Jill Jones (Prince Related)

Jill Jones - Jill Jones - 1987 - Paisley Park

Jill Jones is the self-titled debut solo album from the artist of the same name; Jill Jones. The album was released in 1987 on Paisley Park / Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Jones and Prince. Her debut was warmly received in Europe, but failed to chart in the U.S. on the Billboard Top 100 Pop, Black, or Dance charts. None of the three released singles managed to enter any of the Top 100 charts. Warner Bros. Entertainment never pushed the album. In 1983, Jones moved to Minneapolis to begin work on her solo album. Prince spent three years working with his "protégé". Prince wrote and performed much of the music on the album, while Jones supplied the lyrics. David Z. did a large portion of the audio engineering and music production (without Prince) at Electric Lady Studios in New York. In addition, Billy Idol guitarist Steven Stevens (a close friend of Jones'), contributed to three tracks for the album. However, only the cover of Prince’s "With You" made the album. His other two contributions "77 Bleeker St." and "Baby Cries (Ay Yah)" were issued as B-sides. The album is out of print. - WIKI

A really good album from Jill Jones, best known as a great backing vocalist for Teena Marie and Prince back in the 1980s. The album was so under-promoted that it barely got a chance to be reviewed, but it’s got pop, funk, R&B, Soul, light jazz and more. Prince himself played on seven of the tracks, so you will have a good idea of what to expect on this neglected album. Other musicians who played on the album include Jim Pugh, Randy Brecker, Hugh McCracken, Steve Stevens, Rob Mounsey, and Steve Gadd [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 90.9 Mb]

TRACKS

1 Intro (Baby, You're A Trip) - Mia Bocca (7:21)
2 G-Spot 4:30
3 Violet Blue 4:24
4 With You 4:00
5 All Day, All Night 5:41
6 For Love 4:27
7 My Man 3:15
8 Baby, You're A Trip 5:23

All of the eight tracks were written by Prince (although he was listed as co-writer only on five, with Jill Jones taking credit for seven of the tracks)

MAIN MUSICIANS [See album notes for detailed credits]

Jill Jones - vocals
Prince - all instruments, except where noted, on Tracks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8
Hugh McCracken, Steve Stevens - guitar on Track 4
Wendy Melvoin - guitar on Track
Brown Mark - bass guitar on Track 5
St. Paul Peterson - bass guitar on Track 6
Rob Mounsey - piano on Track 4
Mike Chase - keyboards on Track 4
Lisa Coleman, Dr. Fink - keyboards on Track 5
Steve Gadd - drums on Track 4
Bobby Z. - drums on Track 5
Jellybean Johnson - drums on Track 6
Bob Minzer, Chris Hunter, Roger Rosenberg - saxophone on Track 2
Eric Leeds - saxophone on Tracks 3,6
Jim Pugh - trombone on Track 2
Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis - trumpet on Track 2
Atlanta Bliss - trumpet on Track 3

MORE ABOUT ALBUM

Jill Jones is the first album by Jill Jones, and her only album to feature Prince input. All of the eight tracks were written by Prince (although he was listed as co-writer only on five, with Jill Jones taking credit for seven of the tracks), and seven of the tracks feature his input musically. The album produced three singles, Mia Bocca, G-Spot and For Love, but the album failed to chart. The tracks were recorded between July, 1982 and October, 1986. Prince had first met Jill Jones on the Dirty Mind Tour, where she sang background vocals for the opening act Teena Marie. She sand background vocals on many studio tracks for Prince beginning with the 1999 album (also joining the live band on the 1999 Tour), and a solo album was planned for many years before its eventual completion and release. Many of the tracks were initially recorded by Prince before lead vocal overdubs by Jill Jones were added later. Mia Bocca was initially recorded by Prince in May, 1982. Baby, You're A Trip followed in July, 1982. G-Spot was recorded in August, 1983 (and was considered for use in the Purple Rain movie). All Day, All Night was recorded live at Prince's birthday concert on 7 June, 1984. In May, 1985, Prince and Jill Jones recorded My Man together, as work on her album began in earnest. Later in May, Prince and Jill Jones recorded several more tracks for the album: Come Elektra Tuesday, Married Man, Killin' At The Soda Shop, Living Doll and For Love, of which For Love is the only track included on the album. In August, 1985, Prince and Jill Jones recorded My Sex for the album, which was at one point considered as a title track for the album, but later rejected, and revised Mia Bocca, G-Spot and Baby, You're A Trip. Prince worked further on many of the album's tracks in January, 1986. In February, 1986, Euphoria Highway was recorded for the album, but was later rejected. In late February, the first configuration of the album was compiled, but the tracklist of this configuration is unknown. Violet Blue was later recorded, in October, 1986. Prince then worked on overdubs and mixing in November, 1986, with an album sequence compiled on 12 November, 1986, and no further work is known to have been done on the album, indicating that this configuration may have been the final, released, version of the album.

BIO (WIKI)

Jill Jones (born July 11, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter, who performed as a backing vocalist for Teena Marie and Prince in the 1980s. Jones was born in Ohio on July 11, 1962. Her mother, a fashion model, is of African American and Native American heritage, and her father, a jazz drummer, is Italian. Jones was raised mostly by her grandparents, until relocating to Los Angeles when her mother remarried. She began a singing career at age fifteen as a backup vocalist for her cousin Teena Marie, whom her mother managed. Today, Jones is a passionate supporter of liberal causes. She maintains her own fan pages on Myspace and Facebook. Highlights from her early career include various collaborative works with Prince in the 1980s-1990s, including a collaborative debut released under her own name. Jones' solo career since 2001 has witnessed the release of three acoustic and dance albums, with 2009's "Living for the Weekend" being her most recent album. Jones met Prince in 1980 at age 18, when Teena Marie was the opening act during his Dirty Mind tour. Prince loved her voice, encouraged her to sing, and stayed in touch with Jones. She became a backup vocalist for Prince when he invited her to the Sunset Sound recording studios in 1982, to sing backing vocals for several tracks on the album 1999. She was credited under just her initials J.J. She also was featured in music videos for the songs "1999" and "Little Red Corvette", as well as in an unreleased video for "Automatic", and then joined the tour for 1999 to sing backing vocals with the Prince side-project Vanity 6. After the tour, she moved to Minneapolis and became Prince's on-and-off again girlfriend. She had a bit part as a waitress in the film Purple Rain (1984), and had a more-than-cameo appearance in the sequel Graffiti Bridge (1990), where she takes off an undergarment to end a conflicting scene with Prince. Her debut album was the self-titled Jill Jones (1987), released on Prince's Paisley Park Records. Prince was credited as a co-writer with Jones, but wrote all of the songs himself. Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from critics, but was not a commercial success. As of 2007, the album has been out of print for many years. Several demos were recorded for a second album on Paisley Park, and a video was filmed for the track "Boom Boom", but an album never surfaced. In 1993, she released the dance single "Bald" on Flying Records. Jones also did backing vocals for Apollonia 6 and recorded the Prince-written single "G-Spot". She also sang lead vocals on Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto's single "You Do Me" from his 1990 album Beauty, and contributed a version of Blondie's "Call Me" to a Giorgio Moroder tribute album. In addition, Jones wrote and co-produced the song "The Great Pretender" for Lisa Lisa. She was also lead vocalist for the band Baby Mother, who recorded an album in 1995 for London Records, which remains unreleased. In 1996, she toured performing co-lead vocals as part of Chic with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards before his death, and can be heard on the 1999 Chic release "Live At The Budokan". The Prince song "She's Always In My Hair", a B-side to the single "Raspberry Beret" (1985), was written about Jones. Though Prince aided in the production of her first album, there was no input from Prince on the second one, which was more pop-rock oriented. From 2001 to the present, Jones has proven to be just as comfortable with performing acoustic rock as she is with producing edgy and modern dance tracks. She is also featured in the unreleased Vanity 6 song "Vibrator". In this song, she does a skit in a department store where Vanity goes to get batteries for her vibrator. Prince is also in the skit. With the help of former Paisley Park photographer and close friend David Honl, Jones released a second album entitled Two in 2001, with instrumentalist Chris Bruce. Jones performed lead vocals in 2004's album "The Grand Royals Ft. Jill Jones - Wasted". In 2008, Jill Jones surprised audience members during a performance in New York by Jeremy Gloff, by coming up on stage to sing along with Jeremy's cover of her song "So Much in Love". On April 28, 2009, Jones released "Living for the Weekend" on the "Peace Bisquit" label. Although "Wasted" and "Two" are out of print, both albums can be found on the iTunes Store, along with "Living for the Weekend".

Too Slim & The Taildraggers

Too Slim & The Taildraggers - Swingin' In The Underworld - 1988 - Burnside Records

Tim "Too Slim" Langford (Too Slim & the Taildraggers) has been a well known musician in the Pacific NW music scene for almost 30 years. Originally from Spokane, Washington, he now lives in Seattle. He constantly tours all over the U.S. and occasionaly tours Ireland, The U.K. and the rest of Europe. This band is rooted in the blues, but they play many styles of music including rockabilly, Chicago blues/R&B, New Orleans inflected rhythms, and country rock. Too Slim learned jazz guitar in High school. One of his teachers was the conductor of the Spokane Jazz Orchestra. A great fan of Robert Cray and SRV, Too slim has said that "I have many other blues guitar influences such as BB King, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Lightning Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, and Robert Johnson. My rock guitar influences are Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Neil Young and John Fogerty. My jazz influences are Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Mike Stern and Charlie Christian". "Swingin' In The Underworld" is a really good album by a very underrated musician. Buy the band's "Wanted Live" album and promote this guy

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Swingin' in the Underworld - Tim Langford 4:20
2 Stood Up - Tim Langford 3:45
3 The Obie Man - Tim Langford 3:42
4 Trouble at Midnight - Graham, Tim Langford 4:58
5 She Blows My Socks Off - Tom "The Stomp" Brimm 2:45
6 Dat's Right - Tim Langford 3:47
7 Long Tailed Black Cat - Tim Langford 5:43
8 Quiet Whiskey - W.Harris 2:46
9 Ain't No Stoppin' - Tom "The Stomp" Brimm 2:32

MUSICIANS

Tim "Too Slim" Langford - Guitars, Vocals
Tom "The Stomp" Brimm - Bass
Alan "Fingers" McGill - Piano
Carmen "Monoxide" Conti - Drums
Greg "Soul Train" Pendelton - Horn Arrangements

BIO

Too Slim & the Taildraggers are a hit on several continents, but at home in the Washington state city of Spokane, they're a little like the Rodney Dangerfield of blues bands. Despite the band's release of more than half-a-dozen CDs, and numerous national and international tours, many citizens, when first meeting the band's frontman and leader, Spokane native Tim "Too Slim" Langford, scratch their heads in non-recognition and ask what his profession is. Upon finding out that he's a blues musician, the next question is usually an inquiry concerning where the band performs. The situation is a far cry from what the band experienced on a trip to Belgium, where everyone they met requested an autograph and owned their CDs. All in all, it sure isn't anything at all like the recognition received by many other musicians in their hometowns, like Bruce Springsteen in his home base of Asbury Park. There, everyone knows that "The Boss" goes to the Stone Pony. If all this wasn't enough to make Langford and the Taildraggers feel like they get no respect, the next anecdote might be. One night in a parking lot, as Langford was leaving a gig in the city, a stranger pressed something into his neck from behind, something that felt suspiciously like a gun. His assailant, a woman, told him to fork over that night's pay, adding injury to insult. Still, for all of the drawbacks, Langford and his band intend to remain in Spokane between tours that take them to Norway, Belgium, and throughout Europe. Because their hometown is also home to an incredible number of extremely talented musicians, it's where Langford intends to base the Taildraggers for a long time to come. Times haven't been all bad in Spokane for Too Slim & the Taildraggers, to be sure. The fan base they have built up since the band's formation in 1986 is a loyal and strong one. The band has had the opportunity to perform with a long list of heavyweight artists that includes Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, and Robert Cray (the latter has long been a major influence on Langford and the band). Other main influences include Elmore James and Duane Allman. The Cascade Blues Association named Too Slim & the Taildraggers Best Regional Band for five consecutive years, beginning in 1995. The Inland Empire Blues Society dubbed them Best Blues Band for four straight years, from 1995 through 1998. The same blues society honored the CD Blues for EB as Best Album in 1998, and gave the same honor to the CD Swamp Opera two years earlier. For three consecutive years beginning in 1995, the society also named the band's guitarist the best of his kind and placed him in the Hall of Fame, as it did for the band's drummer in 1996, 1997, and 1998. The Taildraggers' bass player was also honored as Best Bassist in 1995. The Washington Blues Society conferred awards, too: one in 1996 for Best Blues Song, and another three years earlier for Best Songwriter. © Linda Seida, © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/too-slim-the-taildraggers-p27092/biography

Billy Preston

Billy Preston - The Best Of Billy Preston - 1982 - A&M

The singer/songwriter/producer/keyboardist extraordinare's greatest-hits set includes the number one pop singles "Will It Go Round in Circles'" and "Nothing From Nothing," as well as the number one R&B hits "Outa-Space" and "Space Race"; all were million sellers. The gentle ballad "You Are So Beautiful" was adapted into a gospel song. The included version of the gospel-ish bluesy ballad "I'm Really Gonna Miss You" is the single version and a different take than the one originally issued on Whole New Thing. A great showcase for Preston's massive talent. © Ed Hogan, allmusic.com

The late Texan Soul musician began playing piano at the age of three. He collaborated with some of the greatest artists in the music industry, including Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones and of course, The Beatles. The late jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis titled a song "Billy Preston" in honour of the great man.. This album is a brilliant selection of funky rock/blues/jazz/R&B from the late keyboards master. Sound quality is average, but this CD taken from the 1982 A&M release, and released in 1988 on CD without any enhancements, is a far cry from todays's technology, and this album is worthy of remixing/remastering, etc. The great George Martin should be let loose with the master tapes, and see what he could do! And pigs might fly! He did produce "Get Back" on this 1988 album, and Billy Preston produced the other nine tracks. Try and find Billy Preston's 1970 little known "Encouraging Words" album. It's a masterpiece of Blues/Jazz Rock, released on the Beatle's Apple label. It contains covers of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and "All Things (Must) Pass", and also a great cover of Lennon, & McCartney's "Iv'e Got A Feeling".

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

SIDE 1

1. Outa-Space (Billy Preston-Joe Greene)
2. Will it go round in circles (Billy Preston-Bruce Fisher)
3. That's the way God planned it(live) (Billy Preston)
4. Struttin' (Billy Preston-George Johnson)
5. You are so beautiful (Billy Preston-Bruce Fisher)

SIDE 2

6. Nothing from nothing (Billy Preston-Bruce Fisher)
7. Get back (Lennon/McCartney)
8. I'm really gonna miss you (Billy Preston)
9. Space race (Billy Preston)
10. I wrote a simple song (Billy Preston-Joe Greene)

Line-up: MT (gtr)/Billy Preston (voc, keyb)/Huby Heard (keyb)/Kenny Lupper (keyb)/Manuel Kellough (dr)

N.B: A Canadian LP release of this album included the tracks, "God Loves You", and "Fancy Lady", and excluded the tracks "That's the way God planned it(live)", and " I'm really gonna miss you".

SHORT BIO

It's advantageous to get an early start on your chosen career, but Billy Preston took the concept to extremes. By age ten he was playing keyboards with gospel diva Mahalia Jackson, and two years later, in 1958, he was featured in Hollywood's film bio of W.C. Handy, St. Louis Blues, as young Handy himself. Preston was a prodigy on organ and piano, recording during the early '60s for Vee-Jay and touring with Little Richard. He was a loose-limbed regular on the mid-'60s ABC TV series Shindig, proving his talent as both vocalist and pianist, and he built an enviable reputation as a session musician, even backing the Beatles on their Let It Be album. That impressive Beatles connection led to Preston's big break as a solo artist with his own Apple album, but it was his early-'70s soul smashes "Outa-Space" and the high-flying vocal "Will It Go Round in Circles" for A&M that put Preston on the permanent musical map. Sporting a humongous Afro and an omnipresent gap-toothed grin, Preston showed that his enduring gospel roots were never far removed from his joyous approach. He continued to perform and record throughout the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, until he fell into a coma caused by pericarditis late in 2005; sadly, he never regained consciousness and passed away on June 6, 2006. © Bill Dahl, allmusic.com



BIO (Wikipedia)

William Everett "Billy" Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American soul musician from Houston, Texas, raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. In addition to his successful, Grammy-winning career as a solo artist, Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Eric Burdon, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Mick Jagger, Richie Sambora, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. He played the Fender Rhodes electric piano and the Hammond organ on the Get Back sessions in 1969. Preston along with Tony Sheridan are the only two non-Beatles to receive billing as an artist alongside the Beatles (as distinct from receiving credit as a session musician on album packaging) on an official Beatles record release. The label of the Get Back single credits the artists on the record as "The Beatles with Billy Preston". Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother's lap at age three, and he was considered something of a prodigy on piano and organ. By the age of 10 he was performing in the bands of gospel singers Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland. At age 12 he appeared in the 1958 Paramount Pictures film St. Louis Blues, portraying blues composer W.C. Handy as a young man. In the 1960s he performed with Little Richard and Ray Charles. He also began a recording career as a solo artist with the 1965 album The Most Exciting Organ Ever. He was also a regular on the mid-1960s ABC-TV musical variety series Shindig! as a member of the show's house band. Preston is one of several people sometimes referred to by outsiders as "the Fifth Beatle" — though he was never described as such by any of the four Beatles. Preston first met the Beatles in 1962 as part of Little Richard's touring band when their manager Brian Epstein organized a Liverpool show, for which the Beatles opened. The Washington Post explained their subsequent meeting: - "They'd hook up again in 1969, when The Beatles were about to break up while recording the last album they released, Let It Be (they would later record Abbey Road, which was released prior to Let It Be). George Harrison, always Preston's best Beatles buddy, had quit and walked out of the studio and gone to a Ray Charles concert in London, where Preston was playing organ. Harrison brought Preston back to the studio, where his keen musicianship and gregarious personality temporarily calmed the tension." Preston played with the Beatles for several of the Get Back sessions, some of the material from which would later be culled to make the film Let it Be and its companion album, during which he joined the band for its rooftop concert, its final public appearance. "Get Back", one of the album's singles, was credited to "the Beatles with Billy Preston", the only time such a joint credit had been given on an official Beatles-sanctioned release (as distinct from an unsanctioned reissue of some Hamburg-era recordings on which they were the backing group for Tony Sheridan). The credit was bestowed by the Beatles to reflect the extent of Preston's presence on the track; his electric piano is prominent throughout and he plays an extended solo. Preston also worked (in a more limited role) on the Abbey Road album, contributing to the track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Something". Years later, he appeared as Sgt. Pepper in Robert Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a film very loosely based on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Signed to the Beatles' Apple label, in 1969, Preston released the album That's the Way God Planned It and a single of the same name (produced by George Harrison). His relationship with Harrison continued after the breakup of The Beatles; he was the first artist to record "My Sweet Lord", in his album Encouraging Words (Harrison's own version of the single hit number one in the U.S. and the UK and was the first number one by a former Beatle after they disbanded) and he was on several of Harrison's 1970s solo albums. Preston also made notable contributions to The Concert for Bangladesh, the Harrison-organized charity concert, toured with Harrison on his 1974 tour of North America and, after Harrison's death, The Concert for George. Preston also worked on solo recordings by two other ex-Beatles, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. His solo career also peaked at this time, beginning with 1972's "Outa-Space", an instrumental track that further popularized the sound of the clavinet in funk music. The song reached #2 on the U.S. Hot 100, #1 on the R&B chart, and won the Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Over the next two years, he followed up with the #1 hits "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing", and the #4 hit "Space Race". American Bandstand host and executive producer Dick Clark enjoyed "Space Race" to the extent that he used the instrumental for the mid-show break for virtually the remainder of its run. After the Beatles, Preston played keyboards for the Rolling Stones, alongside pianist Nicky Hopkins. Preston appears on the Stones' albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock'n Roll and Black and Blue. He toured as a support act on their 1973 European Tour and recorded his live album Live European Tour 1973 in Munich with Mick Taylor on guitar. In 1974 he composed one of Joe Cocker's biggest hits, "You Are So Beautiful". On October 11, 1975, he was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live's series premiere episode (along with Janis Ian). Also in that year, and in 1976, he again toured with the Stones. This time he played two of his own songs, backed by the Stones, in the middle of every concert. Preston's 1973 "Do You Love Me" was the basis for the Stones' "Melody" on their 1976 Black and Blue album. The Stones and Preston parted company in 1977, mainly due to a row over money. He continued to play on solo records by Stones members and made appearances again on the Stones' 1981 Tattoo You and 1997 Bridges to Babylon albums. He had a hit single in 1980 with Syreeta Wright with the ballad "With You I'm Born Again" that reached number four on the charts. A few years later, however, he was arrested and convicted for insurance fraud after setting fire to his own house in Los Angeles, and he was treated for alcohol and cocaine addictions. In 1991, Preston was arrested in Los Angeles after physically attacking a teenage transvestite prostitute after he discovered the prostitute's real age and sex. After going over a drug test, he tested positive for cocaine. That year, he entered no-contest pleas to the cocaine and assault charges. He was sentenced to nine months at a drug rehabilitation center and three months of house arrest. Preston overcame his problems in the early 1990s, toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded with a wide range of artists. He also toured with Ringo Starr and appeared on the 1990 live album Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. He was also invited to become a member of The Band in 1991, after the death of their piano player, Stan Szelest. He completed a tour, but his above-mentioned legal problems put an end to the collaboration before they had a chance to record together in the studio. While touring and fighting his own health problems, Preston received the news that on 29 November 2001, his longtime bandmate, friend and guitarist of the 1960s, George Harrison had died after a long battle with throat cancer. Preston, among many of Harrison's longtime friends, performed in the 2002 Concert for George in London, England, to play a tribute song. Preston participated in the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and his performance of "My Sweet Lord" has received critical acclaim. Preston played the Hammond Organ for the show and sang "Isn't It A Pity" and "My Sweet Lord" plus backing vocals to most of the songs. Ringo Starr called him one of the greatest Hammond players of all time (in the theatrical version of the concert). In 2002 he appeared on the Johnny Cash album American IV: The Man Comes Around, playing piano on "Personal Jesus". He toured with The Funk Brothers and Stevie Winwood in Europe in early 2004 and then with his friend Eric Clapton in Europe and North America. It has been claimed that his big contribution to the Beatles' sound was made clear with the release of the Let It Be... Naked album. In 2005 he recorded "Go Where No One's Gone Before", the main title song for the anime series L/R: Licensed by Royalty. Preston played clavinet on the song "Warlocks" for the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium released in 2006. Although very ill by this point, he jumped out of his bed after hearing a tape of the song given to him by the band, recorded his part, and went back to bed. Preston's final contributions were the gospel-tinged organ on the Neil Diamond album 12 Songs, and his keyboard work on The Road to Escondido by Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale. In March 2005, Preston appeared on the American Idol's fourth season finale. Playing piano, he performed "With You I'm Born Again" with Vonzell Solomon, who finished in third place. Preston made his last public appearance in late 2005 at the Los Angeles press junket for the re-release of the Concert for Bangladesh movie. He was in good spirits and talked to many in the press. Afterwards he played a three song set of "Give Me Love", "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It a Pity", featuring Dhani Harrison on guitar and Ringo Starr on drums for the final song only. There still remains an unreleased CD of Beatles covers that he had been working on for several years before his death. Many tracks from this CD were previewed by him at The Fest For Beatles Fans shows in the years before his death. Preston had battled kidney disease in his later years, brought on by his hypertension. He received a kidney transplant in 2002, but his health continued to deteriorate. He died on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications. He had voluntarily entered a drug rehabilitation clinic in Malibu, Calif., and suffered pericarditis there, leading to respiratory failure that left him in a coma since November 21, 2005. His funeral was held on June 20 at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California. Preston was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

Dr. John

Dr. John - Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack - 1982 - Demon Records UK

Dr. John was always respected as a consummate pianist, but he didn't make a solo, unaccompanied piano record until 1981's Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack. The wait was well worth it. His music had always been impressive, but this is the first time that his playing had been put on full display, and it reveals that there's even more depth and intricacies to his style than previously expected. More importantly, the music simply sounds good and gritty, as he turns out a set of New Orleans R&B (comprised of both originals and classics) that is funky, swampy and real. © Thom Owens, All Music Guide

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

Side 1
Dorothy - Dr. John, Mac Rebennack
Mac's Boogie Woogie - Dr. John, Mac Rebennack
Memories of Professor Longhair - Roy Byrd
The Nearness of You - Hoagy Carmichael, Ned Washington
Delicado - Jack Lawrence, Waldir Azevedo
Side 2
Honey Dripper - Joe Liggins
Big Mac - Dr. John, Mac Rebennack
New Island Midnight - Mac Rebennack
Saints - Mac Rebennack
Pinetop - Stuart Saunders Smith

CREDITS

Dr. John (Keyboards), Vocals),
Victor Giordano (Engineer),
Bernie Grundman (Mastering),
Matt Walters (Mastering Supervisor),
Mac Rebennack (Piano),
Mac Rebennack (Vocals),
Jack Heyrman (Producer),
Eddie Levine (Producer),
Dean Roumanis (Engineer),
Nancy Jean Anderson (Adaptation),
Ed Levine (Producer),
Michael Tearson (Liner Notes)