The Holy Grail
Phil (San Diego, CA) | San Diego, CA | 12/30/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"How distinctive are Ken Nordine's original Word Jazz recordings? You haven't heard anything like them. To call it "spoken word" borders on slander; there is nothing precious, pompous, pretentious, or mannered about Word Jazz. The original albums from 1957-1960 have become hard or impossible to find. For many years they were my personal holy grail.
If you're considering picking up a Ken Nordine anthology you're probably familiar with his recordings. For the uninitiated suffice it to say that this would be an excellent place to start. Much of Ken's best is included here. If you've already got the single disk Rhino compilation rest assured that this complete collection is well worth getting. A single CD couldn't contain all the best of Ken Nordine's Dot label recordings.
The packaging is well done and includes new liner notes from Laurie Anderson and Tom Waits in addition to the original liner notes and artwork from the LPs. The five tracks from the vaults are no throwaway filler. Unreleased til now, they hold their own with Ken's more interesting tracks from these years.
I always knew that if the house was ever burning down the one thing I would grab would be a favorite Nordine compilation. Earlier this year when the California fires threatened the need for evacuation, I took with me two items from my vast music collection. This collection was the first thing I grabbed."
The voice & the spirit, ever brilliant
William Timothy Lukeman | 10/02/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you love poetry, if you love jazz, if you love insightful ruminations at midnight, uttered in a voice of wry, sinuous, enfolding velvet -- then you must have these CDs! Never pretentious, always quirky & thoughtful, Ken Nordine welcomes you into a world just slightly askew from the everyday. And he does it with that wondrous voice, a twinkle-eyed trickster & shaman of the airwaves, making seemingly offhand observations about the life we too often take for granted, making us stop & think & wonder, "Hmmm, maybe it's time to take a different look at things." For the free spirit, for those taking furtive glances at the sky & secretly wanting to fly, this is irresistible & indispensable art!"