Jay McShann gets a mention in any jazz history, though often his name appears as the leader of the band in which Charlie Parker reached musical maturity. He was just sixty when he was invited to go to Europe, and close to seventy when on a return trip he made these remarkably fresh recordings of Kansas City blues. Inevitably, echoes of his sixty-five years of piano blues playing are to be heard here, memories of blues played in After Hours sessions and railroad boogies like The Staggers. There are blues standards like How Long Blues and we are witness to a reflective, nostalgic memory of Charlie Parker in Yardbird Waltz and a recollection of those good times when the “singing bartender” Joe Turner teamed up with Pete Johnson in Kansas City to blast out Cherry Red. |