CiTR

This is a fun jam session-type recording done in the optimum conditions of a large recording studio with an invited audience. Chairs and refreshment were set up and tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin put together a fine band to play for the assembled hipsters. The session was the brainchild of the owner of Riverside Records, the late Orrin Keepnews.....he later did the same thing with Cannonball Adderley. Griffin, one of the leading voices of the tenor saxophone used the underrated and under-recorded Dave Burns on trumpet. A wise choice. He picked two of his Chicago "home-boys" on piano, Norman Simmons and bassist Victor Sproles and an up and coming young drummer, Ben Riley. The tunes are basically informal jams and are fun and relaxed. The wheel is not being invented here just good "meat and potatoes" Jazz. The host and MC is the redoubtable Babs Gonsales who announces the tunes and peps up the audience. A fun record by some serious "heavies". Join the party!