Something Blue – Flowers – 2023-11-11
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring The Sextet, Bob Reynolds, Dazie Mae, and Drdjekill. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Bebop Beatniks Playing Sail Boats
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-11-05
Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear an original jazz song recorded this year at Blues Fest.
September 24, 2023, was the second Blues Fest with Doug Butler as stage manager. Vivian and I did Blues Fest for 25 years before we retired and it’s great to have someone else doing all the work while we get to go and enjoy the music.
So, thanks Doug.
I wrote “Sail Boats” during the pandemic and it’s featured on my “Hairy Larry Livestreams” album. When Bebop Beatniks started playing again it became a quick favorite and our trombonist, Rike Robinson, suggested that I write lyrics for it. So, one day, when I was driving in the car, I wrote the first verse. It’s a fantastic lyric all full of nautical references and song titles.
So, thanks Rike.
When we started to sing harmony parts to “Sail Boats” I added the second verse which is the same as the first verse except “All decked out in our white finery” was replaced with “Singing out in our fine harmony”.
At Blues Fest my grandson Conley Hunt sang the harmony and played cajon. Also playing were Tyler Remegen, flute; Jeremy Jackson, bass; Alex Washam, drums; and I’m on piano. We all live in Northeast Arkansas.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, and Bill Evans. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Lisa Ahia Singing My Romance
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-09-03
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a female vocalist accompanied by a female pianist recorded in 2011 at Bebopalooza!
This Saturday I have a great show featuring top jazz pianists and female vocalists. So I got to thinking about what I have in the archives of Something Blue that will complement the show. And I came up with Lisa Ahia. I love the way she sings the song “My Romance” and I do have several recordings of it. But when I heard the version recorded right here at ASU, on October 15, 2011, I knew I had found what I was looking for. With Joy Sanford accompanying Lisa on piano the resulting recording is very sparse and perfectly rendered. A great song to go with a great show.
So if you love this sound the way I love this sound be sure to tune in Saturday night at 10:00. Or, if you’re like me, and you’re not always awake at 10:00, you can hear the show later on the Something Blue website, sbblues.com.
The Bebopalooza! jazz festival was sponsored by KASU and the ASU Music Department. The act was billed as Gary Gazaway and The Memphis Jazz All Stars festuring Lisa Ahia, vocals. Gary Gazaway does not play on this song. James Sexton on drums and David Eckert, bass, join Lisa and Joy. Also playing in the Memphis Jazz All Stars were Stephen Lee, piano. They invited the Director Of Jazz Studies, Ron Horton, and my good friend, Joseph Curtis, to play with them on the last two songs.
Stephen Lee and James Sexton are the Memphis part of the All Stars. They have both played at KASU events several times. All the other musicians lived in Northeast Arkansas at the time.
So now, recorded at Bebopalooza! on October 15, 2011, and featuring Lisa Ahia, vocals, and Joy Sanford, piano, here’s “My Romance”.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Taper’s Choice and Circles Around The Sun. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
From The Archives Of Something Blue August 27 2023
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a rockabilly star from Sweden playing with The Great Larry Donn.
I had recorded Larry Donn before at Blues Fest so I knew how good he played. My friends Terry Carter and Philip Jackson were playing with him at the VFW and Terry told me that Wildfire Willie from Sweden was going to be at the show. I got permission from Larry Donn to record for Something Blue and the rest, as they say, is history.
It was a long time ago on August 18, 1993, at the VFW in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I was already recording and Wildfire Willie and I were talking in the green room while we listened to the show. Wildfire Willie said, “I can’t believe that I’m in Jonesboro, Arkansas, listening to the great Larry Donn.”
I love telling that story because that’s what opened my eyes to how important the music from Northeast Arkansas is to the rest of the world. I mean, here’s a rockabilly musician from Sweden who traveled all the way to Arkansas so he could rub shoulders and play music with some of the great musicians that he loved and that inspired him to start his rockabilly band, Wildfire Willie & The Ramblers.
And the next day, I got in on a little bit of that playing with the greats when we had a jam session at Terry Carters studio and I got to sit in with Larry Donn and Wildfire Willie. That was my first time playing with Larry Donn but not my last, as we got to know each other quite well, over the years.
Playing in The Killer Possum band that night were Larry Donn, piano and vocals; Terry Carter, Sax; Philip Jackson, bass; and Tommy Riley, drums; all fine, outstanding, Northeast Arkansas musicians.
Now, recorded for Something Blue on August 18, 1993, here’s Larry Donn and the Killer Possum Band with guest star Wildfire Willie playing guitar and singing “Wild One”.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Myriam Alter, Joe Henderson, Gary Burton, and NJHB. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear one of my compositions recorded at HairyLarryLand.
NJHB is the house band for the New Jazz In Jonesboro concert series. We were starting up the concerts again in the fall of 2018 and I had written a number of songs titled after concepts of contemporary physics.
So on July 28, 2018, we got together to read and record three of these pieces, “Cold Fusion”, “Quantum Blues”, and “Entanglement”. These songs make up the NJHB, “Quantum Blues” album.
We had Tyler Remagen on tenor sax; Spencer Rawlins, bass, and I’m on piano. We all live in the Jonesboro area and we were all students in the ASU jazz program at the time.
I was looking for album artwork and the circular images of particle accelerators attracted my attention. Kind of a physics mandala.
I found art quilts by Kate Findlay in her Hadron Collider Series and I loved the one called Atomic. I contacted Kate and got her permission to use her photograph of the quilt on the album. I will include a link to the quilt and the album cover art on the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Ok now, here’s NJHB playing my song, “Cold Fusion”, recorded at HairyLarryLand on July 28, 2018.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Soulive, Joe Lee, and Will Bernard. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to play an original blues featuring Ronnie Coletta and Joe Lee.
“Joe Lee Swings On” was my second album project with Joe Lee. It’s a jazz album with all the songs except one recorded in the studio. So I came into the project with the tracks already mastered to tape. I digitized the audio tape mixes to my computer and then I mastered the tracks for the album. Vivian and I also did the liner artwork and Vivian wrote the blurb.
She said, “Papa Joe really knows how to put it together.” Swings On” is an example of a pro at work. Featuring four Joe Lee originals and tight renditions of Jazz classics it will be as listenable ten years from now as it is today.”
This has proved to be the case.
We worked with Joe every step of the way. He approved the artwork and provided the cover photo. The photo on the back of the album was taken at Blues Fest with Joe wearing his blue dashiki. I’ll include the artwork on the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Joe liked the album so much that he gave me coproduction credits, a real feather in my cap. Joe produced records with Scotty Moore and I produced records with Joe.
One of Joe’s original songs on the album, “Winter Blues”, features Joe Lee on flute; Ben Brogdon, bass; Ronnie Coletta, guitar, and Mike Overall, drums. All of these musicians were regular session players at Alley Records with deep Arkansas roots.
Joe just loved Ronnie Coletta’s guitar work comparing him to Wes Montgomery. In many ways Ronnie’s smooth rhythm parts and stellar leads define the album. “Winter Blues” is a flute feature. Joe’s flute work is second to none.
Ok now, recorded right here in Jonesboro at Alley Records here’s Joe Lee playing “Winter Blues”.
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