It was a few posts back where I mentioned Teddy Edwards and since then I been searching for more of his stuff. I found another classic that he recorded in 1961 with Trumpeter Howard McGhee, the name of this album is “Together Again.” Not very appealing at all and by no means catchy either. These albums with insignificant, unimaginable names can be easily overlooked and that’s a big shame! This album is packed with 78 minutes (13 Songs) of high quality Jazz with two masters blowing away fast pace solos and sweet soulful ballads, including my favorite version of “Misty” and an equal version of “Lover Come Back To Me.” All made possible with the help of Phineas Newborn Jr. A must have and of course, all here and exclusively for the Jazz Con Class Radio listeners!
About the album:
Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1990, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California). Tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards and trumpeter Howard McGhee had played together regularly from 1945 to 1947. For their recorded reunion, they are assisted by the masterful pianist Phineas Newborn, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. Edwards, McGhee, and Brown contributed one new song apiece which alternates with a trio of standards (“You Stepped Out of a Dream,” “Misty” and Charlie Parker’s “Perhaps”). The trumpeter was having a short-lived comeback…….Read More
Biography Phineas Newborn JR:
Phineas Newborn Jr. (Pianist) born on December 14, 1931 in Whiteville, Tennessee and passed on May 26, 1989 in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 57.
Newborn came from a musical family with his father, Phineas Newborn, Sr., being a blues musician and his younger brother, Calvin, a jazz guitarist. Phineas studied piano as well as trumpet, and tenor and baritone saxophone.
Newborn first played in an R&B band led by his father on drums, Tuff Green on bass and his brother Calvin on guitar. The group recorded as B. B. King’s band on his first recordings in 1949 and also the Sun Records sessions in 1950. The group would leave West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the “Delta Cats” in support of the record “Rocket 88″. Rocket 88 is considered by many to be the first rock & roll record ever recorded (recorded by Sam Phillips) and was the first Billboard #1 record for Chess Records. Among his earliest recordings, from the early 1950s, are those for Sun Records with blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton, We Three (a trio date led by drummer Roy Haynes along with bassist Paul Chambers), and his debut as a solo artist on RCA Victor, Phineas’ Rainbow.
In 1950, Newborn Jr. enrolled as a music major at the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University in Nashville. While there, he worked tirelessly on his classical repertoire and technique, developing a particular affinity for Franz Liszt, whose double and triple octave approach to linear melodies became characteristic of Newborn’s spontaneous improvisations……Read More
