Produced by Archie Shepp and Jimmy Connors a.k.a. Jimmy Sizzle - Composed and Arranged by Jimmy Connors Featuring Archie Shepp on tenor sax, Avery Sharpe on bass, Jeff Holmes on trumpet, Kevin Sharpe on drums, Brian Bender on trombone, and Jimmy on guitar and piano. Visit jimmysizz.com for a complete description of the form and a musical analysis. "Tribute" is Archie Shepp's solo throughout the 28 minute piece. "Twelve Tone Blues Concerto" is Jimmy's Composition. Thus, the official title of this version and release is, "Tribute - Twelve Tone Blues Concerto." Here is how this special version came to be ready for your ears to enjoy: ...On a wintery night after New Years 2010, Jimmy finally finished what was originally called "Blues for Brother Lateef" soon after hearing of the passing of Yusef's second wife and being saddened by his teacher's loss. He brought the composition to Archie's house to see if it was possible to record it as a tribute to their dear friend and highly influential teacher and composer and instrumentalist . Archie loved the piece and the idea of doing another recording with his student so much that he agreed without hesitation, began practicing, and called up Avery Sharpe and his brother Kevin to show up for a rehearsal and the session literally days before Archie had to head back to Paris. Jimmy called up Jeff Holmes, longtime director of jazz studies at the University of Massachusetts who gave Jimmy the thumbs up upon his audition in 1993 to enter the UMASS music program as a student designing his own program and curriculum, which gave him the green light to study with Archie right away and eventually with Yusef as well. He then called his longtime friend, Brian Bender, to complete the sextet. The actual recording was done after an hour long walk through rehearsal where the piece was not played in its entirety until the recording session. They did two takes, and combined the two takes flawlessly with editing capabiliy using the first take's second and third movements and the second takes first movement. Archie and Jimmy being the perfectionists that they are to get it right, booked another session for Archie to re-do his solo and Jimmy to overdub a little piano part using the method of piano playing he learned studying with "Brother Yusef." The piece was originaly inspired when Yusef mentioned to Jimmy after composition and improvisation class one day that "the blues will take a new direction..." In the words of long time friend, neighbor, recording engineer who recorded the majority of the recordings on Yusef's label YAL, and accomplished songwriter and singer on his own, Norman Blain, "Yusef Lateef is one of those people who takes a machete and carves out a path for people to use for years to come." Recorded by Angelo Quaglia at Northfire Studio, Amherst MA Mixed by Aaryn Blain and Jimmy Sizzle at Audio Lab, Holyoke MA Mastered by Aaryn Blain Pictured In the photo: Left to Right: Kevin Sharpe (drums), Avery Sharpe (bass), Jimmy Sizzle (guitar and piano), Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Jeff Holmes (trumpet), Brian Bender (trombone) Recorded January 11, 2010 (or the numerical palindrome 01.11.10) Photograph by Derek Goodwin