It's always a delight when undiscovered gems emerge from the vaults. This is doubly so, nay doubly doubly so, when it is the classic Brubeck Quartet in concert.
Recorded at Amsterdam's Concertgetbouw in November 1958 it captures the group at the first major pinnacle of their jazz journey preceding the worldwide acclaim of the best selling album Time Out (Take Five etc) and, maybe I'm out on a limb here, but this remains, for me, the pinnacle.
All four are at the top of their game and if Brubeck occasionally sounds a little clunky, at the same time, so did Monk! And Brubeck's chord voicings are as good as anyone's.
Desmond was perhaps the most lyrical alto player since the pre-bop days of Hodges and Carter. He didn't have the bite of Bird but he had the same feeling and such fluency.
Wright did the business. Brubeck had had a variety of bassists but, with Wright, he'd found the right (no pun intended) man for job.
In Joe Morello you had the drummer's drummer (big feature on Watusi Drums). I recall way back when I was playing in a club with a lovely drummer, Alan Ingham. It was a Saturday, he'd got married in the morning then, instead of going to the reception as one does after getting married, he went off to a Joe Morello drum clinic. He later got divorced.
As I said, Morello cast a spell over drummers. Maybe even more so than Buddy Rich. Morello was the drummer with the technique that was only just out of reach whereas with Buddy he was ten miles away and maybe you didn't want to go down that road anyway!
With the exception of Steve Race (and myself), back then the critics in the jazz mags were somewhat condescending towards Brubeck who would soon be laughing at them all the way to the bank.
This is a welcome addition to the Brubeck discography and one that comes out, in retrospect, as way above his more lauded albums. It reminds me of the night when the late Jim McDowell and myself travelled down by train from Newcastle to Leeds, which, in 1958, was akin to flying to Mars and back in a day.
It was worth it as this album proves. Lance.
Two Part Contention; Someday my Prince Will Come; These Foolish Things; One Moment Worth Years; For All we Know; Watusi Drums; The Wright Groove; The Duke; Take the A Train (incomplete)
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