Norris Turney Quartet/Big, Sweet N' Blue
TRACK LISTING:
1.BLUES FOR EDWARD (N.Turney)
2.HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY (J.Van Heusen & J.Burke)
3.BLUES IN B (N.Turney, L.Willis, W.Booker, J.Cobb)
4.CHECKERED HAT (N. Turney)
5.I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE (D.Fields, J.McHugh)
6.STREETS OF DREAMS (V.Young & S.Lewis)
7.IN A MELLOW TONE (E.K.Ellington)
8.BLOOD COUNT (W.Strayhorn)
9.I'VE NEVER BEEN IN LOVE BEFORE (F.Loesser)
10.COME SUNDAY (E.K.Ellington)
The Tracking Angle:
reviewed by Fred Kaplan
Mapleshade has garnered wide praise for its sonically pure recordings. Pierre Sprey records straight to two-track analogue with never more than a handful of mikes, minimal cable-lengths, no EQ, no echo plates, no mixing board. This disc stands as Sprey's most lifelike disc to date and that's saying a great deal.
Norris Turney, who took over Johnny Hodges' seat in the last Duke Ellington band, has as big and sweet and rich a sound on the alto sax as you're likely to hear and, from the first blaring note, Sprey captures it with jaw-dropping fidelity. The traps slam, the cymbals shimmer; the bass plucks, the wood resonates; the piano hammers and glows. You have to go back to some of those Ellington/Hodges LPS, the original six-eye Columbias, to get such a warm, detailed sound.
Check out the rest of the band: pianist Larry Willis, a Mapleshade staple, who tosses off chords as if they were bouquets; Walter Booker, who's played bass for Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan and Pharaoh Sanders, to name a few; and Jimmy Cobb, the drummer on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, At The Blackhawk and other gems. (You'll recognize the cymbal style.) They play standards, mainly from the Ellington book. Nothing adventurous but utterly authoritative. Music for that rainy day.
Fall 1995
Value: A+
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Hamiet Bluiett Sextet:
Young Warrior, Old Warrior
/Mapleshade Records
Hamiet Bluiett, bari sax
Jack Walrath, trumpet
Mark Shim, tenor sax
Larry Willis, piano
Keter Betts, bass
Jimmy Cobb, drums
TRACK LISTING:
1.BLUE 'N BOOGIE (J.B.Gillespie)
2.PRECIOUS MOMENTS FOR RIGHT NOW (H.Bluiett)
3.SIR PHYLLIS BLUES (H.Bluiett)
4.THINKING ABOUT IT (L.Willis)
5.JIMMY AND ME (Bluiett/Cobb)
6.BARI-ED TREASURE (J.Walrath)
7.HEAD START (K.Betts)
8.BLUES IN F AND G (K.Betts)
The Village Voice’s Gary Giddins picked this as one of his Best Jazz Discs of the Year. If you’re a fan of blues-steeped jazz with an unstoppable groove, you have to hear this CD. ('95)
Stereophile:
from QuarterNotes by Wes Phillips
Boy, does Young Warrior, Old Warrior sound live! Not in-your-face bright, just can't-ignore-it there. And these guys are having a rompin', stompin', honkin' good time. Me too. Rooted in space by Keter Betts' (remember him from the Charlie Byrd record on Analogue Productions?) Big, blooming bass and defined in time by Jimmy Cobb's trap-set, this disc sounds awesomely present. There's no sound in all of jazz like Hamiet Bluiett on bari sax - he can play everything, from honks and grunts to the most soulfully expressive ballad - and I've never heard it more perfectly captured than here. Irresistible.
December 1995
Sonic quality, Value: A/A- (Agreed w/above quote,slightly bright(on certain busy tracks with trumpet particularly);Value given in regards only to other Mapleshade offerings!);Also interesting to note, this upper mid-range brightness(trumpet) can be taken out here by my switching from the mid-range promenance of the k-701s to my DT-990s(known to have a slight recess to their mids, as the cymbals are recorded, oh so very nicely!
