Jazz (Ry Cooder album)

The Globe and Mail noted that "the record's worth, outside of the precise, calculated playing by a collection of jazz scholar-musicians, lies in the revelation of one or two little-known jazz figures, especially a Bahamian guitarist named Joseph Spence, whose up-tempo, syncopated treatment of religious hymns must have shocked the pious."^[4]

LP side A

1. "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) – 3:34
2. "Face to Face That I Shall Meet Him" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:16
3. "The Pearls / Tia Juana" (Jelly Roll Morton; adapted by Ry Cooder) – 4:18
4. "The Dream" (Jack the Bear, Jess Pickett) – 5:03
5. "Happy Meeting in Glory" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:13

LP side B

1. "In a Mist" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:05
2. "Flashes" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:17
3. "Davenport Blues" (Bix Beiderbecke) – 2:01
4. "Shine" (Cecil Mack, Ford Dabney) – 3:43
5. "Nobody" (Bert Williams) – 5:07
6. "We Shall Be Happy" (Traditional; adapted by Joseph Spence) – 3:13

The album has several songs featuring former members of famous vocal groups: Willie (Bill) Johnson (a founder of the 1934 group Golden Gate Quartet, Jubilaires, Jubilee Four), Clifford Givens (Southern Sons, Golden Gate Quartet, various Inkspots, Melody Masters), Pico Payne (Inkspots, Platters, Drifters, Melody Masters),^[6] Jimmy Adams (various Inkspots, Jubilaires, Jubilee Four.)