January 2011

Click on the links to get more info and to hear the music. Bevan’s Birthday - Tadd Dameron Another Tadd Dameron composition from the famous Magic Touch album - a lilting melody enhanced by Tadd’s complex harmonies that starts Latin and then goes into swing. Early Bird - Carl Perkins An easy-going and fun swinger from the talented, unfortunately short-lived composer/pianist...

Ronnie Mathews’s medium swing waltz Lament For Love. This composition was recorded as a trio by Ronnie in 1992, but the MP3 versions currently available for download are from two other CDs: Roy Hargrove’s “Family,” and Louis Hayes’ “Blue Lou.” Get Ronnie’s solo piano arrangement, too. Ode To An Earth Girl by Bill Barron—a beautiful complex ballad by an important...

For our first composition by tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, we’re bringing you Sweet Sucker, which he wrote for himself and trombonist Bennie Green to play on Bennie’s “Glidin’ Along” recording for Jazzland in 1961. Vocalist and lyricist Judy Niemack loved the instrumental, and wrote and recorded a lyric version which we’re also making available (Dancin’ Like We Did Before), as...