This weeks Complete Jelly Roll Morton selections with David Horniblow feature an early and a late tune – starting off with “Grandpa’s Spells,” one of the early tunes he recorded as a solo in 1923 and again with his Red Hot Peppers in 1926. It’s a great three-strain composition and features a hilarious sound effect section where grandpa apparently has his spells and falls down repeatedly…we’ve taken some elements from the solo and band version for a new arrangement of the tune:
Secondly we move to his last band sessions in 1940 for a “Big Lip Blues,” a straightforward bluesey tune with a nice progression. On the original recording, Jelly carries on at great length narrating all the ways the subject’s big mouth has gotten him into trouble. Pretty hilarious. Anyway, we’ve done a bit of an arrangement with some nice breaks, and it’s a very fun progression to play over. Hope you enjoy! More bass saxophone coming next week so stay tune at the YouTube Channel!
Andrew Oliver 