Jazz (Ry Cooder album) explained

Jazz
Type:	studio
Artist:	Ry Cooder
Cover:	RyCooder_Jazz.jpg
Released:	1978
Recorded:	Amigo Studios, North Hollywood
Genre:	Trad jazz, dixieland, ragtime
Length:	37:50
Label:	Warner Bros. BSK 3197
Producer:	Joseph Byrd, Ry Cooder
Prev Title:	Show Time
Prev Year:	1977
Next Title:	Bop till You Drop
Next Year:	1979

Jazz is an album by the American musician and songwriter Ry Cooder, released in 1978 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was produced by Cooder and Joseph Byrd and was Cooder's seventh.

Critical reception

The Globe and Mail noted that "the record's worth, outside of the precise, calculated playing by a collection of jazz scholar-musicians, lies in the revelation of one or two little-known jazz figures, especially a Bahamian guitarist named Joseph Spence, whose up-tempo, syncopated treatment of religious hymns must have shocked the pious."^[1]

Track listing

LP side A

1. "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) – 3:34
2. "Face to Face That I Shall Meet Him" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:16
3. "The Pearls / Tia Juana" (Jelly Roll Morton; adapted by Ry Cooder) – 4:18
4. "The Dream" (Jack the Bear, Jess Pickett) – 5:03
5. "Happy Meeting in Glory" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:13

LP side B

1. "In a Mist" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:05
2. "Flashes" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:17
3. "Davenport Blues" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:01
4. "Shine" (Cecil Mack, Ford Dabney) – 3:43
5. "Nobody" (Bert Williams) – 5:07
6. "We Shall Be Happy" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:13

Personnel

• Ry Cooder – guitar, Dobro, vocals, mandolin, tiple, harp^[3]
• Mark Stevens – drums (A1, A2, A4, A5, B4, B6)
• Harvey Pittel – alto saxophone, clarinet (A1, B1, B3, B4)
• Tom Collier – marimba, vibraphone (A4, B1, B3, B4)
• George Bohanon – baritone horn (A2, A5, B6)
• Oscar Brashear – cornet (A2, A5, B6)
• Stuart Brotman – cimbalom (A2, A5, B6)
• Red Callender – tuba (A2, A5, B6)
• David Lindley – mandobanjo, mandolin (A2, A5, B6)
• Barbara Starkey – pump organ (A2, A5, B6)
• David Sherr – bass clarinet (B1, B3, B4)
• John Rodby – piano (A1, B4)
• Tom Pedrini – bass (B1, B3)
• Jimmy Adams – backing vocals (B4, B5)
• Cliff Givens – backing vocals (B4, B5)
• Bill Johnson – backing vocals (B4, B5)
• Simon Pico Payne – backing vocals (B4, B5)
• Randy Aldcroft – trombone (A1)
• Pat Rizzo – alto saxophone (A1)
• Mario Guarneri – cornet (A1)
• Bill Hood – bass saxophone (A1)
• Chuck Domanico – bass (A4)
• Earl Hines – piano (A4)
• Chuck Berghofer – bass (B4)
• Willie Schwartz – clarinet (B4)

Notes and References

1. News: McGrath . Paul . Ry Cooder . The Globe and Mail . 31 May 1978 . F2.
2. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 73.
3. http://www.discogs.com/Ry-Cooder-Jazz/release/1488012 discogs.org tracklist