Ruby Jones

Singer Ruby Starr was best-known as a backup singer for '70s macho man rockers Black Oak Arkansas, but also issued several recordings as a solo artist as well. Born Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak in Toledo, OH, in 1949, the future rock singer got her start at the age of nine (performing renditions of Brenda Lee songs) before changing her stage name to Connie Little and forming the Phil Spector-esque Connie & the Blu-Beats. Following stints in such obscure outfits as the Downtowners and the Blue Grange Ramblers (aka BGR), the latter of which mutated into the outfit Ruby Jones (a name that the singer was going by at the time). Signed to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label, the recording of Ruby Jones' 1971 self-titled was even supervised by Mayfield…

Norah Jones is a multiple Grammy-winning singer and pianist who loves playing music with people, so she started her own podcast to do just that. On each episode of Playing Around, she sits down with a different guest for impromptu musical collaborations and candid conversation. Her guests come from all walks of life and every musical style, and you never know where the songs will take them. Music from her podcast is now available for the first time on Sea Blue vinyl for RSD Black Friday 2023.

Ruby Braff - Ruby Braff Goes Girl Crazy (1958) {Wounded Bird WOU 1273 rel 2009}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 250 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 91 Mb
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© 1958, 2009 Warner / Wounded Bird Records | WOU 1273
Jazz / Mainstream Jazz / Trumpet

The then-32-year-old trumpeter Ruby Braff was fond of show tunes, and took for his concept the songs from the Gershwin brothers' Broadway stage play Girl Crazy for this album, his sixth as a leader. The music played by this band under the moniker of the Shubert Alley Cats is fairly predictable within the swing style, but this recording at times leans more toward bop with the inclusion of pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Jim Hall, and especially Al Cohn, who plays his trusty tenor sax and a lot of clarinet. The musicianship is solid enough, the songs a bit stretched with solos, and the jazz fairly interesting within the conservative, mainstream, straight-ahead idiom. The hottest tune is the last, "Barbary Coast," as bassists Bob Haggart and George Duvivier go to town while the horns jam, while the slowest "Embraceable You" is the opener, a ballad where Braff plays in a style akin to Louis Armstrong.