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Hampton Hawes - Sermon


danasgoodstuff

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danasgoodstuff,

I pretty much agree with your assessment.  I've enjoyed The Sermon, and it's interesting to hear the sacred works in a jazz context -- but it's never really bowled me over like some other HH recordings have. 

IIRC, The Sermon was the last recording Hawes made before he was sent to prison.  With a few exceptions, I like the music Hawes made after his incarceration best.

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Having bought his trio recordings as well as his All Night Sessions (yes I LIKE these! :D) and his FOUR LP plus the early Xanadu live dates all within a fairly short timeframe before, this one was a natural to pick up when I came across an early reissue not long afterwards. I like it a lot and pull it out every now and then for late-night listening. Not sure what the album would have to do to "boil someone over" but I found it quite refreshing how he transferred these tunes into an all-out jazz context and brought out their jazz essence without (apparently) becoming totally overwhelmed by the religious background of the tunes. It would have been a pity if he had handled them as a sort of instrumental Mahalia Jackson. Some might say he "jazzed up" these tunes but I feel he did it very fittingly.

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I'm not sure what "boiling over" means either -- unless you're talking about a pot on a stovetop!  :g

As for "bowling over," see definition 2 below:

bowl over

v.
1. To knock someone or something down to the ground: The kids ran down the hallway, bowling over everyone in theirway. A strong wind will bowl that billboard over.
2. To make a powerful impression on someone; astound someone: She bowled over everyone at the meeting with her amazing presentation. His new songs bowled me over, so I bought his new CD. You must go hear this poet—you will be bowled over!
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I KNOW this is what it means and what I meant (typo or not). :lol: I just don't quite know what it would TAKE for this album to elicit this "bowling-over" reaction (from you or anyone else). All this to say that I am quite happy with that album and the way it has been done. Maybe for me it left enough of an impression that he basically "swung" the tunes in his idiom instead of pumping them out on a (church) organ, for example (no doubt there would have been others who may have found it more approriate to reflect more closely on the religious origins of the "source material"). ^_^ 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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