Basie All Stars - Live At Fabrik Hamburg 1981, Vol. 1

[mjzee]

Release date April 7:

Already during Basie's lifetime, some of his most loyal followers formed the All Stars. The alto-saxophonist Marshall Royal, Basie's eternal concertmaster, took the lead in this. (Marshall probably played the same role for Basie as Johnny Hodges did for Duke Ellington. He passed away in 1995). The musicians performing that evening had for many years, some (like Royal) even for decades, co-fathered and influenced the Basie-effect, so important for the history of big bands in swing. Both trumpeters represent the different concepts that were always present side by side in Basie's orchestra: relaxed elegance (represented by Harry Edison, whom the world of jazz called Sweets for obvious reasons), and the hands-on severeness of Joe Newman. Besides Royal, who had always been one of the breathing jazz saxophonist like Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster, here at the Fabrik the Kansas-City-veteran Buddy Tate and Billy Mitchell, who was more at home in modern bebop, invoke two other aspects of the Basie-universe. Benny Powell rounds out the spectrum of the wind section. As always in Basie's band (and also here) it manifests itself in full-bodied arrangements, and by supporting the soloists in the background. Nat Pierce, the pianist, delicately adapts to Basie's consistent frugality and restraint. Bassist John Heard and drummer Gus Johnson establish the rhythm-dimension of Basie's spell, even without the magician Green.

[Dan Gould]

I have this pre-ordered from Amazon ... based on a radio broadcast I have from later in the same month, it's likely that their Volume 2 will have Joe Williams, assuming volume 2 is from the same show. (Why this would need to be broken up I know not.)

[Dan Gould]

I listened to this for the first time driving to Naples over the weekend and cannot recommend it highly enough.  Tate, Sweets and Powell all take solo honors but its a very strong performance across the whole band.