Search - Woody Herman :: Immortal Concerts

The Missing Legends Turn Up....Hear Here !!

C. Law | Las Vegas, NV USA | 10/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bill Chase,Sal Nistico,Nat Pierce...YES, it's the mid-sixties band that time and Phillips Records forgot!! Although we have to hunt through the catalog and info is sketchy, Amazon found this beauty and I'll never regret having "gambled" my $8.97 on it!! This was the band that debuted in 1963 and immediately grabbed the grammy for best big-band album: We get "Four Brothers," with Sal Nistico, Gary Klein, Andy McGhee and Tom Anastas soloing; Ron Myers replaces Phil Wilson in the bone section, with Don Doane and Henry Southall; Nat Pierce-piano, Tony Leonardi-bass, and Ronnie Zito-drums make up the rhythm section; and Woody's "stand-up firing squad" of a trumpet section was Bill Chase, Gerry Lamy, Don Rader, Bobby Shew and Dusko Goykovich!! (Hold onto anything you don't want BLOWN AWAY!!). We also get some of the best charts of this period, too. There are great Nat Pierce arrangements of Gene Roland's "Wailin' In The Woodshed," (which didn't seem to translate well to the liner notes), "Watermelon Man," "Satin Doll" and Oscar Peterson's "Hallelujah Time." Bill Chase contributes "23 Red" and "Somewhere," plus there's Horace Silver's "The Preacher," "Early Autumn" (with Gary Klein in the spot made famous by Stan Getz), "Northwest Passage" and "Caldonia" at nearly-unplayable tempos, and one of my favorite things: Dusko Goykovich's arrangement of Benny Golson's "I Remember Clifford," and his playing of it, is one of the great jazz solos of all time. Hey, the WHOLE ALBUM is great, whaddya' EXPECT?? Recorded live at Antibes, on the French Mediterranean, in July, 1965, this is a very well-recorded album and lets the band's REAL SOUND be heard. (LOTS of engineers tried to soften the brass section on Woody's recordings, with results all the way down to a record sounding like "solo 3rd tenor sax"). Happily, there's NONE of that here. ( Now, if Phillips could just find those missing masters...or get a clue what they're sitting on...). ENJOY THIS!! It's the HARDEST-SWINGING big band there ever WAS!!"