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Illinois Jacquet

Sweet Nights at Lulu White's

By: - Dec 29, 2015

Illinois Jacquet

Long before
Yakkety yak sax
Clarence Clemons'
Black bottom
Springsteen's E Street
Trane's altissimo
Overblowing
Pushing his tenor
To heroic upper
Registers
There was the Texas horn
Honk master
Illinois Jacquet
Nee Jean Baptiste
From Louisiana actually
Creole and Indian
Started with alto
Lionel Hampton
Switched him to tenor
Just a kid
First recording
One take
Eighty-second solo
May 26, 1942
Flying Home
Riff a classic in
Berklee fake books
Hamp wore him out
Cab Calloway
Trio with Mingus
Later Basie and Ella
Hit the road
Jazz at the Philharmonic
All star jam sessions
Captured on vinyl
Entrepreneur
Norman Granz
Unique sound
So memorable
Rough and crude
Angry growl
Compared to
Bird's soaring solos
Mixing it up
With boppers
Gigs at Lulu White's
Boston's South End
Named for NOLA
Cat house in
Storyville
Where jazz was born
Chef Chandler
Slinging the gumbo
Ron always ringside
Hanging with hipsters
Illinois versatile
All the horns
Richly textured rarity
Blues bassoon
Swinging the night away
Sweet and sassy