Hard Times
With a strong background in R&B, and a close friendship with Ray Charles, it was only natural for saxophonist David Newman to be introduced to the world by Charles himself, through his first album––Fathead. For most of his career, Newman remained best known for his solo on Hard Times, one of the featured songs from that debut album.
Red Top is a wonderfully straight ahead jazz tune written by Lionel Hampton, performed by David “Fathead” Newman. Normally, I list the accompanying personnel, but this time, I couldn’t track anyone down––not even the singing drummer. On Newman’s Chillin’ album, everyone sounds so precisely the same that I will risk a guess, and list the group that appears on the album. Both the video and recording are circa 1998, so it may be a relatively safe bet. I’m guessing that in addition to “Fathead” on tenor, John Hicks played piano, Steve Novosel was on bass, Winard Harper on drums, and Bryan Carrott played vibes.
The second video is the familiar Blue Bossa and features “Fathead” Newman and Houston Person on dual tenor saxes, along with the Rein deGraaff Trio. It was also recorded in 1998, when they were entering their twilight years but still going strong!
