Beef & Beer (and Wild Irish Rose) ... and Jazz.

In January 2008, I was in a wine & beer bar in Greenville, South Carolina, flogging the beers of my employer. A vintage record shop shared an entrance with the restaurant.

These days, I avoid such places; they do great damage to my wallet. But that day, finished with the sales call, I walked in. Fortunately for my wallet, my working schedule was nearly filled for the day, so my browsing was limited. I purchased only one CD.

That compact disc was The Main Ingredient, a jazz album that Washington, D.C.'s own Shirley Horn —the late great jazz vocalist and pianist. The session was recorded in 1996 in Ms. Horn's D.C. home...but the quality doesn't betray that. It's an exquisite session of intimate jazz chamber-music

Steve Williams and Charles Ables, on drums and bass, respectively, back up Ms. Horn on piano. They comprise her regular trio. But, then, there's the who's-who remainder of the lineup: a young Roy Hargrove on trumpet; bassist Steve Novosel and tenor saxman Buck Hill, Washington D.C. stalwarts; and drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, stars of the first order in the jazz firmament.

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But wait! There's more.

Printed on the back page of the liner notes is an astounding recipe for...Beef & Beer (and Wild Irish Rose).

Look at the ingredient list. Scroll down to the final two ingredients: a bottle of beer — Heineken — and a lot of wine — Wild Irish Rose.

In case you've forgotten your days of reaching for a quick, cheap buzz, the latter is a sweet fortified 'wine' of a mere 18% alcohol. The recipe calls for a full half pint of it! It suggests you "open a beer or drink & chill"; and, maybe to regain a healthy veneer, the recipe concludes with an underscored admonition: "Remember no salt."

Although the recipe looks like winter comfort food, I've never cooked it (and probably won't ^*). But, since that day in Greenville, I have replayed the disc many times.

Ms. Horn died in 2005. I am fortunate to have heard and seen her perform live on several occasions. Her music —quiet and sensitive yet insinuatingly powerful— is the main ingredient. It lives on.

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• The Main Ingredient was released only on compact disc. It is currently out-of-print (and was even so in 2008) but can be purchased via third-party re-sellers.
• More of YFGF's jazz musings: here. At YFGF's Flickr page: here.


• ^* Thursdays are #VeggieDag at YFGF (whether here, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter): occasional posts on an animal-free diet and ecological issues. None such today (beef!), but beer is present.
• Beef and Beer (and Wild Irish Rose) recipe: here.
• This post was originally subsumed in a piece about a failed Super Bowl party. Read that: here.


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