When I was twenty years old I started a big band in Philly. My buddies in the band were John Coltrane, Johnny Coles, Nelson Boyd, Specs Wright, Bill and Cal Massey, and James Forman. Little did I know it would become a feeder band into Dizzy’s band.
On one occasion we were offered a recording session by Lionel Hampton, but it never happened.
As a surviving elder of this wonderful African/American art form called Jazz, I am honored and overwhelmed to present this body of work to the music lovers of the world. It is important to me since I consider myself to be in the mold of my mentor, Dizzy Gillespie. He, Art Blakey and Betty Carter were always concerned with the continuum of our music. The title song “Togetherness” speaks to this purpose.
On this CD I try to cover generations and a variety of grooves in the compositions I chose. The original “A Sassy Samba” was dedicated to Sarah Vaughn; “A Sound for Sore Ears” to all listeners; “A Time and A Place” to my 85th birthday at the Bluenote
in NYC where this recording was made; my arrangement of “Yardbird Suite” to a genius of our music, Charlie Parker, and the title song to Democracy.
Jazz Legacy Productions
