Great find!
Walter J. Von Ahn | Jersey City | 01/14/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you have ever been stuck in traffic on the "helix" that circles around to the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel you may have noticed a handful of stately houses perched high on the cliffs of Weehawken overlooking the Hudson River. It is in one of these homes that Barry Harris lived with Baroness Pannonica, and Thelonious Monk. The baroness had moved there after all night jazz sessions got her evicted from the Hotel Bolivar in which she took refuge after being kicked out of the Hotel Stanhope when Charlie Parker was found dead in her suite. The lady knew jazz and jazzmen. Monk and Parker as well as Bud Powell influenced Barry Harris and you can hear it in this excellent album he recorded in Chicago in 1958.
I first discovered Barry Harris on Lee Morgan's 1963 album "The Sidewinder" but really fell in love with his playing on two fantastic Sonny Stitt albums "Constellation" and "Tune Up" [now combined on Jazz 32 `s " Endgame Brilliance" if you can find it] that were made in the early seventies. So I was delighted when I found out that "Burnin" an album this same Barry Harris trio recorded the next day, August 1st, 1958 with Sonny was added to " Breakin it up" in it's entirety as bonus tracks. I don't have the problem with the B3 that some jazz fans do but I prefer Stitt with a piano and other than Oscar Peterson I think Harris is Stitt's best fit.
The Barry Harris trio sides are great and I don't mean to give them short shrift but I am a big fan of Sonny's and didn't even know this album existed. One last thing, the sound quality on this is fantastic. Barry and Sonny sound like there in your living room and I'm not sure whom to credit but perhaps some future reviewer can flesh that out as I've already gone on too long.
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Track Listings (17) - Disc #1