Side 1
Hill Country Suite
1 Bringin’ in the Sheep
2 Old Jack Daniels
3 Halleluja! Y’ Uns All come to the Weddin’ Dance
Side 2
4 Only Blue
5 Lady Love
6 The Gospel Truth
All compositions by Bobby Jones
Bobby Jones clarinet - tenor sax
George Mraz - bass
Freddie Waits - drums
We first discovered Bobby Jones when he played with Charles Mingus in the early seventies. The Czech bass player George (Jiri) Mraz came to prominence in 1971 when he replaced Richard Davis in the Thad Jones & Mel Lewis Orchestra.
In 1974 Jones, then in Munich, took Mraz and drummer Freddie Waits into the studio and recorded this album. On side 2 his strong Coltrane influences are evident however, side 1 is pure deep gospel Jones, gosh it's great stuff.
There are only three musicians here, quite right too as a fourth would get in the way.
On the first movement Jones plays tenor bringing in the sheep
he switches to clarinet on the second
and back to tenor sax on the final movement for a good ol' weddin' dance.
I just love his Hill Country Suite. I bought this album in August 1978 and I listen to it on a regular basis. It once was a stocking filler.
