Customer Reviews

Blue Lights 1 & 2

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

 

 

"Blue Lights Volume 1 & 2" is one of Burrell's two great Blue Note recordings from the late 50s, the other being "At The Five Spot Cafe." I particularly enjoy this double CD for two reasons -- Louis Smith and Tina Brooks. Both of these gentlemen were under-recorded Blue Note players, and anything featuring them is a treat. (Most of Smith's and Brooks' solo BN recordings have been made available for limited times recently, and any fan of this album should try to find them.) Junior Cook subs in for Tina on some tracks, while Duke Jordan and Bobby Timmons split piano duties. Sam Jones and Art Blakey complete the personnel. The songs (4 of 9 are Burrell originals) are all nice, long, drawn out jams in which all players get a chance to state their business. An excellent album!

The first review on this album indicated that this was a live recording - while the second review (with tongue, I suspect, planted firmly in cheek) remarked on how quiet the audience must have been for this recording.

In fact, the "Blue Lights" session was recorded in the Manhattan Towers recording studio on May 14, 1958 - not in front of a live audience. The Manhattan Towers hotel had a ballroom which Rudy Van Gelder used as a recording studio for sessions in 1957-1958 (when he was still using his parents' Hackensack, N.J. home to record for Blue note). Van Gelder used the Manahattan Towers ballroom for larger ensembles that would not fit in his parent's living room or when it was simply more convenient to record the artists involved in NYC rather than Hackensack.

Many other Blue Note recording sessions from 1957-58 were recorded by Van Gelder in the Manhattan Towers "studio" - including the Jimmy Smith material which ended up in the albums "The Sermon" and "House Party", and the Art Blakey album "Drums Around the Corner". None of these were live dates.

However, live or not, the "Blue Lights" material is an excellent recording and the initial reviewer was absolutely correct in highlighting the presence on the album of two under-recorded greats: Louis Smith and Tina Brooks.

The air is relaxed and the solos are all very, very good. While "Blue Lights" is not one of the pre-imminent Blue Note recordings of the era, it is addictively listenable nonetheless....

This is an excellent album. The previous review gave you a complete insight in what you'll find in this recording so I'll not spend my time telling you who's there and who's not. I can add that this album is so well recorded that it almost doesn't seem a live album. It seems a studio blowing session! It seems that the audience had been abducted by aliens! They didn't make a move, a shout, a breath! There's only music here. People? I dont't know! Maybe they went to the bathroom for the entire sets, I don't know! There's alot to shout and to get electrified here, but no one opens his mouth here! Extremely quiet people! Every tune here is really streched out and the solos are outstanding. All the guys played great in these nights. This album does not even seems a Kenny Burrell album because he does not have all that space. It seems almost an all star reunion. Anyway it is true among all the guys the trumpet player, Louis Smith, clean them up! His solos are spectacular fifties trumpet bebop examples! These guys all together was a perfect jazz machine! There's only one little thing that I don't like here. The scottish melodic line at the beginning of "Scottish blues", I don't know what it is (a traditional scottish melody I suppose) but it is futile and completly out of place. But don't worry it is simply a statement at the beginning and at the end of the tune. This album is spec-ta-cu-lar believe me! A friend of mine copied it to me, but I loved it so much that I HAD to own it original, so I bought it. Now it's your turn !! C'mon, let's do IT !