Customer Reviews

Complete Imperial Sessions

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

 

 

This is the compliation of a session by two men who rarely got a feature in the bands they play in: Lou Blackburn and Freddie Hill. They were part of many West coast bands like Gerald Wilson and Teddy Edwards.

I've had a Fresh Soounds release of the first of the two sessions and enjoyed it for years. Now I have it all. It is representative of the talented musians out there during this period who were doing good work and were little appreciated for it.

Four stars to me are the sign of a very good album, not absolutly essential but really good. In terms of Jazz history these stars mean a very significant music but not something that you can't find elsewhere, in other recordings by other artists. These two Imperial albums are not absolutly essential to own a a complete Jazz discography. But apart from this, these two sessions by Lou Blackburn are certainly enjoyable and I'm happy to own them. These albums are the legacy of a very good collaboration, the one that occured in the sixties between Lou and Teddy Hill (trumpet). The music is a fine and elegant hard bop (a lot of nice originals and few standards) with a nice texture builded up by the two horns, trombone and trumpet. Lou as a trombone player is similar in a sense to Curtis Fuller even if Curtis was a little more technical and "musical" and even a better (more ideas, more variety) soloist I'd say. But it's a fine release, if you love Jazz music of the period you can buy this with confidence. No problem absolutly. It's another very interesting Blue Note release, FINALLY without the Copy Controlled stuff. The worst thing on the planet after Zidane's head. Sorry guys, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Grande Matrix!