Roomful of Blues - Live in 1979 - Knickerbocker Cafe, Westerly, RI

Описание: Here’s a performance from the legendary jump blues band Roomful of Blues, playing a gig on their home turf at the Knickerbocker Cafe.

This performance was allegedly recorded by a local radio station, preserved here for your enjoyment. Slide show by blues fan Dana Neugent, who did a great job compiling pics to accompany the recording. Well done, Dana!

Members of Roomful around this time included:

Duke Robillard - guitar
Greg Piccolo - tenor sax
Doug James - bari sax
John Rossi - drums
Preston Hubbard - bass
Al Copley - piano
Rich Lataille - alto sax

Great to hear what these guys sounded like during their Rhode Island heyday. Band founder Duke Robillard would eventually leave Roomful later in 1979. Today, the band continues, but with only one original member (Rich Lataille).

More info on the song Roomful covers here:

“…Things Ain't What They Used to Be" is a 1942 jazz standard with music by Mercer Ellington and lyrics by Ted Persons.

In 1941 there was a strike against the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, of which Duke Ellington was a member. Because of the strike he could not air his songs on the radio. Instead, he used songs written by his son Mercer and pianist Billy Strayhorn. Strayhorn's compositions of this time include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge" and "Day Dream". Mercer wrote "Things Ain't What They Used to Be", "Blue Serge" and "Moon Mist".

Jazz musician and historian Chris Tyle argues that most likely Mercer Ellington came up with the melody and his father then arranged the song for the band.The song is most often played as an instrumental. Lyrics were written by Ted Persons.Johnny Hodges played it first, in Hollywood on July 3, 1941….”

Duke Ellington played it for the film Cabin in the Sky (1943).

An instrumental version was frequently played as the closing music for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson by The Tonight Show Band under the direction of Doc Severinsen.

In the beginning of Soul, Joe Gardner leads his middle school jazz band in a poorly performed rendition of the piece.