Customer Reviews

Ballads for Bass Clarinet

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is amazing! The recording quality is phenomenal, the engineers really did this one right. Not only are the players all superstars (John Hicks is one of my favorite on pianos), but you can hear everything: the squeaking of a finger across a bass string, The sound of air rushing past Murray's reed, the keys hitting the piano. Really, if you like music, buy this just for the quality of the recording!

Also, where else can you get an album with this much bass clarinet!

This one was recorded at the same sessions as the fine "Fast Life". This one focuses, somewhat obviously, on Ballads. Murray has a few other Ballad-focused CDs, and like the others, shows he can create beautiful slow recordings without some of the extremes as his other works. I'd pick up "Ballads" before this one however.

David Murray (bcl), John Hicks (p), Ray Drummond (b), Idris Muhammad (ds)
Recorded at Power Station, NYC on October 14 & 15, 1991.
Since Eric Dolphy brought bass-clarinet into jazz, this musical instrument came to be a touchstone, and playing this instrument means treading on a tablet Christ for many jazz saxophone players. Murray must be still only person who is free from spell of Dolphy when playing bass-clarinet. Centering great original songs on, all this work is made only by bass-clarinet. And his emotional play by John Hicks (p), whose support is gentle and shines, is so impressive.