Eastlawn ELD #044
On a Sunday afternoon, December 17, 2023, I was enroute to the Cadieux Cafe on Detroit’s east side to hear the PD9 (aka Planet D Nonet) perform. Usually, I have recorded music playing in the van within five minutes of pulling out of the driveway, but that day, for some reason, I drove several minutes in silence. It wasn't long before I began innately hearing the melody to one of Joe Williams's recordings. WHERE did that come from? To this very day, I do not have an answer as to how or why it happened, but in that moment, I decided to ask RJ Spangler if the PD9 would want to collaborate with me on a Joe Williams project. After arriving at the venue, I noticed that he was very busy getting things ready to perform, plus there were a lot of people trying to get his attention to talk to him. So, I decided to wait until the following day to call him and present my idea. He returned my call after a very short time and said excitedly, "I just talked to the guys in the band, and they said "Yes, let's do it."
As far as the material was concerned, I told RJ that the selections would primarily focus on the life of Joe Williams AFTER his departure from the Count Basie Orchestra, with one exception--The Comeback. He asked me to pick 11 songs for this project (due to time constraints we only recorded 9). Then he contacted bassist/arranger Jeffry Cuny, and saxophonist/arranger Ryan Bills to transcribe the charts from the original recordings. On certain songs, I asked them to insert their musical personalities in order to "customize" them for the PD9 group personality. Special thanks to Jeffry and Ryan for adding their own personal "sunshine" to this material, and special thanks to RJ Spangler for immediately understanding the importance of this project. So far, we're the first and only ones in the metro Detroit area to pay tribute to the one and only Joseph Goreed (birth name), originally from Cordele, Georgia. But it was Chicago, Illinois that prepared him for the international acclaim he achieved.
Dr. Prof. Leonard King
November 12, 2024
