Search - Ralph Moore :: Who It Is You Are

Philip S. from NORWICH, VT
Reviewed on 9/6/2006...

with Benny Green, Peter Washington, and Billy Higgins. Recorded in NYC, 1993.

I get more out of it with each listening.

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 02/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have learned a few things about listening to new recordings over the last thirty-five+ years that I have been buying music. If I listen to something when I first buy it and do not like it or don't feel like I get what the artist is up to, I always put it away for awhile and come back to it in a month or two. Fortunately, I did just that with this CD. I think I have heard probably hundreds of sax-piano-bass-drums quartets live or recorded over the years. When I first listened to this work by Moore et al. I thought it was a fairly typical example of that genre. Good musicians running thru their paces in a workman like manner. Nothing particularly exciting. I hear mo(o)re now. This music is still not particularly innovative. But Mr. Moore and his associates are playing their hearts and minds out in a very understated and tasteful way. Mr. Moore reminds me of someone like Clifford Jordan or perhaps George Coleman. His playing does not dazzle with pyrotechnics. But it is lovely, sometimes haunting and extremely musical. Benny Green is a perfect pianist for Moore, equally skilled and tasteful. Peter Washington is a solid bassist and, if you need to be told about Billy Higgins' qualities as a drummer, then you just haven't been listening to jazz much. Don't take that wrong- it is just that Mr. Higgins was one of the exemplars of what jazz drumming was capable of being. If you like tenor led quartets and are fond of players like Jordan, Coleman, Mobley, Newman, etc. than give Ralph Moore a listen. You will be glad you did."