JRJB Now Available Online

As I'd hoped, the new album I recorded with Ted Shafer's Jelly Roll Jazz Band can now be purchased online. You can find it at Worlds Records Music Store, and you can click here to go straight to its page. (Links to product offerings can change over time. If that link stops working, go to their main page and search for "Ted Shafer", then find the album with my name in the personnel list. Ted's other albums are good too!)

There's been a bit of back-and-forth about the album's title and cover art. The title used to be just "New Orleans Jazz"; but Ted and Leon decided that the album just looked too much like earlier JRJB albums with similar covers and titles. Now the band is billed as the "2009 Jelly Roll Jazz Band" on the front cover, and under that, "with Guest Artists Leon Oakley and Ray Skjelbred". The cover art is also different. Some of my, ah, more elderly and/or better educated readers may recognize the source of the new artwork.

The World Records store Web page shows the original cover art, and lists the CD under the name "New Orleans Jazz Volume 3". I don't know which cover you'll actually get if you order from them. All very confusing: but it's still the same album with the same music!

I've just learned that the pianist on the album, Ray Skjelbred, has a Web site which lists the recordings he's made over the years, and has links for purchasing them. Ray is an amazing performer. It's a real thrill for me to hear his distinctive piano style on the JRJB album after listening to it for years on recordings by Turk Murphy. Ray has recorded several solo albums as well as sessions with Turk, Bob Schulz, Hal Smith, Clint Baker, Bob Helm, and more. His range includes bluegrass and western as well as trad jazz. Head on over to Ray's Recordings page at www.rayskjelbred.com and check them out. The new JRJB album will be listed there soon, too.