When Destry Rides Again, with music by Harold Rome, became a hit on Broadway, it was not a surprise that certain A&R men saw possibilities in producing jazz treatments of selections from this musical. Both Randy Weston and Sir Roland Hanna were prodded into doing albums of Rome's songs from the play, while Weston made a point to encourage Mosaic not to include it in a boxed set they compiled, Hanna passed away prior to this 2007 Wounded Bird reissue, so he didn't have a voice in the decision.
Caribbean-born soul-jazz guitarist Roland Prince's 1976 Vanguard solo debut "Color Visions" comes to life on this CD reissue. Prince was sideman on Elvin Jones' many '70s releases as well as doing time with trumpeter Clark Terry. This solo set finds him in superb form.
One of the most acute and savagely satiric songwriters of his era, Warren Zevon was born in Chicago on January 24, 1947. His formative years were as colorful as the scenarios played out in his music: his father was a professional gambler, a lifestyle which forced the family to move frequently, and Zevon spent most of his formative years in California and Arizona. He learned to play piano, focusing primarily on classical material before a disintegrating home life led him into pop music, as well as a few run-ins with the law; …