Listening to Prestige 514: Willis Jackson

LISTEN TO ONE: Jambalaya (45 RPM)

 This is like one of those Prestige early days sessions, back in 1949-1951, when a band would come in to cut four sides for a couple of 78 RPM releases. In this case, though, the four sides are to flesh out an album which the Prestige brain trust must have suddenly realized needed fleshing out--they had more than enough material in the can for an album, not quite enough for two albums. So they got the band back together for one more session, although none of this material would actually be released for a few more years.

"Getting the band back together" mostly meant Willis Jackson, whose star maintained a steady wattage, and Jack McDuff, whose incandescence was steeply ascendant, more so that Bill Jennings, whose star was

fading, and who in fact did not solo to speak of on these four cuts, which is too bad, because he was a wonderful guitarist. But he still adds to the sound of a very tight group with three front men who have logged a whole lot of hours together.

The session features two originals by Jackson, and two songs by very different composers. "Without a Song" was written by Vincent Youmans, an early composer for musical theater, for a 1929 musical, Great Day, which was pretty much of a flop, but did produce two memorable songs, this one and "More Than You Know." A favorite of big-voiced singers, it's also had many jazz incarnations. 

The other is a little more unusual. Hank Williams is one of the great American songwriters and, like so many others in the American tradition, deeply influenced by the blues, but country songs and jazz musicians have rarely crossed paths. This was almost certainly the first cover of a Hank Williams song by a jazz musician, and I might have guessed the only one...but not quite. In 1994, Joe Pass collaborated with Roy Clark, a musician most closely associated with country (he was one of the stars of Hee Haw), but a guitar virtuoso who could and did play anything, on an album of Hank Williams songs. "Jambalaya" is Williams' reworking of an old Cajun melody, "Grand Texas." The original was a sad love song; in Williams's hands it became a celebration of Louisiana Cajun life. Jackson gives it some blues, and gives it some good times.

Frank Shea and Jimmy Lewis, from King Curtis'

s band, rounded out the quintet for this session.

The various sessions which reunited Jackson, McDuff and Jennings, from late 1959 through this one at the end of 1961, all produced by Esmond Edwards, were collected on two LPs, neither of which was released right away. The first, Together Again, came out in 1965. The second, Together Again, Again, which included all four of these cuts, was a 1966 release. Both album covers tout Jackson and McDuff, not Jennings, coming together again, and again.

"Jambalaya" was released as a 45 RPM single with "Thunderbird," from a 1962 Jackson album. "Without a Song" and "Backtrack" came out as Tru-Sound 45. Since there was no Tru-Sound in 1966, the time of the album release, I would guess that both of these singles came out much earlier.