Live at the Black Sheep Club San Francisco 1961

Earl Hines was one of the great jazz pianists, and was often dubbed the first modern jazz piano player. However, he enjoyed substantial success and popularity during the New Orleans revival of the ‘50s, playing with a variety of line-ups. Especially in San Francisco, which was a hotbed of the heightened interest in traditional jazz. This collection comprises six previously unreleased weekly radio broadcasts recorded ‘live’ at the Black Sheep Club in San Francisco in 1961 from 14th April to 25th May 1961, which are part of the archive of largely unreleased material known as the Ackerman Collection, from which we have released several interesting sets, including the Jazz At The Philharmonic Seattle 1956 concerts.There are five 25-minute programmes, featured unedited in their entirety, which went out weekly on KCBS Radio, and they capture the spirit and flavour of the era in stereo recordings of immaculate technical quality, which have required very little cleaning . As ever, Hines assembled a band consisting of top class musicians, with several different trumpeters used in the various shows, and the band swings and grooves through rip-roaring ensemble improvisation and solos in relaxed and uninhibited style, and it makes for highly entertaining and evocative listening. Featured musicians: Earl Hines (p), Eddie Smith, Byron Berry, Ernie Figueroa (tpt), Jimmy Archey (trombone), Darnell Howard (cl), Pops Foster (b), Earl Watkins (dr).