When Cti became bankrupt, Creed Taylor saw himself forced to sell almost all (130) mastertapes to CBS (now Sony). The CBS folks sifted through the catalog and noticed a couple gems (and some other odd tapes) that were not released before and decided to launch the 9000 series, including this highlight.
It starts with "Malaguena" which (together with "All Blues" and "Django" also appeared as similar takes on the Jim Hall album (same recording session) below. Hubert Laws' flute is beautiful in this setting but he should've gotten more room (as opposed to the keyboard solo at the beginning which doesn't really fit well to the other instruments). Baker itself has just a minor role here.
"All Blues" is what the title suggests. This version is IMO far superior as it doesn't sound as "mixed" as the one on "Youkali" (this issue is maybe simply the "Youkali" recording without the overdubs). Very relaxed soli by Baker, Hall and Laws. Just beautiful.
"Django" mixes both slow and uptempo parts. Again beautiful soli by the major players (I wish Laws would've focused more on this style).
All in all a must have. Sadly just available as an expensive japanese import.
1 comment:
http://lix.in/-323f09
Post a Comment