On the relatively short list of truly great jazz / blues legends alive today, Jay McShann a.k.a. 'Hootie' is a name that is likely to be found at the top! Since the late thirties and forties, when Charlie Parker was just a sideman in his Kansas City big band, and his 1941 hit 'Confessin' The Blues' was at the top of the charts, McShann has been thrilling audiences with his own special blend of straight-ahead jazz and boogie woogie blues. This digital multi-track live recording at the 1997 Floating Jazz Festival was, by far, the best way to capture the energy and spontaneity that flow from Hootie so naturally. It also provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve history in the making, when three of the greatest saxophonists of all time Phil Woods, Flip Phillips, and David 'Fathead' Newman made special guest appearances, and the tape was rolling!