Elegy In Blue - In Dedication...
Benny Carter
Harry "Sweets" Edison, Cedar Walton, Mundell Lowe, Ray Brown, Jeff Hamilton
Nimbus, 2008
1 CD
Catalogue #: NI 2702
EAN: 0710357270222
UPC: 710357270222
You save: 20%
Personnel: Benny Carter (alto saxophone); Harry Edison (vocals, trumpet); Cedar Walton (piano); Mundell Lowe (guitar); Ray Brown (bass); Jeff Hamilton (drums).
Recorded at Group IV Studios, Los Angeles, California on May 18 & 19, 1994. Includes liner notes by Ed Berger.
"Prelude To A Kiss" won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. ELEGY IN BLUE was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance By An Individual Or Group and the title song was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition.
Personnel: Benny Carter (alto saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison (vocals, trumpet); Mundell Lowe (guitar); Cedar Walton (piano); Ray Brown (bass instrument); Jeff Hamilton (drums).
Impeccably recorded, gorgeously conceived and executed, this is the kind of jazz album they don't make any more. Except that Benny Carter has been making them for over 60 years, as one of the preeminent big band arrangers and alto saxophone stylists in the history of jazz. Reflecting as it does the urbane charm and commanding musicianship of Benny Carter, perhaps this Grammy-nominated recording should have been dubbed ELEGANCE IN BLUE.
ELEGY IN BLUE is comprised of reminisces for fallen comrades, but there is nothing but celebration and joy in this superb band's reflections, and they transcend narrow stylistic categories. ELEGY IN BLUE is the ripe, blossoming main stem of the jazz traditions as defined by honorees Ben Webster, Lee Morgan, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, Roy Eldrdidge, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Shavers...and Benny Carter himself.
Swing is the order of the day. The band backs into Johnny Hodges' bouncy blues line "Good Queen Bess" with the classic vamp from "Christopher Columbus"; bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Mundel Lowe, drummer Jeff Hamilton and pianist Cedar Walton lock into cruise control, and Carter and Harry "Seets" Edison enunciate a warbling harmonized line before breaking into pungent, sassy solo turns. Mr. Ellington's turquoise "Prelude To A Kiss" is taken at a lush, moaning tempo, as modernist Walton essays taut, lyrical lines over a Basie-like pulse, setting the table for Carter's tear-drop long tones and dancing lines. And among all the hot and cool highlights, Carter's title tune is a fitting climax, a gently testifying blues with modern melodic turns, Ellingtonian asides, and a vaudevillian turnaround.
Tracklist
Benny Carter
An altoist of astonishing longevity, Carter is playing in his 90s better than he did when he broke in with Earl Hines in the late '20s. Also an exceptional arranger, he wrote charts in the '30s and '40s for Ellington, Basie, Henderson, and many others, not to mention his own band. During the next few decades he became involved with film scoring, and, while eschewing performance, did the occasional record date. In recent years, he has resumed a touring schedule, deploying the familiar light, graceful style that nonetheless bristles with intelligence.
Harry "Sweets" Edison
Trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison is a master of understatement, an inimitable improvisor who places notes with surgical precision. He has likewise achieved remarkable artistic longevity due his continual willingness and ability to develop. A member of Count Basie's classic band from 1938-1950, he also had a long association with Frank Sinatra live and on record, and his '70s recordings with soul compatriot Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis produced works of endless blues invention.
