Friday, February 03, 2006

Gil Evans- Voodoo Chile



















The spell is broken.

Legendary tuba player Howard Johnson sat in on a jam session I attended last night. (I posted a photo on my my personal blog .) Johnson is in town to work with saxophonist Bobby Watson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's jazz studies program. Johnson worked with Charles Mingus in the 1960s and played an instrumental role in the Saturday Night Live house band in the 1970s. He’s continued his career as a forward-thinking artist since then. I love his manic solo towards the end of this fiery rendition of Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Chile" from a live 1984 session with the Gil Evans Orchestra. Trombonist Tom Malone and guitarist Hiram Bullock also solo. Incidentally, the 64-year-old Johnson looks slimmer and healthier than I've ever seen him.

1 comment:

The Reaper said...

This is one of the best covers of this tune ever! IMO this version buries the one on the Gil Evans Plays The Music of Jimi Hendrix album. The two Sweet Basil albums are really underrated.