Ernie Wilkins at His Basie Best
Tad Ulrich | Los Angeles, CA United States | 11/25/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
""The classic EVEREST Sessions from one of the greatest arrangers in jazz history." That sentence was taken from this latest cd re-issue from Empire Musicwerks/Signature Jazz. Truer words were never printed!
In 1959 and 1960 Ernie Wilkins created two of the finest swing/jazz oriented (with just a touch of Basie) big band sessions ever, "Here Comes the Swingin' Mr. Wilkins" and "The Big New Band of the 60's." Fresh Sound reissued these records on cd in the late 1980's and now Empire has released them again. But this time the remastering is far superior to anything issued thus far. Digitized in stereo, the music is sonically crystal clear. For some reason, though, the engineers chose to change the order of tunes on "Big New Band" from the original. No biggy, though, they're all still there.
This is a top quality reissue with complete photo replications of the album jackets, the lp label of one and liner notes (Nat Hentoff) of both original albums. The cd jacket is of the stiff paper variety similar to those issued by Impulse Records.
Musically, these sessions differ slightly from one another due to some changes in personnel. The first record has more of a Basie feel to it with Freddie Green (guitar), Eddie Jones (bass) and Jimmy Jones (piano) than the second. The second has a looser more jazz oriented bent on some of the selections, "Ernie's Blues, "Fresh Flute" and "A Swinging Serenade", due to the presence of Yusef Lateef (reeds), Walter Bishop (piano), Kenny Burrell (guitar) and Ron Carter (bass). No small measure of both album's success is the presence of drummer Charlie (now Charli) Persip, one of the finest in jazz history. He kicks and propels each tune with his own hip and tasteful style.
It's very difficult to name merely one favorite tune out of so many outstanding performances but I love the arrangement and performance of the old chestnut "I'll Get By" featuring a beautiful muted trumpet solo by Richard Williams and some fine piano by Bishop. And this is also a perfect example of how valuable a good drummer is to the success of a good performance.
I don't like handing out five star ratings willy nilly, but this compilation is just too good to merit otherwise. Ernie Wilkins rules and this cd will prove why. Pick this one up!!
"
Track Listings (24) - Disc #1