Customer Reviews

Brotherhood

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

 

 

To say the least Gene Harris is a very extraordinary pianist. He is so versitle. He is at home swinging a song or jazzing a song or even bluseing a song. What a package deal Gene is.

For this cd Gene offered a little bit of all three of the venues he specializes in. Gene really did a good job of putting this cd together. He came up with some imaginative arrangements that I liked a whole lot.

Gene assembled a great group. His band members really came together to unify. They gave an all out good performance.

For the repertoire, I thought it was ok, but could have possibley been a little bit better. I guess to be honest with you that was the only reason for not giving this cd a higher ranking.

All in all this was a worth while cd and serious fans should go out and buy this cd.

Gene Harris's Brotherhood is overall a pretty good CD. It offers alot of blues songs, which is of course, Gene Harris's speciality. His potential, and skill is definitely put forth on this CD. However, for those listeners out there who are looking for variation and different styled songs, with tempo-changes, this CD lacks that. Most songs are upbeat songs with the "happy" piano tone/comping. I think that Gene could have chosen better song selections. Additionally, Ron Eschete needs to turn up quite a bit to be audible. The bass and drums dominate over Ron, and though his soloing is extraodinary, I find it hard to hear him. I mean, overall, the CD is a feature of mainly Gene Harris, with a few songs with no guitar/bass/drum solos, but reasonably so, as this is a CD by Gene Harris. Mainly, the reason I gave this CD 3 stars out of 5 stars, is because the repetitious song selections, and the inaudible guitar. Below is another Gene Harris CD, that I do recommend:

1. Black & Blue (Gene Harris (p), Ron Eschete (g), Luther Hayes (b), Harold Jones (d)) Great piano playing, Eschete plays coherent great sounding guitar solos, along with a great song selection and a great rhythm section.

P.S Please Check Out My Other Reviews!

My Dad requested this CD for his birthday present after hearing a track from it on the radio. I was skeptical that the whole CD would be as good as the tune he'd heard, but he was NOT disappointed. I listened to it with him and am so glad he can think of me when he plays it. Excellent tunes with organic arrangements that are not over-produced.

One of the tracks on this CD is ~ "THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN", a Frank Loesser tune from "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" a classic musical comedy from the early '60s winning a Broadway Tony Award ~ Gene Harris rendition is simply a jazz statement with a twist.

Of course the stand outs ~ "SEPTEMBER SONG", great Kurt Weill composition, probably one of the most recorded standards ever, but this arrangement is priceless ~ "THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE", Gene gives us an insight to his background with a traditional tune, strutting gospel, soul and blues with a funky tempo, a perfect fit.

Hey jazz-fans, if you enjoyed this gig try these on for size ~ "Live at Otter Crest" (CCD-4945-2) ~ "The Best Of The Concord Years-Gene Harris" (CCD2-4930-2) ~ "Listen Here" (CCD-4385) ~ "Alley Cats" (CCD-4859-2) ~ "Black and Blue" (CCD-4482)...all from our favorite jazzman ~ funky Gene Harris.

Total Time: 58:18 on 9 Tracks...Concord Jazz CCD-4640...(1995)