My God And I

Compilation album: Recorded Live At Newport In New York, Buddah BDS5616, 1974 (1973).
Album: Renaissance, Crossover 9005, June 1975.

This is one of the rare cases where a live rendition sooner found its way to vinyl than the studio version. Ray's delivery in the studio was excellent, but the live version is superior.

This beautiful song was recorded twice on July 1st, 1973 at Carnegie Hall, during Ray's double concert for the Newport Jazz festival. The version taped at the first show made it to the Buddah album (which, erroneously, had Just A Man as the song's title).

The tune remained uncredited on this elpee and on the Renaissance album. Ray probably knew the song through Odetta Holmes' recording. The writer, John Buck Wilkin, informed me (see comment, below): "I wrote this in 1968 and Odetta did it in 1973 [sic; should be 1970]. [...] I think Ray got it from Odetta and assumed it was an old folk song. This is the first I knew of a live version."

The Carnegie line-up is a bit sketchy:
Phil Guilbeau, Walter Miller, Tony Horowitz, [unknown] Tom Rheem* - trumpets; Ken Tussing, Craig Woods, Don Switzer, Glenn Childress, Fred Murrell - trombones; Gregg Abate, James Clay, Leroy Cooper, [unknown], [unknown] - saxophones; John Henderson - keyboards; Calvin Keys Harvey Sarch - guitar; Edgar Willis - bass; Bill McCullough - drums.

* Information kindly provided by Harvey Sarch.

Carnegie 1973:


The recording for the Renaissance album was in late 1974 or early 1975 at RPM International in Los Angeles.

Studio line-up:
Jeff Conrad, Bob Coassin, Phil Guilbeau, Jack Evans - trumpets; Wally Huff, Ken Tussing, Glen Childress, Steve Davis - trombones; Andy Ennis, Clifford Solomon, Ed Pratt, James Clay, Leroy Cooper - saxophones, band leader; Joe Harris - bass; Tony Matthews - guitar; Ernest Vantrease - keyboards. James Gadson - drums.

Studio version: