[78-L] Swingin' Shepherd Blues

[David Lennick]

Donna Halper wrote:
> At 11:47 AM 1/6/2010, you wrote:
> 
>> From: "Julian Vein"
>>> Just been playing bassist Jimmy Woode's Argo LP-630 ("The Colorful
>>> Strings Of Jimmy Woode"), recorded September 2, 1957. The tune "The Man
>>> From Potter's Crossing" sounds very much like "Swingin' Shepherd
>>> Blues", credited to Woode. Moe Koffman's version on Jubilee was recorded
>>> February 7, 1957.
> 
> And the Moe Koffman version was a huge hit in his native Canada, in 
> addition to crossing over to the US top 40 charts. 
> 

And it was issued on 78 in Canada, something Moe didn't know till I showed him 
a copy. In turn he told a funny story about supervising the edit for the single 
(it was originally a 4-minute LP track)..he walked over to Ed Bickert with a 
handful of discarded tape and said "Here's your guitar solo."

Moe's original title was "Blues a la Canadiana", according to the Readers 
Digest Canadian Family Songbook, changed at the (excellent) suggestion of the 
producer. WHERE, we don't know..Jack Litchfield's Canadian Jazz Discography 
says the album was recorded at RCA's studio in Toronto, February 7, 1957, and 
that the single was recorded "probably New York, 1958" and doesn't list Bickert 
as being on that session. Lord's listing is identical to Jack's. I tend to 
believe Moe.

dl