Blues Is Everybody's Business [Import]

Manny Albam | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Gambit Spain
• ASIN: B000A0BC1G
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,511 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Blues Is Everybody's Buisness, Pt.1

2. The Blues Is Everybody's Buisness, Pt.2

3. The Blues Is Everybody's Buisness, Pt.3

4. The Blues Is Everybody's Buisness, Pt.4

5. Zanzy [*]

6. Ida Bridges Falling Down [*]

7. Close Cover Before Striking [*]

8. It Looks Like Rain in Cherry Blossom Lane [*]

9. The Flat Cap [*]

10. The Sonn Also Rises [*]

11. Lemon Twist [*]

12. Zanzy (Live Version) [*]

13. Ida Bridges Falling Down [*]

Editorial Reviews

Featuring Art Farmer, Nick Travis, Larry Sonn, Bob Brookmeyer, Urbie Green, Frank Socolow, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Phil Woods, Billy Bauer, John Williams, Milt Hinton and Eddie Costa! the Legendary Album "blues is Everybody’s Business" is Widely Regarded as the Definitive Work of One of the Finest Modern Jazz Arrangers off all Time, the Great Manny Albam. Recorded in September and October, 1957 the Album features an All-star 19-piece Band Performing Albam’s Masterful Charts. This Edition also Includes Seven Bonus Tracks all of which Are Featured Here for the First Time Ever on CD. The First Five Tracks Pertain to all of Albam’s Charts Recorded on Larry Sonn’s LP "the Sound of Sonn" Recorded Between 1955 and 1956 and featuring Another All-star 19-piece Band. The Final Two Tracks Are Live Versions of Albam’s Charts "zanzy" and "ida Bridges Falling Down", Recorded by Larry Sonn’s Big Band in a Concert Produced and Emceed by Al "jazzbo" Collins.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celebratory Narrative, October 14, 2005

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blues Is Everybody's Business (Audio CD)

This is simply an enchanting musical experience--"program music," or a "tone poem," telling the story of the blues without the use of verbal narration. Art Farmer and Nick Travis, Brookmeyer and Urbie Green, Phil and Quill, and even bassist Milt Hinton are cast as characters who speak (on their instruments, of course) during a journey that reaches its climax with the definitive, authoritative storytelling of master raconteur Al Cohn, whose assured solo is both capstone and closure for the musical odyssey.

But the real star is Manny Albam. Not only does he allow optimal solo space for the storytellers but he manages to make the strings swing and to provide each of the four movements with infectious riffs that cohere into memorable ensemble statements. Even without the benefit of musical narrative, the suite satisfies as a whole because of the integrity of each movement and the carefully controlled pacing to a grand finale.

Admittedly, some present-day listeners are likely to find the work problematic--due to the inclusion of a string section and the use of so many white musicians as well as the apparent exclusion of African-American history. But the listener is reminded to review the work's title: tune out the political noise of the head and heed the responses of the heart and feet.