a jazz fiesta in blue
Actually, I own the Italian edition of the CD, which starts with Monterey set (last 5 numbers of this CD) instead of the Reinessance club (LA) set (everything else).

The great, flexible and very suggestive vocal of Jimmy Witherspoon (Spoon) is in the all-stars jazz company in both sets; the mighty tenor of Ben Webster and sensitive but explosive drumming of Mel Lewis connect the sessions (both concerts were held in 1959). On the Reneissance club set The Spoon is joined by a great youngster Gerry Mulligan, who has once again proved how capable he was of working with older musicians, Jimmy Rowles on piano and Leroy Vinegar on bass and it's quite obvious that both the singer and the players now how to merge jazz and blues.

However, it is the Monterey set I really dig; with Coleman Hawkins (ts), Roy Eldridge /tp) Woody Herman (cl) and Earl "Fatha" Hines (p) (in addition to the already mentioned) cook up a storm, with some really hot solos, great accompanyiment and some explosive riffs and climaxes...

The choice of material is brilliant (mostly standards); if you're new to blues or jazz, you should check out this album....

The man with the voice
The CD now comes in a different cover than the one depicted here but the music inside is the same. Jimmy Witherspoon is a great singer. The music is from two different concerts and they are both well recorded. The all star back up bands are perfectly suited for his jazzy blues vocals. You can tell he was having a great time. The liner notes even mentions that this was the first time his mother attended one of his concerts. I really enjoy this CD.

Jimmy's Fusion
I went on a 6 month trip with only a few tapes to listen to and this was one of them. And man did I listen! I probably played this album 100 times, and never got sick of it. This album is one of, if not the best fusions of blues and jazz that I've heard. If you're at all interested, then buy this one. It moves from slow to fast seamlessly and old Jimmy's even got a song dedicated to his mother in the audience. Its a good 'un.