Blue Serge (Reis)

Serge Chaloff | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 9, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1956
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000009OHC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,350 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

20Bit Mastered Reissue.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MASTERPIECE, August 9, 2000

By 

"ornen" (Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Serge (Reis) (Audio CD)

This must be one of the finest jazz albums of its era! Serge Chaloff, mostly known as one of the original Four Brothers and a heavily under-rated baritone saxophonist, did not live for long. His death at 33 was caused by spinal cancer, but happily he managed to leave the world this masterpiece before he left.

Chaloff's style comes straight out of bebop. There is a lot of Charlie Parker in his playing, cleverly transformed to match the sonority and range of the bigger horn. His playing is a bit rougher than, say, Gerry Mulligan's, more filled with the blues. Also, Chaloff liked playing fast, in addition to sweet, swinging, humorous, dynamic and original.

The recording is great! The sound is great! The band plays great, the rhythm section is truly inspired on this one! It just swings so hard! and Chaloff dances on top of the "groove" with his big, robust sax.

For anyone into jazz, this is a must in the collection. It's guaranteed to bring that smile across your face! And for those of you smiling already, buy, buy, buy! Life's too short to listen to anything but the truly greats!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars jazz magic - like a mack truck doing wheelies, April 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Serge (Reis) (Audio CD)

nobody ever played the baritone saxophone like serge chaloff - the son of some of boston's leading classical musicians, he brought awesome technique to one of the most unwieldy instruments. The first part of his career, chaloff starred with woody herman's second herd - the junkie band - and was notorious as a ringleader - many held him responsible for the death of trumpeter sonny berman - musically, however, chaloff was untouchable and was #1 in jazz polls - after herman's band shut down, chaloff went back to boston - it took about five years for him to kick his habit. Cleaned up, more mature, he began playing at a whole new level - this album, recorded with a trio he'd never played with before, is amazing - every tune is terrific, on a technical level, you will probably never hear the baritone saxophone played better - like a mack truck doing wheelies. Capitol has re-released this classic album - and everyone I've played it for adds it to their favorite jazz album collection. Shortly after it was recorded, Chaloff became ill - he died in 1957 at the age of 33. Another reviewer wrote, "the rapport of the group is still astonishing. The net effect is of every note being in place, flawlessly executed, as if even the slightest nuance were carefully chosen for maximum aesthetic impact. This is a level of achievement beyond the aspirations of all but the masters, and from an ensemble that was not even a working group, takes on an aura of the miraculous. Such achievements are rare in any medium." Check it out. Bruce Bendinger

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, September 19, 2000

By 

Ozzie (Brugge, Flanders) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Serge (Reis) (Audio CD)

There aren't too many masters on the great horn (baritone sax, that is), but judging from this album, Serge Chaloff must have been one of them. Managing to sound different from those more well-known baritonists Pepper Adams and Gerry Mulligan, Chaloff blows hot and cool on this album recorded in Los Angeles, which (according to Chaloff's liner notes) was "a record just to blow". Blow he does, indeed ! Backed on this 1956 session by Sonny Clark on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums (all top-notch musicians in their own right), Chaloff smashes the then-popular distinction between West Coast and East Coast jazz. Chaloff never got together the kind of career Gerry Mulligan or even Pepper Adams had, largely due to his "personal problems" (jazz-talk for drug-addiction), which kept him away from the scene for a couple of years in the early 1950's. Worst of all, shortly after this album was recorded, an inoperable tumor caused Chaloff to end up in a wheelchair. Just a little over a year after this album was recorded, Serge Chaloff died aged 33. "Blue Serge" is a token of what could have been.