Jay McShann Claude Williams Man From Muskogee LP 1980 Import Signed by Jay Swing

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Jay McShann Claude Williams Man From Muskogee LP 1980 Import Signed by Jay Swing
Got this signed after a great show in SF with McShann and Maxine Sullivan ( she signed one too ). All of these McShann recording are from masters of the KC Swinging Jazz/Blues style 
Pianist-vocalist Jay McShann was in the early part of his comeback when he recorded this superior quartet session with violinist Claude Williams (a veteran who was also on the verge of finally being discovered), bassist Don Thompson and drummer Paul Gunther in 1972. Reissued on CD, the fine swing date is so enjoyable that it makes one wonder how McShann and especially Williamshad remained so obscure for the past 20 years. McShann (who takes four spirited vocals) leads the quartet through veteran standards and a few blues with the highlights including "After You've Gone," "Yardbird Suite," "Hootie Blues" and "Jumpin' at the Woodside." Recommended.

McShann's mellow vocals and rolling boogie-meets-swing piano form a bed for Fiddler to scratch and cut across with thrilling solo after solo. I saw them in this era, and it captures them well. Top drawer.

James Columbus "Jay" McShann(January 12, 1916 – December 7, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader. He led bands in Kansas City, Missouri, that included Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Walter Brown, and Ben Webster.
McShann moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1936, and set up his own big band which variously featured Charlie Parker (1937–42), Al Hibbler, Ben Webster, Paul Quinichette, Bernard Anderson, Gene Ramey, Jimmy Coe, Gus Johnson (1938–43), Harold "Doc" West, Earl Coleman, Walter Brown, and Jimmy Witherspoon, among others. His first recordings were all with Charlie Parker, the first as the Jay McShann Orchestra on August 9, 1940.
In the late 1960s, McShann often performed as a singer as well as a pianist, often with violinist Claude Williams. He continued recording and touring through the 1990s. Well into his 80s, McShann still performed occasionally, particularly in the Kansas City area and Toronto, Ontario, where he made his last recording, Hootie Blues, in February 2001, after a recording career of 61 years. In 1979, he appeared prominently in The Last of the Blue Devils, a documentary film about Kansas City jazz.

Claude "Fiddler" Williams (February 22, 1908 – April 25, 2004) was an American jazz violinist and guitarist who recorded and performed into his 90s. He was the first guitarist to record with Count Basie and the first musician to be inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

He went to Kansas City, Missouri in 1927 and became part of the Twelve Clouds of Joy, led by trumpeter Terrence Holder and then Andy Kirk, with Mary Lou Williams on piano. He recorded with them for Brunswick Records the following year. After leaving Kirk, he played in Chicago in a band with Nat King Cole and his brother Eddie Cole and then became the first guitarist to record with Count Basie.

He spent most of his life in Kansas City. In the 1950s, he played with Eddie Vinson, Hank Jones, and another musician from Muskogee, pianist Jay McShann. For the next twenty years he led his own groups but did not record. Nearly thirty years since his last recording, he reunited with McShann in the 1970s to record McShann's album Man From Muskogee. Williams performed at Bill's Le Gourmet in Wichita, Kansas from 1972-1977.