Ben Wolfe – Bass

Joe Cool’s Blues is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his father Ellis Marsalis that was released in 1995. The album consists of a series of songs inspired by the Peanuts comic strip and television specials. Half of the songs are cover versions of pieces by Vince Guaraldi, who composed for the Peanuts franchise from 1965 until his death in 1976; the remainder are original compositions by Wynton Marsalis. The attached tune is one of the Marsalis compositions.

The album actually features two separate bands, Wynton’s Sextet and Ellis’s Trio (with Reginald Veal on bass). The bass player on the Sextet tunes is Ben Wolfe (a transcription of Ben’s part for Duke Ellington’s ‘Play The Blues And Go’ from the Marsalis Sextet’s ‘Live At The Village Vanguard’ 7 CD box set, is also on this site). This tune is called ‘Wright Brother’s Rag’ and is based primarily around a New Orleans two-feel. Easy enough to read and play.