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The Little Big Band At Jazz Thursday May 27, 2010   Joe Lee Joe Lee was using a cane when he walked into the show. His girlfriend, who was blind was holding his other hand. Joe said, "Here we are, the lame leading the blind." You can hear her cheering for Joe after "Lazy Gal Blues". The Little Big Band followed a hot set by Jazz Alliance to play all original compositions and arrangements. We had three horns, a crack trumpet section featuring Ron Horton, Craig Baker, and John Bartelt. In the rhythm section we had Shane Chastain, piano; Craig Collison, vibes; David Eckert, bass; and I'm on guitar. But the highlight of the evening was when Joe Lee sat down at the piano and sang "Lazy Gal Blues", a song he wrote that gained substantial popularity when he released it on Alley Records. On From The Archives Of Something Blue I try to present great Arkansas music and I work hard to get all the details right, knowing that this could be one of the few times that this particular show is covered. Sometimes I get to recover a lost gem. And that's how I feel about this. Buried in the middle of the set was Papa Joe singing "Lazy Gal Blues". The performance was great but the mix wasn't that good. Usually I would skip past it and hope to record it again later. But Joe Lee is gone and this was my one opportunity to preserve this song with this band. I remember Craig Baker scratching out the arrangement before the show. Joe played the first solo and then Ron Horton took the second. This might be the only time Ron Horton played this song. On the recording Joe's voice was too quiet and the horns were too loud. This is not the first time this has happened with live recordings. Fortunately the arrangement has full band stops for every vocal line so after radical EQ and then boosting the vocal one phrase at a time I got Joe's voice on top. I fixed a few other things. It's not the best repair I've ever done but it's the best I could do on this song. I think you will enjoy it. It puts a smile on my face. Photos by Vivian Heyl

Craig Baker-John Bartell-David Eckert-Ron Horton

Craig Collison vibes-Hairy Larry guitar

David Eckert

John Long-drums

Shane Chastain-Piano