Search - Teddy Wilson :: Quadromania

ELEGANT PIANO BY A MASTER

David Keymer | Modesto CA | 10/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are a lot of quibbles I could put forth about this 4 CD set. The sound is sometimes less than optimal. Not all of the cuts are gems. But these are nothing more than quibbles. The truth is that Teddy Wilson was a great pianist as well a major influence on the development of swing music but it isn't that easy to find his music today. Even playing smarmy dance tunes a la 30s dance hall swing as he does on this collection more often than I could wish he would, he always played elegantly. At his best, more than elegantly --inventively! At his best, he created a fluent music that bridged the gap between earlier piano forms, with their insistent left hand beat, and the more fluent, floating music of Basie and post-swing masters like Bud Powell and Al Haig. These four CDs include sixteen cuts on which Wilson plays alone. On many of these cuts, the musical miniatures he fashions are listenable and musically intriguing. And the group cuts! Wilson brought the best musicians of the day into the studio with him: it's mind-blowing to list them! Frank Newton, Roy Eldridge (who is phenomenal on these cuts), Jonah Jones (who isn't at all bad on these cuts), Harry James (yuckh!), Cootie Williams, Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman, Charlie Shavers and Doc Cheatham on trumpet an Bobby Hackett on cornet; Benny Morton, on trombone; Johnny Hodges on alto sax; Chu Berry, Lester Young, Don Byas, Ben Webster and Vido Musso on tenor sax; Harry Carney and Benny Carter on alto sax, clarinet, and his usual baritone sax; Buster Bailey, Peewee Russell, Benny Goodman and Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet; Red Norvo on xylophone (in a quartet with Harry James); Freddie Green on guitar; Walter Page on bass; Jo Jones, Cozy Cole, Gene Krupa, Sid Catlett and J. C. Heard on drums; Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Helen Ward, Lena Horne, Maxine Sullivan and Sarah Vaughan as vocalists. There is an embarrassment of riches on this album that beggars the imagination."