Tír Na HiFi

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.

On the TT:




All compositions are by Chick Corea except as noted
La Fiesta
Five Hundred Miles High
Captain Marvel
Times Lie
Lush Life(Billy Strayhorn)
Day Waves

Stan Getz – tenor saxophone
Chick Corea – electric piano
Stanley Clarke – bass
Airto Moreira – percussion
Tony Williams – drums

This album was released in 1972 and it had a profound effect on Jazz musicians and listeners alike. Getz is magnificent. One of the most popular songs was Chick Corea's composition, La Fiesta. The splendid Irish guitarist, Louis Stewart used to play in Conway's pub in Parnell Street twice a week. He performed La Fiesta at every gig that I was at over several months, that was in the mid-seventies. Maynard Ferguson recorded a big band version of it too but Stan's the man:


Another favourite was 500 Miles High:


and Strayhorn's Lush Life:


It is a marvellous album, it looks and sounds well in anyone's collection, it's well worth having. ;)

The cover designs resonate. Both getting frequent listening these days

Fran wrote:

I do like Art Pepper and Monk too for that matter.

On vinyl, Vol 2 of a great collection - much plundered for american TV themes in the 70's.

Freebird have both volumes at a good price.

dhyantyke wrote:The cover designs resonate. Both getting frequent listening these days

They are beautiful covers. So typical of the ECM quality mark and easily spotted at least a mile away :)

Agreed on those covers.
Both spun this afternoon, followed by



I hope the purists won't jump on me for posting that under "jazz" ...:)

Hard to believe that the first two albums were recorded between April and August 1971!




April 14th/15th


August 7th/8th



August 12th/13th 1974