Milt Jackson & His Gold Medal Winners - Brother Jim (2nd post)

This 1986 album marked the end of Milt Jackson's contract with the Pablo label. The background of the album, as well as a different track, are available in this earlier post. Almost all of the previous information is still relevant.

This time around the track is Ill Wind, a tune which Harold Arlen composed (with lyrics by Ted Koehler) for a 1934 revue at the Cotton Club. The MP3 is taken from a cassette version of Jackson's album.

Ill Wind



Cheap copies of Brother Jim seem to have disappeared since my original post in June 2012. Expect to pay $15 and up for a used CD online. Used LPs appear to be only a couple of dollars cheaper. The album still is not available as a download.

From YouTube comes Harold Arlen himself singing and playing Ill Wind. No source or date is given.

Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet

Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet: That's not exactly a moniker that conjures up images of funk. But that's exactly what you get in this 1968 Verve release from vibraphonist Jackson and the four strings -- bassist Ron Carter, along with Sanford Allen on violin, Alfred Brown, viola and either Sidney Edwards, Ronald Lipscomb or Kermit Moore on cello. Granted the funk is on the easy side, but still...

Bags with Strings features a fine drum intro by Grady Tate. The MP3 is taken from the original vinyl LP.

Bags with Strings

The only digital release for this album came on an expensive Japanese CD, which is now out of print and seems to command about $80. Used vinyl copies start north of $20 online.

Below is a sample of Milt Jackson with a much larger string aggregation on a later release for Pablo.