Late Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 Sonny Criss - Sonny's Dream (click here to buy) Previewed here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Hey, it's Friday and no-ones posted yet!!! I've just got around to giving it a spin now following a pretty busy week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soul Stream Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Sorry. I WILL be picking this up on Late's recommendation. I love Criss and this sounds wonderful. I do hope others get a chance to post soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 A great choice for AOTW and something I'm very happy to reaquaint myself with. Criss is on fine form here, playing as well as he has anywhere, with his soaring alto and very agreeable soprano. His playing is beautifully cushioned by Horace Tapscott's bottom heavy, yet varied, arrangements for the accompanying nine piece band. Criss is the chief soloist but Tommy Flanagan shines in his spots. Conte Candoli and Teddy Edward both get brief solo turns. This is fine music easily recommended. My only question is should I get the cd to get the two alternate takes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cali Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Sonny's best. With arrangements by Horace Tapscott, this is Criss' flagship album IMO. An atypical outing by Sonny with tunes that are at once angular and haunting. Once you hear this album, it takes days to get it out of your head. Sonny's solos are superb, soaring and adventuresome. Excellent choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 This was the first Criss album I ever heard. I was really impressed with it. I haven't listened to it in a while, but for me Criss and Tapscott were two highly underrated musicians. I've picked up quite a few Criss albums (avoid the Impulse ones - oof!) and I have a couple Tapscott cds, but I'd really like to hear more of Horace. Nice choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 Just got it, played the two first cuts in the car. Holeeeee! Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 Late, you pikced a winner! I'm in love with this album now. Thanks! Beautiful music. Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Indeed, a true masterpiece. The pairing of Criss and Tapscott was an inspired one, and the results have a very real "flavor" that something like ""Up Up & Away" just can't accomodate. That's not a slam on "Up...", just an observation as to the power and the nature of Tapscott's material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soul Stream Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Indeed, a true masterpiece. The pairing of Criss and Tapscott was an inspired one, and the results have a very real "flavor" that something like ""Up Up & Away" just can't accomodate. That's not a slam on "Up...", just an observation as to the power and the nature of Tapscott's material. You mean Sonny Criss playing "Up, Up and Away" isn't the shit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Is it me or did Coltrane perhaps have the strongest and most positive influence on sax players of his own and even slightly earlier generations? Art Pepper, Harold Land, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Heath, even Charlie Rouse -- all these individuals were "tested" in some way by Trane, and emerged as more individual improvisors as a result. I would add Criss to this list on the basis of this record. Whatever the case, Criss' playing on this album is almost too intense, too excoriating for words. He sounds like a man finally liberated from... SOMETHING. (Remember how Teddy Edwards described the man, as "a closet full of coats with the shoes underneath".) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 He sounds like a man finally liberated from... SOMETHING. "Other" people's music, perhaps? If not necessarily other people's musicians... Remember the time and the place where this music was made. Remember the initial concept. Remember where Criss spent the majority of his career playing when not on the road. Remember that video of Criss, Teddy Edwards, and Sweets. Remember the audience therein. THAT'S what I hear on this album, and hell yeah, liberation rings from every note, and not just musical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Indeed, a true masterpiece. The pairing of Criss and Tapscott was an inspired one, and the results have a very real "flavor" that something like ""Up Up & Away" just can't accomodate. That's not a slam on "Up...", just an observation as to the power and the nature of Tapscott's material. You mean Sonny Criss playing "Up, Up and Away" isn't the shit? Oh, that's beautiful all right, but a different kind of beauty it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Is it me or did Coltrane perhaps have the strongest and most positive influence on sax players of his own and even slightly earlier generations? Probably so, but the irony is that he had just the opposite effect on generations after him. Or at least on many segments of those generations. Go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEK Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Is it me or did Coltrane perhaps have the strongest and most positive influence on sax players of his own and even slightly earlier generations? Probably so, but the irony is that he had just the opposite effect on generations after him. Or at least on many segments of those generations. Go figure. Ahh, the Reagan-Marsalis revisionist legacy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 (edited) Not sure what you mean, but I'm refering to the countless succession of Clonetranes, those players who keep thinking that if they just try a little harder to do it JUST LIKE TRANE DID, that they can get to where Trane was, and by missing the point entirely, they get further, not closer. The result is several generations of players who pretty much sound alike in tone and vocabulary. Generic Trane. Yuck. You hear them everywhere all the time. THAT'S what I was referring to. Edited September 3, 2003 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soul Stream Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 On a sour note. A friend of mine who plays bass, said he used to be in a pretty bad blues band in Cali.,....one upside of the gig was Sonny Criss used to come in regularly and sit in. ...disturbing that this was the fate of such a great player as Criss. Also, I was at a Q & A with Jimmy Heath last year when someone in the audience asked Jimmy about Criss. Heath couldn't have been more disdainful of the Criss's playing, HIGHLY overrated was the nicest of his comments about Criss's work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 3, 2003 Report Share Posted September 3, 2003 Is it me or did Coltrane perhaps have the strongest and most positive influence on sax players of his own and even slightly earlier generations? Probably so, but the irony is that he had just the opposite effect on generations after him. Or at least on many segments of those generations. Go figure. EXACTLY!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted September 4, 2003 Report Share Posted September 4, 2003 (edited) On a sour note. A friend of mine who plays bass, said he used to be in a pretty bad blues band in Cali.,....one upside of the gig was Sonny Criss used to come in regularly and sit in. ...disturbing that this was the fate of such a great player as Criss. Also, I was at a Q & A with Jimmy Heath last year when someone in the audience asked Jimmy about Criss. Heath couldn't have been more disdainful of the Criss's playing, HIGHLY overrated was the nicest of his comments about Criss's work. Those are interesting comments coming from Jimmy Heath. For me, it is just the opposite. Sonny Criss would be very high on my list of most underrated jazz artists. So who are you going to believe? Me or Jimmy Heath? I have always loved Sonny Criss. There is something about the way he gets into the blues, twisting and turning them, that penetrates deep into my soul. Among altos, only Bird and Ornette can do the same to me. As for Sonny's Dream, that is one of those albums that I have always wanted to like much more than I actually do. I am also a Horace Tapscott fan. Combining Tapscott and Criss (and finally giving Tapscott an opportunity to record some of his music) was an inspired choice. The record is unique. As has been mentioned, Criss' playing is often very impassioned. So why am I unable to enjoy this disk as much as many of Criss' and Tapscott's other records? I am not really sure. But it may have to do with two factors. I tend to like Criss in a more loose atmosphere that leaves him room for a lot of invention. Although he plays well throughout the album, I get the feeling that Criss never feels comfortable enough here to really "step out" in the way that he does on more familiar blues and standards. Second, I think that Tapscott's music gets a lot of its force from his own unique brand of hard-driving and pulsating piano, which is unfortunately absent here. (Although complaining about Tommy Flanagan is something like blasphemy against jazz.) At any rate, this is a record that I play quite often under the expectation that someday I will fall deeply in love. It hasn't quite happened yet. Edited September 4, 2003 by John L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted September 4, 2003 Report Share Posted September 4, 2003 This has prompted me to revisit my [small] Criss collection. The more I listen to Sonny's Dream, the less it reminds me of his other records. It's an outstanding cd, albeit a short one. With the 2 alternates it comes up to 45 minuts. As far as the alternates themselves, the main reason to hear the alt. of Sonny's Dream is for McKibbon's bass, which has way more "meat" on it than the LP take. Wish the whole cd had more low end on it. But that's how most of these early 90s OJC's sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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