Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown - Mose Allison

Baby, Please Don't Go

A Modern Jazz Premiere
Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown
Piano and Vocal Stylings
Mose Allison
Columbia STEREO CS 8240
1960

From the back cover: With this album, Columbia introduces to you one of the most exciting new jazz personalities, Mose Allison. Born in Tippo, Mississippi, Mose began playing the piano in grammar school, trumpet in high school, and from what I can gather, the singing and composing ends of it have been with him ever since he can remember. His early heroes were Nat "King" Cole and Louis Armstrong.

Like most of the younger generation of jazz musicians, Mose received a great deal of his training from digging jazz records. His college years were spent at the University of Mississippi and later at Louisiana State, where he received his B.A. Degree in English; the time in between the two schools was spent in the Army. In 1958, he was the runner-up in Down Beat's international Critic's Poll, new pianist category. During the past several years, he has been playing with such notables in the jazz field as Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and many other. Recently Mose was part of an all-star group on the Columbia album "Swinging Guys and Dolls" (CL 1426 / CS 8223).

Present personnel of the Mose Allison Trio includes Addison Farmer on bass and Jerry Segal on drums.

Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown

According to Mose, "Transfiguration of Hiram Brown Suite" is a serious-comic fantasy based on a perennial theme. Hiram Brown is the naive provincial who dreams of a life of opulence in the city. He goes there, is overwhelmed and disillusioned, longs for his youth, realizes that this too is an illusion, despairs, goes through a crisis and is "transfigured."

This is Mose's own interpretation.

He hopes that this Suite can be enjoyed from a variety of viewpoints and, most of all, that it swings.

Some of the material contained here was written many years ago, and some written especially for this album. (The opening theme, for instance, was written ten to fifteen years ago.) The Suite is a fusion of different elements. The first three parts are the country; the middle section the city; the last part, the denouement. There is no need here for a musical description of the tunes on side 2 since they are all standards and all of you who are above the milk-for-breakfast age will have heard these familiar tunes before. But here something new has been added; the vocal and piano spice of Mose Allison, one of the brightest new voices in jazz. – Notes by Two Macero

Transfiguration Of Hiram Brown Suite
• Barefoot-Dirt Road
• City Home
• Cuttin' Out
• Gotham Day
• Gotham Night
• Echo
• The River
• Finale

How Little We Know
Baby, Please Don't Go
Make Yourself Comfortable
'Deed I Do
Love For Sale