DJ Hairy Larry Presents Jay Shepherd Playing Blue Bossa
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-07-30

Thanks Marty, today we're going to hear a bossa, featuring two of my friends, recorded at the Delta Jazz Workshop.

Besides being a jazz clinic the Delta Jazz Workshop is a mini festival with five jazz concerts from Monday through Friday. You can't learn jazz without listening to jazz and since there's no music like live music you can't play jazz without listening to live jazz. So the nightly concerts are actually an integral part of the learning experience.

The concerts were also a great opportunity for me to record Northeast Arkansas jazz musicians for Something Blue. I mean, I was going to the concerts anyway so I might as well roll tape, I mean fill flash cards, the modern day equivalent of tape.

On July 12, 2016, it was Jay Shepherd's turn to bring his band and play. I've known Jay for years and he's played guitar with Bebop Beatniks and with NJHB. He plays stand out performances on the new Bebop Beatniks album, "Church" and he is also featured playing with NJHB on "Bop Soup" recorded at my Senior Recital.

Also featured on "Blue Bossa" is my friend Tyler Worsham on piano. He helped me many times at my recitals. He played at Trilogy For The Arts and he is featured on the NJHB album, "Blue Goose", recorded at New Jazz In Jonesboro in the Jonesboro Public Library.

Also playing on "Blue Bossa" are Terrell Montgomery, bass and Keyven Dunn, drums. All of these musicians were students at ASU.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Jay Shepherd Playing Blue Bossa
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-07-30

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a bossa, featuring two of my friends, recorded at the Delta Jazz Workshop.

Besides being a jazz clinic the Delta Jazz Workshop is a mini festival with five jazz concerts from Monday through Friday. You can’t learn jazz without listening to jazz and since there’s no music like live music you can’t play jazz without listening to live jazz. So the nightly concerts are actually an integral part of the learning experience.

The concerts were also a great opportunity for me to record Northeast Arkansas jazz musicians for Something Blue. I mean, I was going to the concerts anyway so I might as well roll tape, I mean fill flash cards, the modern day equivalent of tape.

Bebop Beatniks
Craighead Forest Bandshell
Jonesboro, Arkansas
July 23, 2023

Songs

00:00 African Violet
11:17 And that was African Violet ...
11:24 The Blue Crane
20:02 If anybody wants to dance ...
20:14 Low Earth Orbit
27:21 I work hard writing lyrics ...
27:54 Sail Boats
33:35 Introducing the band ...
33:53 Freddy's Blues
39:22 For our closer ...
39:29 Malaysia
48:00 outtro

Personnel

Sophie Hacker - guitar and vocals
Jeremy Jackson - bass
Alex Washam - drums
Hairy Larry - piano and vocals

This show was livestreamed on Youtube and edited in OpenShot.

https://www.youtube.com/hairylarry

https://bebopbeatniks.com/
https://hairylarryland.com/
https://deltaboogie.net/

DJ Hairy Larry Presents The Cruize Brothers Playing Born Under A Bad Sign
From The Archives Of Something Blue July 23, 2023

Thanks Marty, today we're going to hear an Albert King song played at KASU Blue Monday.

When I first met Mike Dollins we were both promoting the blues on myspace. That's right. We're old.

Pretty soon he was contributing to Delta Boogie, keeping me up to date with the Little Rock Blues scene. Next thing you know he was coming up to Jonesboro to play at the Craighead Forest Bandshell and bringing his friends. Who soon became my friends.

I booked Hairy Larry and George in Little Rock and Mike Dollins was in the audience, enjoying the show. It was one of our best shows, too, with Suzanne and Fred joining us during the second set. I'll include a link on the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Mike Dollins plays blues and jazz guitar. Playing with Mike at Blue Monday were Guido Ciardetti, bass and Brad Messer, drums. Their band name was The Cruize Brothers.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring the Common Time Quartet, Vertigo Jazz Project, and Science Fiction Jazz. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.

Vertigo Jazz Project Live at Double Door Inn on 2009-05-22
archive.org/details/vertjazz2009-05-22.flacf16

Science Fiction Jazz Live at The Loft @ UCSD on 2013-02-02
archive.org/details/sciencefiction2013-02-02.R26.matrix.flac16

Common Time Quartet Live at Craighead Forest Bandshell on 2017-06-03
archive.org/details/ct2017-06-03

From The Archives Of Something Blue July 16 2023

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a Hank Mobley song recorded by ASU students at the Craighead Forest Bandshell.

The Common Time Quartet was Josh Carter, sax; Alex Ditto, guitar; Spencer Rawlins, bass; and Chris Isom, drums. They are all still playing music around here except Josh Carter who moved to Japan.

All four are excellent musicians and the Common Time Quartet performed every week at different Jonesboro venues. So I was very pleased to get to record their well rehearsed band at the Craighead Forest Bandshell.

From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-07-09

Thanks Marty, today I’m going to take my chill jazz piano into “Low Earth Orbit”.

The pandemic was hard on everyone but it was particularly hard on musicians. Many musicians not only had to endure lockdown but they lost their income too.

It was hard on me because, for me, like many other musicians, playing music is not optional. Of course, I practiced every day but as any working musician will tell you, that’s not the same. I like to practice but I have to play for an audience.

So when my daughter started livestreaming I thought, maybe that could work for me? I got a twitch account and set up a twitch studio with a powerful computer, lights, and webcams. It was just the kind of project that I like. Technical and creative.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry Playing Low Earth Orbit
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2023-07-09

Thanks Marty, today I'm going to take my chill jazz piano into "Low Earth Orbit".

The pandemic was hard on everyone but it was particularly hard on musicians. Many musicians not only had to endure lockdown but they lost their income too.

It was hard on me because, for me, like many other musicians, playing music is not optional. Of course, I practiced every day but as any working musician will tell you, that's not the same. I like to practice but I have to play for an audience.

So when my daughter started livestreaming I thought, maybe that could work for me? I got a twitch account and set up a twitch studio with a powerful computer, lights, and webcams. It was just the kind of project that I like. Technical and creative.

Jess Stacy was a ready dance pianist in his teens at Cape Girardeau, Mo. “Jess was always a serious and fundamentally sound musician,” attested R.F. "Peg" Meyer, bandleader. “His great interest in life was always the piano, and he pursued it in a quiet and hard-working manner. He was born with a natural talent and fingers that could span thirteen piano keys (five notes over an octave) and developed a determination that he would not just play the piano, he would excel at it. After school when the rest of us would play pool or seek other amusement, he would hurry home, climb on the piano stool, and practice arpeggios by the hour.”

Stacy’s fingers on piano were “trained down to steel… bringing out both ends of an octave at once through any din,” reviewed Otis Ferguson in 1937. The jazz critic heard Stacy’s piano “as both an orchestra in miniature and a linking force among its separate parts, tying the chorded beat of the rhythm section into the melodic line, providing a sort of common base as between brass and reeds, filling out the chords of each.”

Thanks Marty, today I’m going to sing a song I learned from a blues legend, Sam Myers.

I love the King Biscuit Blues Festival and I used to attend every year. One of my favorite acts was Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets with Sam Myers. When they played I was always front and center dancing to their great blues.

One of the songs Sam did was “I’m Your Professor”. Because of ASU I just had to add the song to my repertoire. It’s a jump blues with humorous lyrics.

Well, Sam died in 2006, but I kept on singing that song. And when Delta Legends played at The Biscuit there I was with John and Jeremy singing “I’m Your Professor”. Of course, I dedicated it to the memory of Sam Myers.