With jazz and blues music comes joy. We create solidarity through improvisation, call and response, co-signing, shuffle, swing, soulful sound, syncopation and polyrhythm. Drummer Walter Perkins told me, “It’s our job, Baby Sweets, to make people feel good,” and that’s what this album aims to do, make you feel good. Squeeze In Tight, the title track, is for helping us feel a greater connection with one another after long periods of separation; Blueswash is to wash off the dust of life; and Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotten and arranged by yours truly, helps us reconnect to a sense of home. Blues For My Sister, is inspired by the spark of my sister Ariana; and My Babe is us riffin’ on Willie Dixon who famously declared, “The blues is the roots, everything else is the fruits.” I couldn’t agree more. Listen to the Young Cats is about learning from musicians half my age; and Let His Love Take Me Higher, co-written with Evan Christopher, is for a time to talk with God. Climate Change is an absurd take on the utter seriousness of climate deterioration and our collective responsibility to do something about it; and Make Room came to me after reconnecting with my former student, the pop idol Charlie Puth. Parado Al Borde De Las Lagrimas was inspired by Ray Anderson who asked me to write a song “on the edge of tears;” and Heartbreak Hotel is another song like that, but more bluesy. Zaid’s Blues is for the wonderful alto saxophonist Zaid Nasser, whose Memphis soul permeates this album. Kudos to all my collaborators starting with producer Jeff Jones “The Jedi Master,” who’s gentle and expert hand guided us to give you all the good feeling and great sound on these tracks; bassist Elias Bailey, stalwart thumper and virtuosic soloist; drummer David F. Gibson, the rock of swing with celestial commentary; my former students, Clover St. Hubert, a voice of magical power; trumpeter Nicole Davis, a seeker of sounds beyond this world; my current students from Jazz Power Initiative’s Zah! Jr.–Gigi De Leon, Amelia Thomas, and Dylan Rodriguez show how jazz and blues will never leave us but we gotta do our part, stick together, and SQUEEZE IN TIGHT!

Eli Yamin, NYC 2025