Hank Jones With The Meridian String Quartet (LRC, 1990)

[Rooster_Ties]

Looks interesting, maybe - but could easily be a snoozefest. Any good??

(Or been done better elsewhere?? If so, where???!!!!!)

Alas, no AMG review (although they do have 30-second samples). The Bastards spaketh thusly...

Hank Jones With The Meridian String Quartet -- Arranged & Conducted By Manny Albam

Add to Cart $5.99 ... CD

CD (Item 449628) LRC, 1990 -- Condition: New Copy

A very cool concept for an album by pianist Hank Jones -- and one with a sound that's a lot more classic than you might expect from the date of the set! The core rhythms come from a trio that includes Jones on piano, Rufus Reid on bass, and Dennis Mackrel on drums -- and they're augmented by a string quartet directed by Manny Albam -- but in a way that uses all the older Albam sense of groove and grace! The sound here is hardly any sort of sleepy "with strings" sort of mode -- and the quartet bring in some nicely dark corners that offset the sweeter, more lyrical sounds of Jones' piano -- in a way that makes the album one of the most compelling dates we've heard from Hank in this stretch of his career. The best tunes are the most upbeat ones, but even the mellower numbers are great -- and the CD features titles that include "What Is This Thing Called Love", "Caravan", "Ill Wind", "They Can't Take That Away From Me", "Love Walked In", "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise", "There's A Small Hotel", and "Russian Lullaby".

If the DG "review" is to be believed, this is only a piano trio + a string quartet. Correct??

Edited April 14, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[brownie]

Not a bad one (is there a bad Hank Jones album?)... Pretty good album in fact!

My Laserlight copy looks like this

and fails to mention anywhere the name of Manny Albam who wrote interesting string arrangements for the session.

That said, there is a good dozen Hank Jones discs I would go for before getting this one!