Search - Slim Gaillard :: Slim Gaillard Rides Again (Spec Packaging)

FINALLY!!!

Artie Fisk | New Paltz, NY, USA | 03/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's here!!! Finally, the least-hyped record in Slim's canon makes it to CD in a classy lp-style repackage. THIS IS THE RECORD with Slim's UNBELIEVABLE version of "How High the Moon," in which our hero abandons all pretense to the original lyrics by the 4th bar of the tune!



Slim's music is always swingin' and spot-on, and this record is no exception, but it's in the SINGING that this one takes the cake! Slim relies less on Vout (as the language that consists of suffixes like "o'rooney," "o'reenie-moe," "vounty," "vouty," and sundry others is known) here than he does on a whacked-out mind.



Slim's "How High The Moon" is a MASTERPIECE, and it does not seem outlandish to say that with few exceptions, very little of his previously-easily-available output can truly compare. His off-the-cuff lyrical improvisations are genuinely the product of a bent mind, especially on this tune, where Slim's surreal tour of the solar system predates Jimi Hendrix' "The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice" by 8 years!



Slim's vocal impression of Billy Eckstine on "Ghost of a Chance" is sublime.

Slim's imitation of the Basie piano style is evident on "Slim's Cee," as it is in the more readily available "Opera in Vout" on the Verve disc.



I had this on VINYL (if you can dig that) and have lamented for years it's unavailability on CD.

Now, I can die peacefully.



"To Slim Gaillard, the world was one big 'o'roonie.'"



--Jack Kerouac, On The Road"

Voutee-o-roonie-How High the Moon-Roonie mo!

Joseph Lewis | Eugene, OR United States | 04/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of Slim's best, and great to have it on CD, as I've almost worn out the last vinyl reissue on MCA. Terrific guitar playing, and yes, he even played Count Basie piano with the backs of his hands...and wrote songs in about eight languages. I'd recommend buying the "Opera in Vout" compilation, as well as all the live "Hep" material as well. I met him in 1989, and reminded him of one of my favorite records of his. "Oh yeah...Yep Roc Heresy o-roonie," he said..."