Bob Wilber - Ode to Bechet - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

VOICES OF THE LAND from composer Christina Rusnak guides listeners on a journey through America; celebrating it's landscape and it's people. The pieces on this album explore the emotions and experiences of settlers; miners; and indigenous people as they navigated the challenges; triumphs; and indignities of early American history. Drawing inspiration from the Homestead Act and the Klondike Gold Rush to the John Day River and Pine Meadow Ranch; Rusnak's music weaves together the rhythms and sounds of nature with the stories of the nation's early inhabitants. This album is in keeping with Rusnak's other work as a composer; focusing on the intersection of place; nature; culture; history; and art. A powerful tribute to the land and the people who shaped it; VOICES OF THE LAND invites listeners to reflect on the complex history of America.

Clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Bob Wilber is joined by special guest Sidney Bechet, one of the most famous soprano saxophonists in the history of New Orleans jazz, on this recording from 1949. Joining them are trumpeter Henry Goodwin, trombonist Jimmy Archey, pianist Dick Well stood, bassist Pops Foster and Tommy Bedford on drums. Sidney sings on the first six tracks of this CD and the tracks are Without a Home, Box Car Shorty, Waste No Tears, I'm Through, Goodbye, Love Me with a Feeling, the Broken Windmill, Coal Black Shine, Sweet Georgia Brown, the Mooche, When the Saints Go Marching In, Zig Zag and Limehouse Blues.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2014 from the singer/songwriter. Based in Nashville, but raised in a coal miner's company house on the banks of Buffalo Creek, WV, Stone Jack Jones is the descendant of four generations of coal miners. After being rejected from military service in Vietnam due to epilepsy, and discouraged from pursuing the coal mining business, Jack decided to start wandering. By the time he landed in Nashville, where he met Roger Moutenot, Patty Griffin, and Kurt Wagner, Jack had worked as a carny, an escape artist, a ballet dancer, a professional lute player, and even owned a strip club.