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5.0 out of 5 stars
5 Stars for Sadao., March 31, 2010
This review is from: Basie's at Night (Audio CD)
Just finished listening to Sadao Watanabe's Basie's at Night and loved it. This album is a live recording at a joint called Basie in Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan and comes with 2 disks. Disk#1 has 7 tracks and opens with "One for You" which is a nice moderate paced jazz number with Sadao's sax and some piano and bass solos. Next are "Plum Island", "I'm Old Fashioned" and a few African numbers. "Deep in a Dream" brings me back to A Night with Strings and I can imagine myself drinking the music with a glass of wine. If you like drum solos, "Maji" is sure to satisfy. Disk#2 is more mellowed and tuneful and contains the title track "Basie's at Night" which is followed by "Life is All Like That", both nice lively numbers. You can hear that the crowd is having a ball from these numbers. But "Call Me", a Sadao's compo is, to me, one of the top numbers in this album. It starts with a piano intro and the sax kicking in after a couple of notes; inter-playing each other with percussions and bass accompaniment. "Manha De Carnaval" followed and man, this too belongs to the top of this album. Unlike the one from Youtube which is a sax & guitar combo, this one is a sax & piano combo. If you like smooth jazz, these are it. Jazz cannot get smoother than these. Didn't really care for Episode and Karimu. Harambee is kinda like a sing-along to create audience participation. The last piece is "Carinhoso" and if I can change the title, I would title it Sadao's sonata for piano and sax; a nice smooth piece with piano intro, sax fading in, and accompanying each other. Makes you want more. Just this piece alone is worth the money. A must have for Sadao's and jazz fans. Not a jazz fan yet? You certainly are missing something here.
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