Dublin-based Livia Records reissues Irish guitar master Louis Stewart’s all-star 1977 recording, I Thought About You on 29th May.
Long deleted and much sought after in its original vinyl form, I Thought About You features Stewart with the American rhythm section of bassist Sam Jones and drummer Billy Higgins and leading European pianist John Taylor. It was recorded when Stewart was working with the house band at Ronnie Scott’s in London and Jones and Higgins appeared at the club with pianist Cedar Walton.
Excited by Jones and Higgins’ mutual understanding and flowing rhythmical teamwork, Stewart invited them to record in a quartet with Taylor, who was his bandmate in Ronnie Scott’s quintet at the time.
Jones and Higgins brought massive experience to the session. Jones had already worked with jazz luminaries including saxophonists Cannonball Adderley, trumpeters Dizzy Gilliespie, Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Dorham and pianists Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson. And having emerged on free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman’s first recordings, Higgins had gone on to feature as a house drummer at the legendary Blue Note Records, appearing on albums with guitarist Grant Green, pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Joe Henderson. In an extensive recording career, Higgins also recorded with Pat Metheny, Pat Martino and John Scofield.
“I Thought About You is considered by many of Louis Stewart’s admirers as his best studio recording,” says Livia Records’ Dermot Rogers, who has overseen a programme of Stewart reissues and previously unreleased albums, including The Dublin Concert guitar summit with Jim Hall, since reactivating the label in 2021. “It’s certainly a classy session and has an undoubted wow factor in terms of musicianship.”
Originally released in 1980, and including tunes by Thelonious Monk and Chick Corea alongside Sam Jones’ Unit 7, the album has a history beyond the musicians’ star quality. It was recorded on two-inch tape, with the instruments given separate tracks. Stewart then took a ¼” copy of the tapes to Dublin, where he decided to record some alternate solos which were used with the first release of the album in 1980.
“The reasons for Louis re-recording those solos are unclear, and the hybrid version didn’t work well,” says Rogers. “Restoring the album, nearly 50 years after it was recorded, required digitisation of the original two-inch tapes, which had been in a lock-up for twenty years. The ¼” overdub tapes were also digitised but proved unsatisfactory. However, the whole process revealed alternate versions of Francy Boland and Jimmy Woode’s November Girl and Miles Davis’s All Blues which we were able to add to the remixed and remastered original recording to create the best version of the album for re-release.”
Rogers has plans to add further Louis Stewart albums to the Livia catalogue, which also features Acoustic Guitar Duets by Stewart and Martin Taylor, and has already released albums by contemporary Irish jazz musicians, saxophonist Michael Buckley and acoustic bass guitarist Ronan Guilfoyle this year.
“Louis Stewart died in 2016 and although he’s still very much revered as Ireland’s greatest jazz musician by those who heard him play, it’s important that his legacy is celebrated and his recordings remain available for new listeners to hear this great talent,” says Rogers. “I’m obviously a fan but to hear I Thought About You in its bright, shiny new form really reinforces what a wonderful guitarist Louis was and how at home he sounds in such topflight company.”
Adam Roberts
Radio Summerhall Arts 