Four Classic Albums Plus (Goin

AVID Jazz presents four classic Jimmy Witherspoon albums plus including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD.
"Goin' To Kansas City Blues"; "Witherspoon, Mulligan & Webster at the Renaissance"; "Jimmy Witherspoon at Monterey" and "In Person (Olympia Concert)" plus Modern Singles
The opening line from the original liner notes of "Goin' to Kansas City Blues" just about sum up the story of Jimmy Witherspoon - "Jimmy Witherspoon and the blues just sort of drifted together". Born in Arkansas in 1923, Witherspoon met the blues in of all the unlikely places, Calcutta , India, while he was serving in the US merchant marine. In 1944 he became vocalist for the Jay McShann band and our first album finds him once again linking up with the man who he says "taught him everything". Next up the "Spoon" is heard live "At the Renaissance" in 1959 accompanied by an incredible line up of some of the greatest jazz men of the era. Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax, Ben Webster on tenor sax, Mel Lewis on drums, Leroy Vinegar on bass and Jimmy Rowles on piano. The music however is primarily the blues with the entire band playing as if they were born to play it! As the original liner notes testify of Mulligans playing on CC Rider……"must be considered by many his best blues playing on record". Having heard the latest Witherspoon album and dug it, Jimmy Lyons, master mind behind the Monterey Jazz Festival, sent an invitation to Spoon to play at Monterey in 1959. Another fine heavyweight jazz line up joins Spoon on stage for "Jimmy Witherspoon at Monterey". How's this lot…..Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Woody Herman on clarinet, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster on tenor saxes, Earl Hines on piano, Vernon Alley on bass and Mel Lewis on drums……….phew! Not surprisingly with such a fine singer and an amazing band the gig was a resounding success. Witherspoon was quoted…."this is the greatest thing that ever happened to me……I'm proud tonight". So proud was he that he even offered to play the next night….. for free! We're live again in 1961 for "In Person" at the Paris Olympia Theatre where Spoon joins the Buck Clayton Orchestra in a "testimony to the perennial nature of the blues, authentic and up to date". Plus 10 tracks from the Modern label from 1949-50.
All four albums plus have been digitally re-mastered