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 NI 2717 Total Playing Time 60 minutes 35 seconds DDD Stereo |
Lionel HamptonMostly BluesLionel Hampton laid down these nine tracks, the products of two sessions in March and April 1988, with two quintets. Guitarist Joe Beck and pianist Booby Scott remained constant but there were changes in the bass and drums. Ted Macero was the producer for both sessions and he and his engineers ensured a fine aural ride. There are three Blues and six standards in the running order and there are plenty of opportunities for Hampton and Scott in particular to stretch out at leisure. Scott is an especially adept performer and his bluesy solo on the opening track bisects Hamp's own solos. Someday My Prince Will Come can still cause some problems for improvisers due to its metre - and here the band switches from 3/4 to 4/4 for the ride-out - which makes it even more interesting. Hampton shows us something of his range here, going from filigree intimacy to the relaxed but driving intensity of his blues chorus; relaxed intensity here not resulting in contradiction but zestful drama. Limehouse Blues gets a funky makeover with another good guitar and an even better piano solo. Gone with the Wind melodically speaking goes around the houses until the final statement of the tune, in a way that not even that master of the baroque tease, Erroll Garner, would have envisaged. As you'd probably expect Walkin' Uptown is one of those up-tempo finger-popping, twelve-bar evergreens. This is not to be written off as yet another latter-day Hampton session. The arrangements are buoyant, varied and sometimes unusual and the solos are often high class.Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb-International |
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| UPC: 710357271724, £ 10.75 plus postage and packingAll rights of the producer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorised copying, public performance and broadcasting of this recording prohibited. | ||