Hello, welcome to the My Northern Skies website, home of my two weekly radio shows, which alternate here each week, The Jazz File every Tuesday (8pm) and Flick the Dust Off every Friday (10am).

Featured Album | 404

Louie Bellson | Cool Cool Blue | Pablo 2310 899 | 1983

Luigi Paolino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni is not the sort of name you would normally see on a billboard, not back then and certainly not now, though the much shortened Louie Bellson was a much more usable moniker for this Illinois-born drummer.  Cool Cool Blue is one of the musician’s later albums, having already released a good few dozen by the time of its release in the early 1980s.  A seasoned player, Bellson had worked with both Duke Ellington and Count Basie, as well as such notables as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and even on two albums by Linda Ronstadt.  For this album Bellson gathered together a handful of musicians from his much larger orchestra, namely George Duvivier on bass, Frank Strazzeri on piano and both Matt Catingub and Ted Nash on either alto, tenor or soprano sax.  The bulk of the compositions were written by Bellson and Strazzeri, with the one Duvivier offering, the soothing “Wanderlust”, his bass runs prominent throughout.  Produced by Alan Freeman, the British record producer and engineer and not the fluffy pop DJ, Cool Cool Blue captures the band on fine form.       

Playlist:

Flight 19 – Andrew Hill (Point of Departure)

Tapooz Don – Louie Bellson (Cool Cool Blue)

Bohemia After Dark – Erik Friedlander (Oscalypso)

Lani – Tim Warfield (Gentle Warrior)

Dedicated to You – John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman (John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)

Caravan – Arthur Blythe (In the Tradition)

Rain Check – Ahmed Jamal (Happy Moods)

Cool Cool Blue – Louie Bellson (Cool Cool Blue)

Desert Song – Stanley Clarke (School Days)

Tracks from albums released exclusively in the 1960s and 1970s, join me for the Flick the Dust Off show on Friday 3 July.