Jazz in South Florida Part Tres - Calvin Newborn

[Dan Gould]

It was last weekend but I just got the photos from my wife's phone. Calvin Newborn and the Al Watters Sextet. I had no idea about this group he was sitting in with but from what little I can gather the leader lives and teaches in Jacksonville Florida and anyone nearby ought to seek him out. Great preaching saxophone (and flute and on one tune, clarinet) and the rest of the guys, mostly young, were fantastic too. From what I can tell online Watters spent a good deal of the 90s traveling the world with Ray Charles and he certainly fits into the tenor saxophone lineage of that band.

Which brings us to Newborn who is almost as old as B.B. King but is playing a helluva lot of guitar, unlike the King of the Blues, these days. This picture was taken during what turned into his feature, on "Centerpiece" - (Calvin opened the tune solo, the band came in, he soloed, let the pianist have one, then as the erstwhile leader was bringing his flute to his lips, Calvin jumped in and turned in another great solo and took the tune out. Watters definitely looked a little miffed.

We were seated almost as close as anyone but Calvin was facing away from us until this tune and my wife got a pretty good shot:

Dick Hyman is next, in February.