Electrifying Hard Bop and Soul Jazz Dates Drawn from the Archives of Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society Arrive as Two-CD Sets On April 21, 2023

Sonny Stitt’s Boppin’ In Baltimore Out Digitally On April 21; 

Listen To “A Different Blues” HERE

Shirley Scott’s Queen Talk: Live At The Left Bank Out Digitally April 28; Listen To “Like Someone In Love” HERE

 Walter Bishop Jr.’s Bish At The Bank Out Digitally April 28; 

Listen to “Willow Weep For Me” HERE

Jazz Detective, the label founded by award-winning archival producer Zev Feldman, and Reel to Real Records, the partnership between Feldman and Vancouver-based impresario and musician Cory Weeds, will deliver a trio of hard-hitting, previously unissued LP releases by saxophonist Sonny Stitt, organist Shirley Scott, and pianist Walter Bishop Jr. for Record Store Day (April 22, 2023). The collection deepens Feldman and Weeds’ fruitful excavation of hitherto unheard music from shows mounted at Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. 

Each release features evocative cover art by designer John Sellards, a frequent collaborator of Feldman and Weeds’, who has an uncanny ability to create covers that look like they stepped out of another era.

Co-produced by Feldman and Weeds, Stitt’s Boppin’ at the Bank: Live at the Left Bank (on Jazz Detective) and Scott’s Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank and Bishop’s Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore (on Reel to Real) will debut as a trio of two-LP sets, pressed on 180-gram vinyl. The Stitt package will be limited to 2,500 copies and mastered by Bernie Grundman; the Scott and Bishop titles will be limited to 3,000 copies and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. As usual, these LPs will be available exclusively only at Record Store Day’s participating independent music retailers in the U.S.

Two-CD editions of all three sets, featuring the same extensive notes and rare photographs as the LP collections, will be available on April 21, 2023. The Jazz Detective release will be available digitally on April 21; the two Reel To Real releases will be available digitally on April 28. 

You can listen to tracks from all three records:

Hear Sonny Stitt’s “A Different Blues”

Hear Shirley Scott’s “Like Someone In Love”

Hear Walter Bishop Jr.'s “Willow Weep For Me”

Past titles excavated from the Left Bank Jazz Society’s musical treasure trove include Understanding, an explosive date led by drummer Roy Brooks; The George Coleman Quintet in Baltimore, a tough gig featuring the titular tenor player; and A Soulful Sunday by vocalist Etta Jones with the Cedar Walton Trio. All were released by Reel to Real as Record Store Day titles in 2021, 2020 and 2018 respectively.

For Feldman, these Left Bank releases come off the shoulders of the creation of his new label group, Deep Digs Music Group, formed in partnership with Elemental Music. Deep Digs is a new archival label group spanning multiple genres and the new jazz label imprint is Jazz Detective, which launched with a pair of live sets by pianist Ahmad Jamal on Record Store Day’s 2022 Black Friday event. Feldman says, “Working with the co-founder of the Left Bank Jazz Society, John Fowler, has been one of the most enormous thrills of my career, and it's been a joy to work with my dear friend Cory Weeds on several of these projects. These recordings provide us with a great opportunity to share the legacy, not just of the music, but of this wonderful organization that celebrated diversity and brought some of the greatest jazz icons to the stages of Baltimore, Maryland.”

Weeds says, “As I continue to have the pleasure of releasing music from the archive of the Left Bank, I realize just what an incredible space it was and what an amazing audience and vibe was cultivated by the organizers. I would give anything to have been there for any one of these sessions. I'm so thrilled to be working with Zev on these projects and continuing and contributing to the legacy of the artists and the Left Bank.”

In an interview in the Bishop set, John Fowler, who worked on Left Bank’s concert promotions from the organization’s inception in 1964, notes the affection the players had for their Baltimore hosts: “After a while, it became the place to play. In the 50 years that we were in existence, no musician ever left Baltimore without their money, which I understand is unheard of. Once word got out that you can go to Baltimore, have a good time, get fed and get free drinks — and you’re going to get your money, it came a flood. Everybody wanted to play.”

Photo Credit: Christian Rose

Recorded on Nov. 11, 1973, at Baltimore’s Famous Ballroom, a regular site of Left Bank’s shows, the superheated Boppin’ at the Bank finds saxophonist Stitt, one of the great hard bop exponents, at his most powerful, backed by an all-star unit of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes. The package features rare photos by Christian Rose, Raymond Ross, Tom Copi, Burt Goldblatt and others; an overview by Grammy-winning jazz authority Bob Blumenthal; and new interviews with Barron, Hayes, and saxophone giant Charles McPherson.

McPherson recounts a remarkable story that boldly delineates Stitt’s formidable reputation as a gunslinging sax titan: “Sonny Stitt scared people. [Drummer] Roy Haynes said that he seemed to be the only guy that Charlie Parker would be nervous around. Roy remembered a gig he played with Bird. Bird was playing his regular Bird stuff. It was good, 'cause it was Charlie Parker. All of a sudden, there was this burst of energy from Bird, out of nowhere. Bird went from zero to 60 in two seconds. What happened? Roy looked up and saw that Stitt had walked into the room and sat down right in front of the bandstand….That was the respect that Sonny Stitt had from the greatest cat in the world.”

Photo Credit: Raymond Ross

Queen Talk — so named because of Scott’s sobriquet “the Queen of the Hammond B-3” — showcases the organ originator’s soulful style in a trio format with Left Bank regular George Coleman and drummer Bobby Durham, captured at the Famous Ballroom on Aug. 20, 1972; the gifted jazz vocalist Ernie Andrews sits in on three of the album’s 10 numbers. Highlighting the collection are photos by Don Schlitten and Raymond Ross; Left Bank memorabilia; notes by writer A. Scott Galloway; and interviews with pianist Monty Alexander, saxophonist and former Scott sideman Tim Warfield, and the late jazz organ star Joey DeFrancesco.

Summing up Scott’s accomplishments, DeFrancesco said, “She was one of the very first to play the organ in this style of jazz. She started playing it in the ‘50s, and she was playing with all the tenor players like Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. She’s from Philadelphia — that’s where the whole thing was born. She’s a pioneer of jazz organ, and an incredible piano player. Her legacy is her tremendous contribution to jazz organ — that will live on forever. I’m glad that recordings like this one have come out. She has some great records, but live is a whole other thing because the people are so free to go in whatever direction they like. When you have the cast of musicians like this to do it with, the sky is the limit — and it all shows on this recording.”

Photo Credit: Raymond Ross

Bish at the Bank features hard-swinging bop pianist Bishop with another underestimated player, tenor and soprano saxophonist and flutist Harold Vick, backed by bassist Lou McIntosh and Dick Berk. The selections are drawn from dates at Baltimore’s Madison Club on Aug. 28, 1966, and the Famous Ballroom on Feb. 26, 1967. The package contains photos by Schlitten, Ross, and Jan Person; notes by jazz journalist Ted Panken and video journalist Bret Primack; and delightful examples of the pianist’s own jazz-themed poetry.

Panken says of the smoking playing, “As you’ll hear, Bishop, Vick, Mcintosh, and Berk satiate the heightened appetites of their signifying witnesses, serving an eight-tune musical banquet seasoned with just proportions of relentless swing, melodic creation, and harmonic acuity, feeding the fire with Saturday night blues connotations and Sunday morning sermonizing. The energy levels and good-time attitude are characteristic of the Left Bank cabaret parties that had transpired every Sunday of the month since mid-August 1964.”

​​JAZZ DETECTIVE is a division of DEEP DIGS MUSIC GROUP (formed in partnership with Elemental Music) that was launched in 2022 by DownBeat Magazine’s “Producer of the Year” Zev Feldman. Deep Digs Music Group is a new archival record company that embodies Feldman's love and care for archival music around a variety of different genres. It's no surprise that Jazz is an enormous part of the fabric of the company, and the newly formed Jazz Detective imprint will focus on releasing previously unissued treasures from jazz greats and unsung heroes.

REEL TO REAL RECORDINGS LTD was launched in 2017 by jazz impresario Cory Weeds and renowned producer Zev Feldman and is focused on important archival jazz releases. Releases include Cannonball Adderley – Swingin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966-1967), Etta Jones – A Soulful Sunday: Live at the Left Bank and Johnny, Griffin/Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis – OW!: Live at the Penthouse, Roy Brooks – Understanding, and many others.