StLJN Audio Archive: Hamiet Bluiett - S.O.S.

This week's Audio Archive entry features S.O.S., a 1977 session from the great baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett. Recorded live at an NYC performance space called Axis, S.O.S teams Bluiett with a stellar rhythm section comprised of Don Pullen on piano, Fred Hopkins on bass and Famoudou Don Moye on percussion.

When originally issued as an LP on the India Navigation label, it featured a single track, "Sobre Una Nube (On a Cloud)" split between the two sides. That material was reissued along with five additional tracks in 1996 as a two-CD set, first in Japan using the original title, and later elsewhere, under the title Im/possible to Keep.

The track order on that 2-CD set (and on this downloadable version):

Disc 1
1. Oasis/The Well
2. Sobre Una Nube (On a Cloud)

Disc 2
1. Pretty Tune
2. Yusuf/Sankofa
3. Tune Up
4. R.B. (Dedicated to Ronnie Boykins)

Both of the CD reissues since have gone out of print, but fortunately, thanks to the music-sharing blog Pharoah's Dance, it's still available to hear and enjoy. To download a free copy of Hamiet Bluiet's S.O.S., go here, and scroll down to the third comment. There are four Rapdishare URLs there, each representing one of the four parts of the complete two-CD set compressed into a .zip file. From there, just copy, paste, download, unzip, and enjoy! (If you don't know how to use .zip files, this may be helpful.)

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we encourage you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise or, whenever possible, attending live performances.