Today, on #ninetiesfriday, let's travel back to 1998 (or 1999, I can't quite remember) and the time I met the legendary jazz artist, Mose Allison.
I was living in Seattle and attending culinary school at the time, but let's rewind a bit to the first time I heard Allison, it was in the mid 90s when I picked up this CD.
Rhino Records was just killing it in the 90s and this release was no different. Some absolute classic songs on this disc, with the last song being a Mose Allison song recorded in 1964
I'm Not Talking
The Yardbirds covered this song on their 1965 album, For Your Love.
I listened to that Cocktail mix CD a LOT that summer and Got interested in hearing more Mose Allison, so I picked up a two CD anthology that was also released by Rhino in 1994 called Allison Wonderland. It's a great set, a lot of his more popular song arranged in chronological order.
A few years later, when I was up in Seattle, I saw he was coming to town so I got myself a ticket. The show was at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, a club in Downtown Seattle that's been around since 1980 and was recently voted one of the top 100 jazz club in the world by DownBeat Magazine. Just looking at the current lineup of acts coming up has me jonesing for some live jazz 🎺
I had school the day of the show but that was done by 2 so I decided to head down to the club early and see if I could get an autograph or catch the soundcheck.
There were a few folks there when I got there, but it was still light outside, so not too many jazz folks out yet xD
I took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink. As I sat there I noticed there were two older guys sitting a couple seats away from me at the bar talking and I soon realized it was Mose Allison and maybe his manager or someone like that. The conversation was mostly Mose telling this other person that he hated playing events like weddings and such because the people were always talking and the musician was just background music.
There was a break in their conversation, and that was my chance...
The show was awesome and I'm glad I have this souvenir. I may have to put this up on the wall now that I think of it.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite Allison tunes. The lyrics are just great, like a lot of his songs, enjoy!
