I attended what turned out to be a historic night of jazz at the Chatterbox Jazz Club on Mass Ave recently. The event, the Phil Ranelin Album Release Party, was organized by The Indiana Music History Project. It featured the Rob Dixon trio performing the music of the Indianapolis jazz composer and trombonist.

When I arrived at the club I was surprised to see Phil there! I had thought it was going to be an evening of Rob Dixon, who often plays in the Broad Ripple area, including the Jazz Kitchen at 54th and College Avenue and the Mousetrap at 56th and Keystone Avenue, honoring Phil's music. But Phil, now 84, played along with Rob's trio on every song, even singing during his famed "Vibes From The Tribe" song. Ranelin recently moved back to Indianapolis after a long career in jazz that was mostly in the Detroit area.

The Chatterbox was full that evening and everyone loved seeing Phil sit in with the Rob Dixon trio.

Phil told me his "new" album, The Found Tapes: Live in Los Angeles, took him decades to release. I asked him what that means. He said the cassettes have been in his closet since the 1980s and he would take them out from time to time but never thought they were good enough. He decided now that they are. The Found Tapes: Live in Los Angeles is a 4-CD or 4-LP set of those tapes.

After Phil left the Chatterbox around 9:30pm some people came in and were disappointed to have missed him. The woman had brought an old t-shirt from a 1981 Phil Ranelin show, presumably to autograph.

Your editor's recommendation: Listen to Phil's A Close Encounter of the Very Best Kind. It is one of my favorites. The title track, written by Phil, is a jazz classic.

While it may be tough to catch Phil playing, you can see Rob Dixon on Mondays at the Chatterbox and Tuesdays at the Mousetrap.

To preserve just a few seconds of this evening, I rewrote my publishing software to add the ability to include short videos. If you play the videos, please let me know if video is something that I should keep including in the Broad Ripple Gazette / Random Ripplings.