Customer Reviews

Blues Is Everybody's Business

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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.