Willis Jackson - In My Solitude (1961) [flac]

One of the rarest Willis Jackson albums of the 60s - recorded for the smaller Moodsville subsidiary of Prestige, and done in a dreamy late nite mode that's quite different from some of Jackson's other sets! The group is a quartet with Richard Wyands on piano - offering a starker, darker backing than Willis received on his organ-based albums for Prestige - a sound that allows Jackson to open up in these mellow and introspective solos, blown out of sadness into the darkness - with a tone and sound that seems to know no bottom. The set is recorded with a nice use of echo that seems to enforce this quality - and titles include "It Never Entered My Mind", "Home", "They Didn't Believe Me", "Estrellita", and "In My Solitude". © Dusty Groove, Inc.

Prestige/Moodsville Records, MVLP 17, 1961

Recorded 10^th January, 1961 (#A4) & 11^th April, 1961 (#A1-A3,B1-B4)
At Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Personnel:

Willis Jackson - Tenor Saxophone

Richard Wyands - Piano (#A1-A3,B1-B4)

Jimmy Neeley - Piano (#A4)

Peck Morrison - Bass (#A1-A3,B1-B4)

Wendell Marshall - Bass (#A4)

Mickey Roker - Drums (#A1-A3,B1-B4)

Gus Johnson - Drums (#A4)

Juan Amalbert - Congas (#A4)

Tracks:

A1. Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen {Traditional} (4:12)

A2. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child {Traditional} (3:41)

A3. [In My] Solitude {Eddie DeLange, Duke Ellington, Irving Mills} (5:04)

A4. Estrellita {Manuel Ponce} (4:11)

B1. It Never Entered My Mind {Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers} (4:03)

B2. They Didn't Believe Me {Jerome Kern, Michael E. Rourke} (3:38)

B3. Home {Harry Clarkson, Geoffrey Clarkson, Peter van Steeden} (5:11)

B4. Nancy [With The Laughing Face] {James van Heusen, Phil Silvers} (5:23)

Credits:

Producer, Photo - Esmond Edwards

Recording Engineer - Rudy van Gelder
Design - Don Schlitten
Liner Notes - Sidney Falco