#willis jackson

guys underestimating jo's basketball skills

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Willis Jackson with Pat Martino Single Action

Produced by Fred Seibert

Willis Jackson: tenor saxophone

Pat Martino: guitar Carl Wilson: organ Jimmy Lewis: bass Yusef Ali: drums Ralph Dorsey: percussion

Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.

Less a producer than actually a recording supervisor (my credit on this album) I arrived at our first session together (Muse’s In the Alley) with virtually no information on what we were recording or who was playing. Willis was tough and a little paranoid so this situation played out during the three or four sessions we did together. I’d never heard any of his music (it wasn’t cool enough within the jazzbo circles I traveled in) and when I looked into the studio I thought I’d been time warped into the 1950s: five African Americans 20 years older than me in conked processes and starched white shirts and ties. They hit the first tune and didn’t stop until Willis looked up at me and asked if they had enough to fill the record. When informed they were eight minutes short he revved up a blues and kept it going until I faded it to make the length.

By the end of the five hour session I’d stopped making fun (in my head) of the tenor saxophone/organ based soul jazz, and realized why it spoke to so many millions of people. It wasn’t an intellectual exercise but a human one. They were playing songs that people knew and loved, with a feeling that anyone could understand. I was late to the party, but it wouldn’t be over for me even 30 years later. ….. Credits

Muse Records MR 5179 Willis Jackson with Pat Martino Single Action

Recording supervisor: Fred Seibert Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey April 26, 1978 Cover Design by Ron Warwell/NJE Cover photo by Clarence Eastmond

LINER NOTES COMING SOON

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Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson records his solo debut, Please Mr. Jackson, with Bill Jennings, Jack McDuff, Tommy Potter and Alvin Johnson at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio for Prestige. Jackson was best known to that point for R&B singles like “Gator’s Groove.” 

Below are reviews of the album and its singles from Billboard:

Below is the review of the album from the Pittsburgh Courier: 

Willis Jackson earned the nickname of "Gator Tail" some moons ago for the forthright manner in which he swings his tenor sax around.

He is usually put in a category with such honkers as Sil Austin, Red Prysock and Illinois Jacquet. But his latest thing on the Prestige laber is best labelled as a cool, cool, gas.

Utilizing a rather juicy reed, Willis produces some extremely danceable and listenable music with his "Dinky's Mood, Please Mr. Jackson, Come Back to Sorrento," and "Cool Grits."

We liked his tricky ending on "Memories of You" and enjoyed to the utmost some excellent backing from sidemen, Bill Jennings, Jack McDuff, Tom Potter and Al Johnson.

Diff’rent Strokes 💖

Episode: The Athlete (20)

Season: 03