And have a natural ball.

The longer ago an event took place or a place has been in the public, or in jazz’s case, in the aficionado’s eye, the more myth is attached to it. Bird and Dizzy’s appearance at Billy Berg’s in Los Angeles. Longer ago, rowdy Storyville in New Orleans, where brothel musicians touched upon a new musical thing some people soon called ‘jass’.

If only you could take a time machine and experience how it was, is an all-too familiar sentiment.

Fate Marable on the riverboat. Major-league folklore. Marable led dance bands on steamboats that plied the Mississipi River early in the 20th Century and the paddlewheel line that navigated around New Orleans decades after. Mentor to Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford, Chick Webb, Count Basie.

So, if you read about some jazz cat or other and see he’s played with Fate Marable, you say ‘wow, heavy’.

Jimmy Forrest played in Marable’s band on the riverboat. So say ‘wow heavy’, y’all. That’s going back a long way! The tenor saxophonist was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1920. A teenager in the middle of the development from ‘jass’ to swing. Onwards from 1940, Forrest played in the bands of Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

Of course, he’s Mr. Night Train. That tune, derived from Johnny Hodges’ That’s The Blues, Old Man and Duke Ellington’s Happy-Go-Lucky-Local, was a nr. 1 hit on the r&b charts in 1952.

Forrest led various small combos. Blues-drenched, entertaining music that cooks. Something to sit down to and relax with, well, nothing wrong with that, though likely you’ll find yourself tappin’ your feet, strolling around, snapping your fingers.

One of his best records, Sit Down And Relax With Jimmy Forrest, no mistaking, ís a relaxed album. A good almost nonchalant groove and a sense of relief pervades his set of old warhorses as much as sustained energy and lively blowing. He’s got his mind set on a good story, working his way to slightly uprooting climaxes, Ben Webster-style.

Forrest brings us back to the ‘ol days’, the source. Erskine Hawkins’ Tuxeco Junction (Louis Jordan), Hudson/Mills/Parish’s Organ Grinder’s Swing (Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra), Hudson/Mills/DeLange’s Moonglow (Joe Venuti, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw), Duke Ellington’s Rocks In My Bed (Ivie Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald), Ahlert/Leslie’s The Moon Was Yellow (Dorsey Brothers, Frank Sinatra).

A band of cats that rarely caught the public eye. Pianist Hugh Lawson, associated with Yusef Lateef. Guitarist Calvin Newborn, brother of Phineas Newborn, taking a bunch of bossy, fat-toned solos. Bassist Tommy Potter, alumnus of Charlie Parker’s bands. Drummer Clarence Johnston, collaborator of James Moody, Sonny Stitt, Freddie Roach. A good band, earthy, driving, relaxed…

Good match for the ‘star of the show’, Jimmy Forrest, perhaps daydreaming about uncle Fate, blowing smoky and saucy, wrapping it up at Van Gelder office in New Jersey, time for a drink, a talk, a bite, anything to settle down after an afternoon of good-time, spontaneous swing.