Here is the Boss of the Blues singing it from the essential album The Boss of the Blues Sings Kansas City Jazz.

Other singer-pianists have done including Memphis Slim and Champion Jack Dupree. I have included Dupree's rendition from 1945.

It has been a song that jazz performers have interpreted such as Coleman Hawkins. There is a superb duet performance by Archie Shepp and pianist Horace Parlan on the terrific album Trouble in Mind. Here is Coleman Hawkins.

Among recent blues renditions, I consider the best to be from pianist Butch Thompson and guitarist Pat Donohue. Here is Thompson channeling Jimmy Yancey as I close this blog post.

The Eagle Flies on Friday

Some renditions of T-Bone Walker's "Call It Stormy Monday"

Here is the legend himself:

The great Vi Redd with Count Basie, singing and wailing on the tenor sax. This clip inspired me to make this post.

B.B. King

Eva Cassidy

B.B. King (again) and Albert Collins

Diana Reeves and David Peaston

Albert King and John Mayall

Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor and Bobby Rush

Last Buddy Guy with Carlos Santana and Barbara Morrison

Count Basie Swingin' The Blues

COUNT BASIE
Swingin the Blues 
Masters of American Music 
EUROARTS DVD

Among the recent reissues from the Masters of American Music video series is one Swingin’ the Blues, devoted to Count Basie, the great big band leader and pianist. Issued by EuroArts on the Lower 5th imprint, it presents the near hour appreciation of Count Basie with some choice video clips and interview recollections by Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Al Grey, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Claude Williams, Joe Williams and Albert Murray (who co-authored Basie’s autobiography), along with a number of interview clips of the Count himself.

Additionally, there are a number of performance clips from Basie himself from several periods of his career which feature Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, and Lester Young. The sources range from the soundies (an amusing Rushing performance of Take Me Bake Baby, a film short (the clip of Young is from the classic film The Blues), and television (Basie with Judy Garland).

The mix of recollections and oral history with the clips helps us understand the development of the Basie sound as Basie remembers how he came to Kansas City and gradually put together his own band and Jay McShann remembers Basie and his band and the impact they had. Earle Warren, Edison, Williams and Tate recall there time with the band (Williams ironically recalling that John Hammond had him let go from Basie at a time when Claude was highly regarded as a guitarist) and the personalities including Lester Young, and Buck Clayton as well as how Basie could set the tenor of a number with just one note, the use of the two tenors, and the All American rhythm section. Murray adds his own perspective on Basie’s place in the music.

This documentary then traces how Basie had to disband the big band for a sextet before gradually bringing back the big band and the new personnel and sounds with arrange- ments from the likes of Neal Hefti, Frank Wess and Frank Foster and numerous new legendary soloists like Lockjaw Davis and Al Grey.

Joe Williams recalls how Basie asked him to join the band, which he agreed to so long as he did not to do any of Jimmy Rushing’s material. And he brought Basie an old Memphis Slim tune, Everyday I Have the Blues, that helped reignite Basie’s profile. And that led to more commercial successes as well as partnerships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others.

Like others in the Masters of Modern American Music series, the program on Count Basie; Swingin’ the Blues, fleshes out a musical icon in a most entertaining and informative manner. 

This review originally appeared in the June 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 326). I received my review copy from the publication.  Here is a classic video of Basie with Buck Clayton on trumpet.

Sinatra. A Choice Of The Best By The Best

Best of the Best is a new CD compilation for the first time collects Frank Sinatra recordings from both Capitol Records and Reprise Records. The 23 tracks (13 from Capitol and 10 from Reprise) collect his most memorable and iconic recordings. One is hard-pressed to say anything new about this music which should be familiar to many.

From I’ve Got The World On A String to Theme From ‘New York New York’ listeners are treated to classic interpretations of songs from the great tune smiths like Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen. These are presented in arrangements from such masters as Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Billy May, Quincy Jones, and Ernie Freeman. From spectacular big bands to lush orchestra stylings, the voice, the songs and the performances are timeless and marvelously mastered.

Despite the familiarity of the material, some tunes are gong to come off as almost new to the listener such as In the Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Angel Eyes and Summer Wind. Then there is Fly Me To The Moon from a session with Count Basie that Quincy Jones arranged. At the same time, one appreciates nuances in the songs and the arrangements that one might have missed hearing Sinatra over a Car radio.

Frank Sinatra Jr. provides commentary on each performance, providing insights on how the material was selected and the imprint his father’s recording left. For example, I was unaware that a Kingston Trio recording was the basis of Sinatra’s classic,It Was a Very Good Year. As his son notes, Frank Sinatra was unequalled in recognizing great lyrics. Sinatra’s music has been anthologized, subject of box sets, and prior “Best Of” collections. Let others quarrel about specific songs that are not included. I will simply continue to enjoy the Best of the Best.

Incidentally, this is available as simply a CD, or in a deluxe package that also includes a DVD of a long out-of-print Seattle concert. I did not receive a copy of the DVD so cannot comment on it.

I received a review copy from a publicist. Here is a you tube clip of him singing perhaps the song most associated with him (except for Yankee fans).

Being Prez Is Concise Look At Life And Music Of Lester Young

Being Prez: The Life & Music of Lester Young
Dave Gelly
Oxford University Press (2007)

Its been nearly five decades when Lester Young passed away and while he has been served by a few very scholarly biographies, the level of detail and technical discussion of his music may have put off some which is a shame since Young was a major innovator in jazz history. At a time when Coleman Hawkins was the man on tenor saxophone, Lester created a totally new style that influenced countless subsequent tenor players but saxophonists of all styles including the musical revolutionary Charlie Parker. British music journalist and saxophonist Dave Gelly has provided us with a concise consideration of Young’s life and music making use of the important works of Frank Büchmann-Muller, Louis Porter and Douglas Henry Daniels among others. Gelly takes us from Young’s youth, his father’s “abduction” of him from his mother’s home and growing up in the family band his father led to the last days as his health was failing him and his passing.


Lester Young’s journey includes playing as part of a circus in a minstrel show and also on the T.O.B.A. circuit. Then in 1926-27 the winter was spent in Minneapolis and while he later went back on tour with his father’s show, he dropped out rather than another tour in the Jim Crow south. Eventually he hooked up with Art Bronson’s Bostonians, and then the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten, a tour with King Oliver and eventually Bill ‘Count’ Basie. Lester established himself in the Kansas City scene and was a feared competitor in a jam session as recounted in the legendary one when Coleman Hawkins came to Kansas City. Not that long thereafter he was recruited for Fletcher Henderson’s Band but was never accepted there as the band wanted someone more in the line of Hawkins’ style.


A return to Kansas City led to his being back with Basie and the emergence of the Count and his band, who had their own travails to go through, including being induced to sign a horrible contract with Decca. But finally it led Lester into a recording studio where he waxed four sides for the American Record Combination under the name of Jones-Smith, since Basie was signed to Decca. Gelly writes: “This was the moment when Lester Young finally sidled out of the shadows, the moment when he ceased to be just a name, a rumor from the territory, a set of tall tales concerning jam sessions in bars and hotel lobbies and shoeshine parlors, and became a sound. For the first time, his music was caught, frozen onto shellac grooves and sent out into the world…”


About the first recording, Shoe Shine Boy, “Basie and the rhythm section play the introduction, setting tempo and mood, and then, after forty-five seconds, Lester young bursts forth. The first impression is of blazing energy and complete self-assurance. He plays with all the confidence and poise of a young man fully aware of his powers and in complete control of them. … Faced with such unhesitating fluency, it is easy to understand why other musicians at jam sessions would simply lay down their instruments and look goggle-eyed. … Here, constrained by the three-minute limit of the ten-inch, 78 RPM record, he confines himself to two choruses, sixty-four bars, lasting exactly one-minute, but it is obvious that he has barely hit his stride. The take was a perfect one… .”


From there on we follow Lester with the Basie Band as it plays various hotel rooms that the band perhaps was not suited for and start to make their marvelous recordings. He meets and begins a life-long friendship with Billie Holiday (some under Teddy Wilson’s name) and participates on a number of her finest recordings as well as plays behind her when she sings with Basie. Then there is his relationship with Texas tenor saxophonist Herschel Evans, whose style was more akin to Hawkins and while Basie exploited the contrasting styles on many recordings and performances. Evans alas was one of many jazz artists who died so prematurely. Lester would leave Basie and lead his own group, although as an individual he lacked the temperament and relied on assistance of others while producing more wonderful recordings.


There was the reunion with Basie and then the disaster of his army experience when he should never have been inducted and which he became the victim of southern racism. The army experience shaped his sensitive personality even more and after the war he would resume his career which Gelly traces while interweaving a thoughtful dissection of pertinent recordings, taking us to the legendary couple bars he played behind Billy Holiday at The Sound of Jazz television show and some final performances at the Blue Note Café in Paris (His time at the Blue Note was part of the inspiration for the character played by Dexter Gordon in the movie Round Midnight).


Gelly’s concise and lively written biography certainly presents Young’s formidable musical legacy to us as he notes, “The beauty of Lester Young’s music endures.” Included is a thoughtful selected discography of Young’s recordings that add to the value of this biography of one of the seminal artists of jazz history.

I wrote this review in late 2007 for Jazz & Blues Report but do not believe the review was published.  I may have  received a review copy from the publisher.

Joe Williams Always Had a Good Time

The late Joe Williams was one of the great male big band singers from his association with Count Basie, and later remained an extraordinary vocalist of blues, ballads and standards. The following review appeared in the January-February 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 279). I likely received my review copy from that publication

Hyena has just issued a posthumorous release by the great Joe Williams, Havin’ a Good Time! Recorded at Pio’s in Providence, Rhode Island in the snowy winter of 1964, this tape was among the items that the Estate of Joe Williams gave the Hamilton (NY) College jazz Archive.


This is a club recording the great blues and ballad singer backed by the Junior Mance Trio (Bob Cranshaw on bass and MIckey Roker on drums) with Ben Webster joining the proceedings. Sound is generally good with Williams’ voice and Webster’s sax having a definite presence in the mix. The backing trio can be felt if not as prominent listening to this, although Mance has plenty of space for his strong, bluesy piano playing.

There is a real nice mix of material opening with Duke Ellington number Just a Sittin’ and A Rockin’ , using the lyrics of the Delta Rhythm Boys 1946 rendering of this number and a nice song for Webster who took the solo on Ellington’s original. Its followed by Kansas City Blues, Williams’ rendition of the Pete Johnson-Big Joe Turner blues classic, Piney Brown Blues, with Williams pointedly saluting the Boss of the Blues in his intro. While not sure he knew all the words of the standard That’s All, Williams more than gamely handles it for the request of the audience member who braved the blizzard conditions for the show. Also on the program are a couple of Fats Waller classics, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Honeysuckle Rose, some other standards and Williams’ hit Alright, Ok, You Win.


I suspect the presence of Webster is a factor in the release of this material which is a welcome addition to Williams discography. This is a release that is consistently enjoyable, if perhaps not an essential release. It does lead to anticipation of further releases of Williams recordings from the Hamilton College Jazz Archives.

After Hours in Harlem With Hot Lips Page

In the liner notes of “After Hours in Harlem” (High Note), a compilation of Hot Lips Page recordings culled from recordings made on a wire recorder in the 1940s by Jerry Newman, Dan Morgenstern declares, “If ever there was a musician who represented the spirit of the jam session, it was Oran Hot Lips Page. It can only be said that Lips was the spirit of the jam session incarnate … .”

Page was from Dallas, Texas and raised on T.O.B.A. theater tours with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. He later joined the band of his half-brother Walter Page, the legendary Blue Devils which also included the legendary alto saxophonist and arranger, Buster Smith and made a pair of legendary recordings of "Squabblin’” b/w “Blue Devil Blues” for Vocalion that also included vocalist Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie on piano. The Blue Devils however broke up and members of the band including Page, Rushing and Basie found themselves in Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, and Lips page’s trumpet was an important part of the Moten Band’s celebrated recordings “Moten Swing,” “Lafayette,’ and “Blue Room.”

Page was with Count Basie’s Orchestra at the time when the Band was about to go national, but Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong’s manager signed him to a solo management contract which turned out to be a commercial mistake. Instead of having the limelight as such legends in the Basie Orchestra as Lester Young, Sweets Edison and Buck Clayton, Page's decision to go solo with Glaser as manager turned out as commercially disastrous for Page. He did make a number of fine recordings as a leader for RCA/Bluebird and later Columbia, before recording for a variety of labels including Commodore, Apollo, Continental, Savoy, Remington and others before passing in 1954 at the age of 46.  Yet he never came close to the profile of Armstrong.

His recordings have been reissued on a number of releases, including several in the low out-of-print Classics label. There is also an excellent collection, “ Shoutin’ the Blues” that compiles Page’s accompaniments to singers Mabel Smith (Big Maybelle), Wyonnie Harris (including Harris’ recording of “Good Rockin’ Tonight”) and Marion Abernathy. I do want to place the spotlight on an excellent new release, “Roll, Roll Roll: The R&B Years” but wish to point out one other release of merit.

The afore-mentioned “ After Hours in Harlem” (HighNote) is a valuable document of the uptown music scene in 1940 and 1941. In includes four lengthy jams from a house party at Jerry Newman’s pad with Page, tenor saxophonist Herbie Fields and pianist Donald Lambert. Lambert was one of the unsung masters of stride piano who did not record that much so his presence on “I Got Rhythm,” “I’m in the Mood For Love,” “Dinah,” and “Tea For Two” is most welcome. Fields can get somewhat vulgar on tenor while LIps is a marvel is his mix of daring blasts mixed with and long swooping lines while Lambert’s piano provides the foundation as well as his rollicking stride as evident on “I Get Rhythm.”

The remainder of this disc was recorded at Minton’s and includes trumpet battles between Lips and Joy Guy. On “ I Found a New Baby,” they are joined by guitarist Tiny Grimes,” whose single note lines are very horn like in construction. Page, playing with a mute, takes the solo after Grimes. The rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” has Thelonious Monk on piano and his playing displays a strong two-handed style that as Morgenstern observes shows that Monk’s piano style developed by artistic choice, not lack of technique. Lips Page follows with choice hot open trumpet. Page scats a bit on “Old Yazoo,” a jive novelty lyric and Rudy Williams is the saxophonist, and this is a pretty strong vocal with Guy, according to Morgenstern, likely the trumpet player. This is followed by “Topsy” with Monk again on piano, and Lips standing out here with his rhythmic attack and interplay with the drummer. “Konk” is a fast Kansas City styled blues that gives Lips Page plenty of space to rip. It ends a recording of considerable importance and not simply because the two tracks with Monk are his earliest recordings. I had this on vinyl and purchased it again on CD and it should be readily available.

Happy Thanksgiving

Inspired by Marc Myers and his blog at jazzwax.com, I have put together a playlist that might inspire a nice Thanksgiving Feast.

Robert Lighthouse “Turkey Leg Woman” from his album “Deep Down In the Mud” on Right on Rhythm Records and originally done by Dr. Ross and available on the Arhoolie CD “Boogie Disease.”

“Eat That Chicken” by Charles Mingus from Atlantic album “Oh Yeah”

“I Ate Up the Apple Tree” by Dirty Dozen Brass Band

“Beans and Corn Bread” Louis Jordan

“Corn Bread” by Hal Singer Sextette and reissued on the Bear Family CD, “1948:Blowing The Fuse-28 R&B Classics”

“Cornbread And Butter Beans” by the Carolina Chocolate Drops from the CD “Heritage.”

“Cabbage Greens” by Champion Jack Dupree available on JSP 4 CD box set of Dupree’s early recordings.

“Hey Sweet Potato” by Buddy Johnson from CD collection “The R&B Years - 1947”

“Sweet Potato Man” by Willie King from CD “One Love.”

“Red Beans” by Snooks Eaglin from his “Teasin’ You” CD

“Cherry Pie” by Marvin and Johnny and also by Swamp Pop artist Jay Randall (Reissued on “Swamp Gold Vol. 2”. Here is link to Marvin & Johnny’s original, reissued on English Ace label. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhfNJASU7NM

“Sweetie Cakes” Count Basie from the “April in Paris” CD

“Do Fries Come With That Shake” Tommy Brown from the BoneDog CD “Rockin’ My Blues Away.”

Of course, Thanksgiving in great part is about "Family," as recorded by Jim Hall and Bill Frisell from their CD "Hemispheres," on ArtistShare.

I hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have a wonderful day and celebrate the things thatv really matter.

Redd Foxx Channels' Basie's "Boogie Woogie"

Listening to my ipod this morning (It has been reissued on several collections including The R&B Years 1947), I was startled by a solid jump blues, Shame On You" that clearly was based on the Jones-Smith Unlimited recording "Boogie Woogie. Jones-Smith Unlimited was a small group taken from Count Basie's Band that John Hammond recorded for Columbia after Hammond found out that Dave Kapp signed the Count Basie Orchestra to Decca Records. Jones Smith was named after drummer Jo Jones, and trumpeter Carl 'Tatti' Smith, but also included Count Basie, bassist Walter Page and tenor saxophonist Lester Young along with vocalist Jimmy Rushing in what is now viewed as all-time classic record date with one of the sides waxed being "Boogie Woogie." When I checked my ipod for the song title I discovered it was by Redd Foxx. Foxx's recording has a tenor saxophonist playing in a manner inspired by Lester Young with trumpet riffing in support (echoing Tatti Smith's playing on the original). Of course Redd Foxx would be best known as a raunchy comedian who pioneered with his raunchy party albums and then as George Sanford on the classic television comedy series, Sanford & Son (Foxx's real name was John Elroy Sanford). While Foxx may not have been a Jimmy Rushing or Joe Turner, this solid recording showed him to be a more than credible blues shouter. An intriguing footnote for a person who would become iconic as a comedian.

Weston & Liston's Blues Eruption

The following review originally appeared in the January-February 1994 Jazz & Blues Report. As originally written it contains one major gaffe that I have corrected here. This is a part of the Johnny 'Clyde' Copeland recorded legacy I would suspect most are unaware of. This is well worth trying to acquire at used CD stores or ebay auctions.

Pianist-Composer, Randy Weston, and arranger, Melba Liston, have teamed for an exploration of the blues in its various forms, Volcano Blues (Gitanes), as they lead a little big band which includes Wallace Roney on trumpet, Hamiet Bluett on baritone sax, Teddy Edwards on tenor sax, Ted Dunbar on guitar and Charlie Persip on drums. Comprised mostly of Weston’s compositions, the voicings of Liston’s arrangements add more than punch to these intriguing explorations in the blues. Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland performs on unaccompanied acoustic guitar, Blue Mood, a Jessie Mae Robinson composition that T-Bone Walker first recorded. Eschewing his guitar, Copeland also reprises Jimmy Rushing’ vocal on a Count Basie recording, Harvard Blues, which like the Caribbean flavored Volcano, is taken from the Count Basie orchestra book. It should be noted that one expecting to hear wailing Kansas City jazz with plenty of blowing solos will be disappointed as Weston and Liston explore a variety of aspects of the blues. Links with Africa are explored on Chalabati Blues, which is anchored by Jamil Naser’s steady bass line and framed by Liston’s imaginative horn voicings. Wallace Roney’s hard bop trumpet shines on Sad Beauty Blues, a Weston composition featuring another carefully worked out Weston solo. More African flavor underlies The Nafs, a feature for Hamiet Bluett’s gut bucket baritone sax. In addition to Copeland’s vocal, Harvard Blues sports a splendid tenor solo from Teddy Edwards who also solos on Blues for Strayhorn, which Weston originally wrote for (and performed at) the funeral of Duke Ellington’s right hand man. Both Weston’s piano and Liston’s scoring capture the Ellington flavor. J.K Blues is a tight bop blues reminiscent of some of the hot blues instrumentals recorded forty years ago, although this performance is distinguished by the concise solos. The supporting cast features some great players who shine here. Weston is the primary soloist on piano and while economical playing, like that of Basie and Monk, shows that it is what one plays and says that matters, not how many notes are played. While the liner notes get pretentious at spots, there is little else to fault about this consistently thoughtful, earthy and rewarding recording.

Helen Humes With Count Basie

Nice video of the late Helen Humes with a small group led by Count Basie. I think it is Wardell Grey on the tenor solo.

Three Wishes is a Marvelous Look at Jazz

Today, I was at Barnes & Noble, in downtown Washington DC, and browsing the jazz and blues books section when I come across a book, Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats. I pick it up skim through it and then purchased it. It is published by Abrams Image and the credits have it compiled and photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter with a forward by Gary Giddins and an Introduction by Nadine de Koenigswarter, granddaughter of Pannonica. Pannonica is better known as Nica, the Baronness who befriended so many jazz musicians for such a long period of time. She was the person in whose apartment Charlie Parker died. Later, when she purchased a house in New Jersey, many jazz musicians visited or stayed with her. In 1957, she helped Thelonious Monk regain his caabaret license and also campaigned for its elimination which occurred when John Lindsay was elected Mayor. Monk had encouraged her to buy a house and she did ,which was named the Cathouse, and Monk himself moved there with his family in 1973, staying there until he passed. Others moved in or stayed for a period.

What the book compiles is the answers of about 300 jazz musicians to what three wishes in life they had. The text consists of their answers. Included are countless photographs of jazz legends from Monk, Barry Harris, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Art Blakey, Bud Powell, Sonny Clark John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and countless others. Most of her photos were taken with a Polaroid camera, and several of the images are from worn photos, but the pictures, like their words, speak to us decades later. Some of informal, intimate images of them at the house, others sghow them perforing at the Cathouse. This is a book one can easily get lost with for days and hopefully should be available at your better book store or from the large internet retailers.