Inez Jones & Oscar Moore - Have You Met Inez Jones (2013)

Tracks #1,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16 & 18 are from the 12” LP “Have You Met Inez Jones?” first issued on Riverside (RLP 12-819), and Omegatape (ST-7018). Tracks #3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17 & 19 are from “Presenting Oscar Moore”, Omegatape (ST-7012). Tracks #3 & 15 also issued on the 12” LP “Have You Met Inez Jones?” Riverside (RLP 12-819). Tracks #20 & 21 from the 78 rpm Victor 20-5135. Tracks #22 & 23 from the 78 rpm Victor 20-4989.

Personnel on tracks #1,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18: Inez Jones (vcl), Oscar Moore (g), Carl Perkins (p), Curtis Counce (b), and Bill Douglas (d); Master Recorders, Los Angeles, May 27, 1957. Personnel on tracks #3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19: Oscar Moore (rhythm guitar, and solo guitar [overdubbed]), and Leroy Vinnegar (b); Audio Arts Studio, Los Angeles, Dec. 12 & 14, 1956. Personnel on tracks #20-23:Inez Jones (vcl), Howard Biggs (p), Red Callender (b), and Chico Hamilton (d); Radio Recorders, Los Angeles, July 17, 1952.

Inez Jones was a good singer whose solid reputation, especially among the jazz cognoscenti, never really spread much beyond San Francisco’s Bay Area, where she worked steadily during the Forties and the Fifties. With a light, attractive voice, a little reminiscent of Maxine Sullivan, she could swing, and her deft phrasing and reading of a lyric enabled her to handle a variety of material with persuasive authority.

Her rare recorded work is notable for the fact that she brought the intimate manner of her club performances into the studio, and for the accomplished jazzmen she used to make the handful of recordings on which she appeared. On the 1957 album these include the near legendary pianist, Carl Perkins, part of a fine West Coast rhythm section with bassist and celebrated bandleader Curtis Counce, and drummer Bill Douglas, as well as guitarist Oscar Moore, who achieved his greatest fame in the trio of another singer, Nat King Cole. (Incidentally, on the instrumental numbers turned by Moore in this album, two guitars are heard, both by Oscar. Bass, played by Leroy Vinnegar, and rhythm guitar were recorded first, and then solo guitar was overdubbed.)

As a bonus, four tracks from two rare 78rpm albums Miss Jones recorded five years earlier are included, and all the tunes from the Moore and Vinnegar session that were not released on the album.