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| 4.161 Ft
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| 1. | Cruisin' the Blues
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| 2. | Moonlight in Vermont
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| 3. | Kewpie Doll
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| 4. | Yardbird Suite
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| 5. | You're Driving Me Crazy/Moten Swing
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| 6. | Flippin' the Blues
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| 7. | All of Me
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| 8. | As Time Goes By
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| 9. | Sweet Georgia Brown
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| 10. | My Chile
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| 11. | 'Fore Day Rider
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| 12. | Crazy Legs and Friday Strut
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| 13. | Moanin' Blues
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| 14. | Closing
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Jazz
Jay McShann - Piano, Vocals
David "Fathead" Newman - Sax (Tenor)
Flip Phillips - Sax (Tenor)
Jackie Williams - Drums
Keter Betts - Bass
Phil Woods - Sax (Alto)
* Don Wolff - Liner Notes
* Hank O'Neal - Producer
* Jon Bates - Digital Mastering, Engineer, Mixing
* Paul Bacon - Cover Design
* Rollo Phlecks - Photography
On the relatively short list of truly great jazz / blues legends alive today, Jay McShann (a.k.a. 'Hootie') is a name that is likely to be found at the top! Since the late thirties and forties, when Charlie Parker was just a sideman in his Kansas City big band, and his 1941 hit 'Confessin' The Blues' was at the top of the charts, McShann has been thrilling audiences with his own special blend of straight-ahead jazz and boogie woogie blues. This digital multi-track live recording at the 1997 Floating Jazz Festival was, by far, the best way to capture the energy and spontaneity that flow from Hootie so naturally. It also provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve history in the making, when three of the greatest saxophonists of all time - Phil Woods, Flip Phillips, and David 'Fathead' Newman made special guest appearances, and the tape was rolling!
Like many of producer Hank O'Neal's jazz cruises recorded aboard the S. S. Norway, this live set by pianist Jay McShann is a delight from start to finish. The blues veteran is in great form as he devotes nearly half of the release to his trio, which includes bassist Keter Betts and drummer Jackie Williams, and occasionally lightly sings along. The opener, "Cruisin' the Blues," features McShann's lively yet economical style of playing, along with a fine solo by Betts, while his lush interpretation of the old chestnut "Moonlight in Vermont" achieves a new degree of romanticism. But many fans will devour the appearances with special guests. Phil Woods, the greatest living alto saxophonist, sits in during McShann's sauntering blues "Kewpie Doll" and a rollicking take of Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite." Tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips, in his eighties (as was the leader) at the time of the performance, jointly improvises with McShann the strutting "Flippin' the Blues," and they follow it up with a swinging "All of Me." Phillips' impressive blowing belies his age during the timeless ballad "As Time Goes By" and an energetic "Sweet Georgia Brown." David "Fathead" Newman sits in for two McShann originals, the funky "Crazy Legs and Friday Strut" and the gospel-tinged "Moanin' Blues." Too bad there's no video of this music. Highly recommended.
--- Ken Dryden, All Music Guide
Jay McShann
Active Decades: '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Jan 12, 1909 in Muskogee, OK
Died: Dec 07, 2006 in Kansas City, MO
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Big Band, Boogie-Woogie, Bop, Classic Jazz, Jazz Blues, Jump Blues, Mainstream Jazz, Piano Blues, Standards, Stride, Swing
The great veteran pianist Jay McShann (also known as Hootie) enjoyed a long career and it is unfair to primarily think of him as merely the leader of an orchestra that featured a young Charlie Parker. He was mostly self-taught as a pianist, worked with Don Byas as early as 1931 and played throughout the Midwest before settling in Kansas City in 1936. McShann formed his own sextet the following year and by 1939 had his own big band. In 1940 at a radio station in Wichita, KS, McShann and an octet out of his orchestra recorded eight songs that were not released commercially until the 1970s; those rank among the earliest of all Charlie Parker records (he is brilliant on "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Lady Be Good") and also feature the strong rhythm section team McShann had with bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Gus Johnson. The full orchestra recorded for Decca on two occasions during 1941-1942 but they were typecast as a blues band and did not get to record many of their more challenging charts (although very rare broadcasts have since surfaced and been released on CD by Vintage Jazz Classics). In addition to Bird (who had a few short solos), the main stars were trumpeter Bernard Anderson, the rhythm section, and singer Walter Brown. McShann and his band arrived in New York in February 1942 and made a strong impression, but World War II made it difficult for any new orchestras to catch on. There was a final session in December 1943 without Parker, but McShann was soon drafted and the band broke up. After being discharged later in 1944, McShann briefly re-formed his group but soon moved to Los Angeles, where he led combos for the next few years; his main attraction was the young singer Jimmy Witherspoon.
McShann was in obscurity for the next two decades, making few records and mostly playing in Kansas City. In 1969 he was rediscovered and McShann (who had first sung on records in 1966) was soon a popular pianist/vocalist. Sometimes featuring violinist Claude Williams, he toured constantly, recorded frequently, and appeared at many jazz festivals, being active into the mid-'90s. Jay McShann, who recorded through the years for Onyx (the 1940 radio transcriptions), Decca, Capitol, Aladdin, Mercury, Black Lion, EmArcy, Vee Jay, Black & Blue, Master Jazz, Sackville, Sonet, Storyville, Atlantic, Swingtime, and Music Masters among others, was a vital pianist and an effective blues vocalist who keept a classic style alive. A live album, Hootie Blues, recorded in 2001 in Toronto and released in 2006 by Stony Plain, showed that McShann could still bring it at the age of 85. He died at the age of 90 on December 7, 2006.
---Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
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