Duke Pearson - The Phantom

[Tom 1960]

I just finished listening to this on Spotify and thought what a real nice session. Bobby Hutcherson playing along with Duke Pearson really makes this for me. A latin tinge to this session. Fine date. What do you guys think? I realise this was included on the Mosaic select. Is this the best of that compilation?  Thoughts appreciated.

[jazzbo]

This is a great date and it's too bad it's so hard to find at the moment. I wouldn't call it the "best" of the Mosaic Select as I really like all the sessions on those discs, though all the others are better than the Christmas album, which is okay but Christmas music doesn't get a lot of play here.

Hutcherson makes the date special for me, and it's well-recorded. 

[HutchFan]

I love The Phantom. It's a vastly underrated BN session, IMO.

And, like jazzbo says, Hutcherson's contributions elevate the game even further.

I got it years ago when it was reissued on the Water label. After hearing it, I was very surprised that the record wasn't/isn't more well-known. Admittedly, it's not a straight-ahead BN date. But that's one of the things I like about it. It's a bit different. Got that whole Brazilian thing happening.

[felser]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

I love The Phantom. It's a vastly underrated BN session, IMO.

And, like jazzbo says, Hutcherson's contributions elevate the game even further.

I got it years ago when it was reissued on the Water label. After hearing it, I was very surprised that the record wasn't/isn't more well-known. Admittedly, it's not a straight-ahead BN date. But that's one of the things I like about it. It's a bit different. Got that whole Brazilian thing happening.

It was a Liberty-era recording, 1968, so may be somewhat overlooked/underrated because of that.   BN was pretty inconsistent during that era (and it just got worse under UA, though both of those eras produced some absolute treasures, unlike the past 35 years).

[JSngry]

I recall a buddy of mine ca. 1978 was selling a group of OG BNs at UNT (this was when the BN craze was just beginning), and he had a list up on the Lab Band bulletin board (the real kind, with cork and shit), he was asking, like 15 bucks for it, and somebody scribbled on the list - DO NOT BU THAT DUKE PEARSON RECORD. IT IS EASY LISTENING CRAP. And I was like, whoa, that's just wrong.

I like the record a pretty good amount of much, actually. I can see where The Scribbler might have had the impression they did, but only if he/she had no awareness of jazzmusic outside of the hermetically sealed confines of where they were at that time.

And therein laid that and many other problems, then and now.

[sidewinder]

That ‘Water’ CD reissue of this one was pretty good.

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I recall a buddy of mine ca. 1978 was selling a group of OG BNs at UNT (this was when the BN craze was just beginning), and he had a list up on the Lab Band bulletin board (the real kind, with cork and shit), he was asking, like 15 bucks for it, and somebody scribbled on the list - DO NOT BU THAT DUKE PEARSON RECORD. IT IS EASY LISTENING CRAP. And I was like, whoa, that's just wrong.

I like the record a pretty good amount of much, actually. I can see where The Scribbler might have had the impression they did, but only if he/she had no awareness of jazzmusic outside of the hermetically sealed confines of where they were at that time.

And therein laid that and many other problems, then and now.

Wow. That's an interesting story. Very telling.

I'd say that any person who calls The Phantom "easy listening crap" has an extremely narrow view of what constitutes good music.  A formulaic understanding, even.

But there you go. Everyone brings their own preconceived notions to the table. I've got mine, and the Scribbler had his.

 

[JSngry]

31 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I'd say that any person who calls The Phantom "easy listening crap" has an extremely narrow view of what constitutes good music. 

I'll go even further than that - I think The Scribbler had no concept that there could even possibly be good/bad/indifferent "easy listening". Zero awareness leads to zero ability to discern/evaluate. It was like "easy listening" and "crap" were being used interchangeably in this thought.

As a visceral reaction, ok, fair enough. But as critical thinking, it's totally moronic. In a music school, you'd like to think that there would be an awareness of the crucial need for both abilities to coexist within the same mind. But music school is no different from the rest of life..

[Big Beat Steve]

Tell you what ... when I am in the mood to relax and let just the sound patterns of the music sink in (without wanting to analyze or dissect it to death), there is a lot in jazz that would be Easy Listening to me - starting e.g. with Lennie Tristano's Supersonic/On A Planet etc. session of 23 Oct. 1947 and going up to a lot of what is on KOB (yes indeed ..).
And I'd find nothing of that "easy listening" wrong with me. Music that serves a purpose - at that time and in that mood. At different times and in different moods it will serve other purposes for sure but that is not the point ...

Ought to listen to "The Phantom" too, I guess ... just to see ...

[GA Russell]

The Phantom was my first Duke Pearson album. 

I liked half the tracks very much, but not the other half.  So I recorded what I liked onto my newfangled Ampex cassette recorder, and listened to it quite a bit.