 |  | An Oliver Nelson classic full of all stars |  |
What more can one say of this classic album except that it ranks next to "Kind of Blue" as one of those essentials you cannot do without. Every tune in this album is flawless with "Stolen Moments", perhaps the jazz standard like "So What", a staple in a jazz musician's repetoire. A recent bio on Bill Evans stated that he was miscast in this blues oriented album but one listen to "Teenie's Blues" and you can believe he's wrong. Though Evans himself has stated he is not strong in the blues, this track has tinges of Red Garland, an pianist that Evans replaced in Miles Davis' group and one could mistake Evans for perhaps Ahmad Jamal or Garland. Nevertheless Bill, like the others (Dolphy, Hubbard, Nelson, Chambers & Haynes) turns in a yeoman performance here particularly in his duet with Roy Haynes on "Cascades" with his harmonic leaps and twists. Make this one an essential!!
October 24, 2008| | | Nothing abstract about this truth! | |
One of the truly indelible timeless classics of jazz - just as brilliant today as on original release. Take a handful of the creme de la greatest talents of the '60's (or any previous or subsequent age), stir in one of the most gifted arranger-composers, and voila! Deserves to be named an Amazon Essential Recording. Check out Nelson's arrangements on the swingin' Sonny Rollins score to Lewis Gilbert's "Alfie" created about a half-decade later.
July 6, 2008This CD is regarded as Oliver Nelson's shining moment. I'm not an Oliver Nelson aficianando, but the couple of other Nelson CD's I've heard aren't as good. Oliver Nelson pulls together a top-notch group. Eric Dolphy steals the show, and Freddie Hubbard, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Roy Haynes are all A-players. George Barrows on baritone sax doesn't take any solos. "Stolen Moments" is a good blues-based song, and has been covered by other artists. Eric Dolphy is the most prominent solo voice on the CD. He takes to Nelson's songs and arrangements real well, and tweaks them with his . "Hoedown" is the Aaron Copland song, though Oliver Nelson takes the songwriting credit. "Cascades" has a theme made up off falling notes, and the band plays it like a round. Freddie Hubbard takes a good first solo. "Yearnin'" is another blues (five of the six songs are blues-based) but this has the bluesiest sound. "Butch and Butch" is an uptempo, catchy, song. "Teenie's Blues" sounds like a fairly standard jazz song of the era, it wouldn't be out of place on an Art Blakey or Horace Silver album.
"Stolen Moments" and "Cascades" are songs at a higher level than the typical early '60's jazz album. The rest is good, though not extraordinary.
May 20, 2008This CD belongs in any music collection. By far one of my favorite albums of this generation of jazz.
October 1, 2007This CD is packed with superlatives. Oliver Nelson's writing and arranging leads the pack. He gives the blues a serious workout with his songwriting. Each song starts and ends with an orchestrated statement of a theme. Each theme is catchy, quirky, and a bit reminiscent of funky TV show themes like Sanford & Son with the heavy sax representation. The songs each has their own mood, running the gamut from cheerful to somewhat dissonant. The group of all-stars plays like they pay together every day - absolutely solid, yet expressive group playing. After the introductory themes, everyone gets their turn to show their stuff. Although I am a big Bill Evans fan and I enjoy his effective foray into the blues here, I find myself looking forward to the horn solos even more when I listen to this CD. Multiple saxes, trumpet and flute provide plenty of voice variety and each player has their own compelling style. This CD made an instant Freddie Hubbard and Eric Dolphy fan out of me. If you are looking for a very listenable example of some of the finest players ever getting together when classic jazz was near its peak, you couldn't find a better place to start than this.
June 12, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
