Jazz Gumbo

Artists - Tune - Album John Abercrombie, Jack DeJohnette & Dave Holland - Back Woods Song - Gateway Muddy Waters - Rollin’ Stone - The Best of Chess Blues John Coltrane - Mr. Knight - Coltrane Plays The Blues Chuck Mangione - If You Know Me Any Longer Than Tomorrow - Main Squeeze Aretha Franklin - Mary, Don’t You Weep - Amazing Grace Roland Hanna - I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good - Perugia Lionel Hampton - How High The Moon - Big Bands Revisited Sonny Fortune - Bacchanal - Serengeti Minstrel Kool & The Gang - North, East, South, West - Kool Jazz Helcio Milito - Kilombo (Tambor Que Geme) - Kilombo Betty Carter - Happy - The Betty Carter Album Betty Carter - Tight - The Betty Carter Album Mal Waldron - Blues in 4 by 3 - One Entrance, Many Exits The song that introduces Jazz Gumbo is “Music Evolution” by Branford Marsalis and Buckshot LeFonque. Just think of all the rich links generated by Muddy Waters with his song “Rollin’ Stone”. The 1950 classic is derived from the old saying about a “rolling stone gathering no moss”, but it’s the legacy from that point that is so broad and culturally alive. In 1962, when Brian Jones, in advance of his first recording session with collaborators Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart and Dick Taylor, was devising a name, for a group committed to celebrating Chicago blues, he thought of the Muddy Waters recording, and they became the Rolling Stones. Then, in ’67, Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason started up a culture magazine and named it with the same recording in mind, also citing The Stones and Bob Dylan’s ’65 hit, “Like a Rolling Stone”. Apparently, the original folk proverb, which dates back at least as far as the 1500’s, was a critique of rootlessness. But the gathering of moss later came to be equated with stagnancy, so the expression became a call for movement and change, much better representing the musical legacy. This was one of those weeks when I had several great choices for the feature album cover. I finally decided to go with Chuck Mangione, because he’s contributed just so many great moments to Jazz Gumbo over the years, including this very beautiful one. Thrive! Kirby Obsidian