Ben Webster: First Concert in Denmark

[mjzee]

Release date March 15.

The music on this album could be called a prelude to a love affair . Why, because it was the great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster s first encounter with the country and city he decided to spend the rest of his life in, living, playing and loving. It was also his first day on the continent after a successful time in London, mostly at Ronnie Scotts famous club. The day in January 1965 when he entered the Danish Radio Concert hall, a wonderful, wooden acoustic architecture from the thirties, began with a short band rehearsal and sound check for the live concert on the Sunday afternoon on the FM radio wave. One hour. His backing would be his new friends, Kenny Drew, Niels Henning Ørsted-Pedersen, Alex Riel, the bass player would from then on be called only Niels by Webster, and the producer, Børge Roger Henrichsen, a well estimated pianist, bandleader and radio editor, wanted to time the concert... thus is Webster playing one chorus of In A Mellowtone in two tempi at the Steinway for Roger to get his stopwatch in sync. Of course the concert stretched over time with applause from the full house and since it was live, we only get to hear the first chorus of Cottontail at the end.

[Dan Gould]

Would not have guessed another, or for that matter the actual first, collaboration between Ben and Drew would still be unreleased until now.  Gotta say though the total time is disappointing and a little less predictable set list would be welcome but - its Ben and Kenny, so ... hell yeah.