Jimmy Rowles is so great, he always plays just the right thing at the right time. The same goes for super rhythm section of LeRoy Vinnegar and Mel Lewis. A lot of people don't seem to realize how important the rhythm section is. Thank God Gerry and Ben did!......
This song saved someone's life, seriously. Several years back, I was on a gig with a guitarist who was driving me crazy. I almost exploded on the bandstand, but, on a set break, went to get a coffee and contemplate my life choices. I walked into a Starbucks, murder on my mind, when I heard this. Mood lifted instantly, now one of my all time favorite recordings. That guitarist has no idea how much he owes these guys.
OMG - My very first saxophone album as a student of the sax back in the 1970's was Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster in a mellow tone. I gotta say - Ben Webster is so damned masterful on this thing it blows be away...I have lived and played through the 80's, 90's, 2000's and this phrasing, this melodic thing Ben does is just such a wonderful thing, a lost art. I also gotta say, I play in jazz big bands today still, and we are playing In A Mellow Tone and I literally still have this albums Ben Webster backup counterpoint line in my mind and have actually played this note for note recently like it was my idea. This is counter melody Ben is playing, I heard as a 13 year old kid, and it was still in somehow lodged in my mind NOTE FOR NOTE all these years later and I am 50 now. That is an amazing reason to listen to jazz if you want to play jazz.
Ben is so great. He slowly bends into the target note from either the top or bottom side. So freaking classy. He swings way more than Mulligan, never noticed before. Ben lays way back on the back side of the beat. Ben's attack on any note is so damned soft from the start. He can can do anything he wants with this type of control.
Gerry is so great. He slowly bends into the target note from either the top or bottom side. So freaking classy. He swings way more than Webster, never noticed before. Gerry lays way back on the back side of the beat. Gerry's attack on any note is so damned soft from the start. He can can do anything he wants with this type of control.
Wonderful playing of Duke Ellington's masterpiece. If you want to hear a stunning vocal version listen to Lambert, Henricks and Ross's version - In a Mellow Tone. Sheer genius. Annie Ross was the best jazz singer to ever leave the shores of Scotland.
Why? Why? Why? can't we the people in order to form a more perfect union etc etc.tune in our radios and hear this heavenly moosik. There oughtta be a law. When I become King there will be some changes made.
I get enough of pianists going nuts no thank you !!! For a change this pianist is LISTENING to what the soloists are playing.(My pianist is always fiddling with the buttons on his keyboard YIKES !!!!!
And I have experienced that: its not good to try it out beforehand, you have to be on "Your toes" and all EARS ready to do what ever offers itself. you will experience the SYNERGY.
This is great creative powerful music that is important for the simple and important example by instrument voices, such as some have done in several ways by certain entities and / or certain details for example: Albinoni Boccherini Zipoli Debussy Milhaud Les Six Stravinsky Ives Miles Evans Coltrane Shorter C Baker Mulligan Konitz Jarritt E Spalding Brilliant Great Ulf Hellerup, Playlists example Ulf Bech MusiK 8 or Ulf Bech Musik1 YT Ceci est la grande musique créative puissante qui est important pour l'exemple simple et importante par des voix d'instruments, comme certains l'ont fait de plusieurs façons par certaines entités et / ou certains détails, par exemple: Albinoni Boccherini Zipoli Debussy Milhaud Les Six Stravinsky Ives Miles Evans Coltrane Shorter C Baker Mulligan Konitz Jarritt E Spalding Brilliant Grande Ulf Hellerup, playlists Musique exemple Ulf Bech Musik 8 Ulf Bech Musik 1 YT
Mulligan was my favorite as a teen. I saw him (with Bobbie Brookmeyer) in Cincinnati. In those days, Black and White didn't mean so much in the Jazz community, and music seemed to be a path to a color blind future. Too bad that promise was thrown away. Now we in the US have a stronger racist culture than half a century ago. Sad.
In which album can I find this track? I know this song as the opening track from "Ben Webster & Friends/Associates" album, and longs more than 20 minutes, but this one is new for me, loved it!
GERRY MULLIGAN Meets BEN WEBSTER Make no mistake about it, the swing and bop start right here on this legendary 1959 session between baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and tenor man Ben Webster. Produced by Norman Granz as an early Verve album, this Mobile Fidelity 24-karat gold-disc reissue is sonically worth the extra bread as it feels like you're right in the control room every note of the way. The opening track, Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" is lush and emotional and truly sets the tone for this album. With Jimmy Rowles on piano (his intro on "Sunday" sounds like a ragtimer like Willie "The Lion" Smith just pushed him off the stool before the band came in), Mel Lewis on drums, and the always superb Leroy Vinnegar on bass present and accounted for, the rhythm section is superbly swinging with just the right amount of bop lines and chords in the mix to spice things up. The ghost of Duke Ellington hovers over every note on this record (Billy Strayhorn was one of his main arrangers) and that is a very good thing, indeed. There's a beautiful, understated quality to the music on this session that makes it the perfect relaxing around the house on a rainy day disc to pop in the player.
horns are great, but the piano should have been going nuts over this tune to provide some contrast with the horns (ie through in some eighth notes more than once) aside from that, a good track
