For this Halloween Hotplate, Bay Area master drummer Smith Dobson and his superb band featuring trumpeter Erik Jekabsen, tenor saxophonist Matt Renzi, pianist Keith Saunders and bassist Eric Markowitz play drumming legend Philly Joe Jones’s late 50s classics Blues for Dracula and Showcase. Recorded in September 1958, Blues for Dracula was Philly Joe Jones’ debut album as a leader after working for several years in the “first great quintet” of trumpet giant Miles Davis. Saxophonist Johnny Griffin’s title composition that kicks off the session features Jones’ hilarious voiceover narration in a thick Bela Lugosi accent and includes a version of his former bandleader’s standard “Tune-Up” with a band including Griffin, Nat Adderley, Julian Priester, Tommy Flanagan, and Jimmy Garrison.
Matt Renzi
For this Halloween Hotplate, Bay Area master drummer Smith Dobson and his superb band featuring trumpeter Erik Jekabsen, tenor saxophonist Matt Renzi, pianist Keith Saunders and bassist Eric Markowitz play drumming legend Philly Joe Jones’s late 50s classics Blues for Dracula and Showcase.
Recorded in September 1958, Blues for Dracula was Philly Joe Jones’ debut album as a leader after working for several years in the “first great quintet” of trumpet giant Miles Davis. Saxophonist Johnny Griffin’s title composition that kicks off the session features Jones’ hilarious voiceover narration in a thick Bela Lugosi accent and includes a version of his former bandleader’s standard “Tune-Up” with a band including Griffin, Nat Adderley, Julian Priester, Tommy Flanagan, and Jimmy Garrison.
