Kenneth "Jethro" Burns

"There's just something special about a mandolin and a guitar," Jethro Burns used to say. And so there is -- especially when Jethro, the late master of swing, is playing the mandolin. Swing Low, Sweet Mandolin, the last recordings of the great Jethro Burns, is the legacy of a string jazz legend. With the help of his good friend Don Stiernberg, a propulsive rhythm guitarist, Jethro goes through a rich repertoire of standards, some familiar ("Body and Soul," "Fly Me To The Moon," "Solitude") and others more obscure ("Estrelita," "Fiddleobia," "You'll Never Be the Same"). The resulting compilation is everything Jethro was - soulful, entertaining, witty, and wonderful.

For most of his 50-year career, he was best known for the work he did with the musical comedy team Homer and Jethro, a partnership that yielded 35 albums, a Grammy, and regular appearances on national TV and radio. But he also had a profound impact on mandolin players who studied his sophisticated harmonies and his groundbreaking chord melody arrangements for solo mandolin. In 1987, just after he learned he had cancer, Jethro set out to document a lifetime of his favorite music. Over the course of four informal sessions in the basement of his home, Jethro and Don recorded nearly 50 tunes. This first volume of Jethro's last sessions is part of the Acoustic Disc Archive Series featuring rare recordings of artistic and historical merit.