A Tour de Force of Jazz
Edward Abbott | Stuart, FL USA | 06/24/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"No doubt Sonny Lester had a stroke of genius here, that turned out to be a total tour de force. A page out of the Norman Granz fold by putting together great jazz artist in a quartet setting.
Here you have Zoot Sims on Sax, Bucky Pizzarelli on Guitar, Buddy Rich on Drums and Milt Hinton on Bass. All of these guys were able to park thier collective egos at the door, even the ever mercurial Buddy Rich, now that was a mighty task indeed.
I have had the vinyl version of this for many years and to see it digital format is long overdue. I only hope that the transfer to digital domain was done correctly. There are so many subtle nuances on this recording, that it will take someone special to do the transfer to CD.
The original vinyl edition was released in 1974 on the Groove Merchant Label started by Sonny Lester.
Tracks Are:
1. Summerset
2. Honysuckle Rose
3. A Summer Thing
4. Somebody Loves Me
5. Gee Baby,Ain't I Good To You
6. Nirvana
7. Indiana
8. Memories Of You
9. Come Rain or Come Shine
10. Up A Lazy River
11. Send In The Clowns
This great album is notable, because here on track "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good For You" You hear Zoot Sims sing the first chorus and is followed by Buddy Rich singing the second chorus. Now thats a first and rare outing. Each of the eleven tracks are solid winners, not a lame track anywhere on this album.
Make no mistake this is jazz quartet at its very best, and these over the top artist start wailing from the first track to the last. This is a mesmerizing session, with each player coming right in on cue, not stepping on each other, but each adding thier own distinctive signature to this session.
For some reason this is shown as a soundtrack, no it is not, not even close. This is jazz quartet by the best names in the business.
Without question this should be in anyones serious jazz library of merit. An absolute must have. Sessions such as captured here come along all to infreguently in the world of jazz as it is indeed difficult to get great egos to perform as a quartet.
If you don't have this, then get it, in fact get it now before it dissappears again."
