80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note, March 26, 2005

5-STARS Tenor saxophonist and flautist James Moody (*March 26, 1925) celebrated his 80th birthday at the legendary New York club Blue Note for a whole week with his quartet and numerous guests on March 26, 2005. Recorded for posterity, it was just released in time for his 100th birthday celebration during the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York in May of this year.

The evening was opened by renowned impresario George Wein, before the well-rehearsed quartet, consisting of David Hazeltine, Todd Coleman, and Adam Nussbaum, presented a rousing version of the standard "Benny's From Heaven" (aka "Pennies From Heaven"), in which James Moody also performed as a vocalist. Moody followed on the flute with "Cherokee" and his well-known number "Moody's Mood For Love," which was performed in a vocal version. After a short statement by Moody, three of the classic Dizzy Gillespie compositions ("Birk's Works," "Bebop," and "Ow") follow, with the quartet expanded by the magnificent, in-the-best-of-the-moment trumpeters Jon Faddis and Randy Brecker, trombonist Slide Hampton, clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, and pianist Cedar Walton.