1978 Bobby Jackson “Desiree Song” on Ninth Note Records

Here’s one of the trades I pulled off during The Great Wax Purge of 2025, finally landing the OG of this killer record. I’d previously posted my 2017 Japan RE on Superfly and mewled like a whiny stray about how I refused to pay the going rate after passing on the OG so many times, and would just have to be happy with the RE at this point. Well, isn’t it always just after you give up that the manna ironically drops from unironic heaven? In any case, I really love Jackson’s tone and willingness to veer sideways at the least excuse. This second of his two releases is more fusion-ish and melodic than his almost-proggy soul jazz debut. The man is straight out of the hard streets of Minneapolis, where he not only plucked bass in a variety of lineups, but was a club owner and Cafe Extra was a hopping spot that many big names dropped in to kill a few nights, in the first half of 1970 alone hosting McCoy Tyner Trio, Pharoah Sanders Quintet, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones Trio, Roland Kirk, and Joe Henderson.

​Word is some serious underworld action also transpired behind the scenes, and the joint had a notorious rep. I managed to track down a picture of the Cafe Extra and, no joke, it does look like an excellent place to get stabbed for no particular reason. And just the sort of spot I no doubt would have been a regular at, if things broke differently age-and-geography-wise, tight with the doorman and the ownership, my Wild Turkey neat already sweating on the bar napkin before I even grabbed a stool. The liners tell us that the sign above the door at the Extra said that the purpose of the Cafe was, “To create more respect for the jazz musician and to provide an atmosphere favorable to increased public acceptance of true jazz as a great American art form.” Hey, I’ll buy that for a dollar. Top action. Oh yea.