SWING LOW, SWEET MANDOLIN - DELUXE EDITION

Kenneth "Jethro" Burns

"There's just something special about a mandolin and a guitar," Jethro Burns used to say. And so there is — especially when Jethro, the late master of swing, is playing the mandolin. Swing Low, Sweet Mandolin is the legacy of a string jazz legend. With the help of his good friend and protege’, mandolinist Don Stiernberg, heard here on rhythm guitar, Jethro goes through a rich repertoire of standards, some familiar ("Body and Soul," "Fly Me To The Moon," "Solitude") and others more obscure ("Estrelita," "Fiddleobia," "You'll Never Be the Same"). The resulting compilation is everything Jethro was — soulful, entertaining, witty and wonderful.

For most of his 50-year career, he was best known for the his work with the musical comedy team, Homer and Jethro, a partnership that yielded 35 albums, a Grammy, and regular appearances on national TV and radio. But he also had a profound impact on mandolin players who studied his sophisticated harmonies and his groundbreaking chord melody arrangements for solo mandolin. In 1987, just after he was diagnosed with cancer, Jethro set out to document a lifetime of his favorite music. Over the course of four informal sessions in the basement of his home, Jethro and Don recorded 50 tunes. This first volume of Jethro's last sessions is a Deluxe Edition in the High-Definition (24 bit, 96 khz) format and includes four previously unissued alternate takes.

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