Customer Reviews

Bottoms Up

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

 

 

Here Illinois Jacquet is in top form. Consistently musical and inspired, without gratuitous honking and screaming, he fully lives up to his titanic talent. And he is backed by a formidable rhythm section -Barry Harris, Ben Tucker and Alan Dawson. (Why doesn't Amazon list the sidemen?) To me it ranks amont the best tenor sax playing, on par with Hawkins, Young, Rollins and Trane. One of my favorite records.

A good record by Illinois Jacquet that together Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and very few others has been and is, a giant of the tenor saxophone, as the big reporter said if Jacquet could collect royalties on his ideas he would be many times a millionaire today. One thing about Illinois, he was the author of the unforgettable saxo solo of Lionel Hampton's "Flying Home" song, that stands today as one of the classics of tenor saxophone improvisation.
This record was recorded when the Jazz avant-garde was becoming quite influential, in spite of this Illinois Jacquet played in his own timeless style and Bottom Up was a great success. Very good rhythmic section with pianist Barry Harris, bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Alan Dawson together with Illinois are heard swinging hard and generally expressing in a tipically extroverted fashion. I like specialy "Jivin' with Jack the Bellboy" and ballad "You left me alone" that are memorables, the remainder of the record are also very good. I give it 4 stars.

I don't have much to say: Illinois Jacquet is a master of the horn and acknowledged by many to be the father of the rock and roll saxophone. This is a fine selection of swing tunes, including some of my favorites: Bottoms Up, Sassy, and Jivin' with Jack the Bellboy.

The only reason I did not give this record 5 stars is because there are other Illinois Jacquet collections that I prefer: Jumpin' At the Apollo, Flying Home: The Best of the Verve Years, and Bottoms Up (The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions (Paris, France 1974))