Album Notes

Written by: Bob Greenlee, President Kingsnake Records

The music you are about to hear on this remarkable CD is a trip up a broad river to its source, a journey from sophistication to simplicity, from intellect to emotion.
This music is simultaneously:

* a reduction of jazz,
* an expansion of blues,
* a blistering foray into funk,
* a flirtation with jam-band rock.

It is a synthesis of styles and a palate for improvisation that seamlessly strips away formal categories and takes dead aim at the heart of American music.

Longineu Parsons and Ted Shumate are accomplished jazz musicians, with highly evolved technique and star-studded resumes.

They share a mastery of such diverse styles ad bop, Latin jazz, fusion, free jazz, and even contemporary classical music.

Both are distinguished educators as well, Parsons at Florida A&M University and Shumate at Gulf Coast Community College. The journey that awaits you is the completion of a circle that began when they re-met at the funeral of another such explorer and the catalyst of this project, Nat Adderley.

Ted Shumate played guitar with Nat Adderley for eleven years, often in the distinguished company of such respected jazzmen as Sonny Fortune, Jimmy Cobb, Larry Willis and Walter Booker.

It was Nat's custom to visit friends whenever possible while touring, as he and his brother Cannonball had in the segregated South in their youth. When their travels took them to Jacksonville, Florida, a night was always spent with Longineu Parsons, the brilliant trumpeter, who has been a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Cab Calloway Orchestra and singer Nancy Wilson's band. A kinship developed; although their styles and tastes ran the gamut they shared a passion for the blues.

Just as Nat and Cannonball had returned to their blues and soul roots with their legendary band in the 1960s, Ted and Longineu are retracing their steps.

After their chance meeting as each said goodbye to Nat, they resolved to work together and play the unadorned music that is the root from which the limbs and leaves of jazz grow.

I received a call from Longineu this spring. He laid out his plans to me to record a no-frills, down home blues CD.

I was flattered that he chose King Snake Studios, where we have recorded some hundred albums, mostly blues, such as "Noble and Nat" featuring Noble Thin Man Watts and Nat Adderley and the first two Alligator Records CDs by the child prodigy turned international blues star, Lucky Peterson.

As luck would have it, Lucky was coming to co-produce the Miami bluesman Joey Gilmore with me. Ted Shumate had played with Lucky often when they both lived in St. Pete, and we all agreed he was the obvious choice to man the Hammond B-3 organ. Although he has become a guitar slinger extraordinaire on his recent Polygram CD, his first instrument was organ, from age six on the Tonight Show to age sixteen with Little Milton and then at nineteen to the band of Bobby "Blue" Bland. I had the good fortune to feature Lucky, first on Kenny Neal's Alligator Records debut followed by a host of projects ranging from Alex Taylor to Lucky's own solo CD's. His command of the B3 is complete, and his feel for the blues is perfection.

He was the ultimate glue for Ted and Longineu. The results speak for themselves. Lucky's drummer, Popcorn, kept it low down and funky.

Ted and Longineu brought a great bassist from Tallahassee, John Toney. He is inventive but never strays from the "pocket".

Ted flashes his technical mastery at will, but he has soul to burn.

Longineu's playing ranges from lyrical ("Calling the Spirits") to pyrotechnical to just plain nasty. His singing is humorous and real. I was instantly reminded of Louis Armstrong.

The material they chose to record mirrors the eclectic nature of the project, from Howlin Wolf to Hendrix to soul jazz.

They paint a picture using every shade of blue, with their technical skill deftly applying the brush strokes.

I don't know when I have had so much talent at work in our studios. It was a thrill for me just to be in the control room holding my breath as the walked the musical tightrope between the various genres.

I know it will be equally thrilling for you to listen and take this journey with these modern day masters back to where it all began.

Spring water flows strong and pure. Drink your fill.