SKF NOTE: Bill Pott‘s album, The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess, has a special place in my life. For starters, it was given to me a half-century ago by, Ed Matthews, Head A&R man at CBS Records at the time. Mr. Matthews lived across the street when I was a teenager and was a mentor deluxe. I will write about him in an upcoming post.

Next, this album was my introduction to drummer Charlie Persip. And, boy, was I impressed! Not only by Charli’s drumming, but also by the sound of his drums. To this day I still think both are great.

I was fortunate to meet Charli Persip — who dropped the “e” from his first name at some point — when I was at Modern Drummer. Charli took a bus to a bus depot near MD‘s office from New York City. I drove him to the office from the bus station. I mentioned this album and how much I loved it.

Charli said most, maybe all, of the cuts were first takes. (Wow!) He also said he came to the session after a rough night, not anticipating charts like Bill Potts’s charts. Charli said he had to pull himself together immediately — which he did.

Finally, this album was a limited edition, recently and mercifully made available as an MP3 download.

Check out the band lineup. Enjoy the music!

Bill Potts and his Orchestra : Art Farmer, Harry Edison, Charlie Shavers, Bernie Glow, Marky Markowitz (tp) Bob Brookmeyer (v-tb) Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Earl Swope (tb) Rod Levitt (b-tb) Gene Quill, Phil Woods (as) Zoot Sims, Al Cohn (ts) Sol Schlinger (bar) Bill Evans (p) Herbie Powell (g) George Duvivier (b-tb) Charlie Persip (d) Bill Potts (arr)