07/16/2026
Another track from our album Under The Midnight Moon- “The Unknown Blues” (Clarence Williams & Freddie Johnson, 1923) one of the first major moguls in the world of Jazz, Louisiana born Clarence Williams was highly successful by the early 1920s as a composer, publisher, pianist & leader of recording sessions in New York City. His publishing company was perhaps the leading african-american owned music firm in the country at this time, and Williams was so prolific that many of his songs were merely copyrighted but never published or exploited for commercial recordings. Composed in 1923, The Unknown Blues falls into this category, and we greatly enjoyed the challenge of learning it and arranging it for our band from the loose, hand written score Williams deposited with the Library of Congress curtesy of our friend David Sager. For extra authenticity, Colin Hancock has performed his Cornet passages here using the actual mutes that Clarence Williams’ long time trumpet player Ed Allen owned and used in their original 1920s recording sessions!
This video was from snippets of us recording the song at BeSharp Studios in Astoria Queens with the amazing Slau Halatyn!
