Jam With Sam – 1966
Duke Ellington
A rousing number featuring many of Ellington’s sidemen
At least since 1951 and continuing into the late 1960s, Duke Ellington used the rapid blues “Jam With Sam” as a vehicle to humorously introduce and briefly feature a variety of his sidemen.
On this version from 1966, among the musicians heard from are tenor-saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, trombonist Lawrence Brown, Russell Procope on alto, clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton, and at its conclusion, arguably the greatest of all high-note trumpeters, Cat Anderson.
There is a surprise at the end when one realizes that the drummer (who had recently left the John Coltrane Quartet) is Elvin Jones!
-Scott Yanow
