Customer Reviews

Cotton Candy / Sugar Lips

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have waited for the release of the original "Cotton Candy" album on CD for a long time. The entire thing is fantastic. From the great, fun title song to a seductive version of "Hello, Dolly", all tracks are wonderful. It is combined on this CD with the another great album, "Sugar Lips". Together this makes up the ultimate Al Hirt experience. A fantastic artist.

If you try only one Al Hirt Album then get the Honey In The Horn album first. It is his greatest album and combined with another album, More of that Honey Horn Sound you hear true magic. This album, is also a very good combo of two of his better albums done when he was at his peak. A good mix of smooth jazz and toe tappers. A great follow up album if you are just now discovering some of the best music ever recorded. (Well after his Honey in the Horn album any way.) for those who want to hear the best trumpet player who ever lived, here he is. Al ruled the Playboy charts as the king of Jazz trumpet in the sixties. He is still the best!

"Cotton Candy" was the first album I purchased from the late Al Hirt (1922-1999), This one blew me away when I played over and over and it's still a good album 'mos definitely my favorites I ever picked up. Then later I got into Sugar Lips, Honey in the Horn, Horn-A-Plenty, and so much more. This is one that later interest me of being a trumpet player.

Al Hirt always has his skills when he plays a lot of songs that kids and fans alike would enjoy. I think a lot of people should be interested of buying albums that'll take u back since the days of Dizzy, Miles, Satchmo, Freddie, Maynard, Wynton who are my idols of today.


Yeah Al Hirt is my favorite trumpeter of all-time ever since I put my hands into the trumpet at the age of 12 or 13. I may do a tribute of him I don't know. But own both of his albums on vinyl not on CD but the ones I may purchased which I last listen and checked out may appear next on my album collection.

Al Hirt the King of the Trumpet lives on!!!

May his legacy lives on.

The CD was well packed and arrived in reasonable time. It is exactly as ordered, brand new and in "Perfect
Condition". I would not hesitate to purchase from this vendor again.

For some people, Al Hirt stands pejoratively for a kind of trumpet playing that is less than artistic. It is important to realize that Hirt is a type of artist who was part of his time, and that time was the '60's, in its adult contemporary mode. If you're familiar with the brass and voices arrangements from this period by Ray Conniff, these two Al Hirt albums from 1964 will fit nicely into that mode. The arrangements are spare sounding and peppy, with lovely vocals by the Anita Kerr singers. The albums were produced by Chet Atkins, the master of the "countrypolitan" sound of that era. Hirt plays as only Hirt can, with zest, wonderful rhythm, and golden tone. The most touching moment, for me, is Hirt's vocal on Willie Nelson's "Night Life," recorded quite a few years before Willie became a star. This is music to be enjoyed and savored.

I purchased Al Hirt's "Honey in the Horn' on a wim years ago.
I remember him from child hood, but his music was the kind that
my parents were into. Now that I have matured I can really
appreciate this kind of music. I think 'Surgar lips' was
his follow up tp 'Honey'. What makes Those two disc so nice
is the fabulous Anita Kerr singers in the backgroud. I wish
that Al had recorded more sessions with them.

The most recent reviewer, was dissapointed in Al's preformance and song style of choice in these two albums. He said that Al's new orlean's style records were better. The reviewer just likes that kind of music. It's true; if you like his dixieland stuff, you probally won't like this album because they're completely differen't in style. So dont think just because that reviewer said it bad, that it is. He just likes Al's dixieland songs soo much better that he bashed this album!

Cotton Candy was the first album I ever bought, when I was 8. I played it to death, at least for a year before I drifted off into British Invasion stuff. Anyway, I played it again recently and couldn't help but be dismayed by how the tunes and the arrangements just weren't up to Al's abilities. I know he said that he wasn't a jazz musician, he was a pop musician, but this pop hasn't aged well. It has that standardized RCA/Nashville production sound of that era, which tends to significantly hem Al in.

Al Hirt could be a blistering trumpet player when given the right setting. Huge tone, perfect control, I bet he blew the VU meters right off the control board when he let go in the studio. But he also had good lyricism and sense of phrasing. I'd say that the best stuff of his during the RCA '60's era was an album called "Trumpet and Strings", which was the second album I ever bought, and which I hated at the time. All those ballads, all those violins, not something an 8 year old would like. Bad consumer research, I thought that "strings" meant "guitars". But now I think that the strings/ballads setting gave Al more room to move around and a chance to be more expressive.

It doesn't look like "Trumpet and Strings" has been reissued, but I'd recommend anything on the compilations that has him and strings, since it's probably from this album. The dixieland stuff is good too, which gives him more room to cut loose. But, as one reviewer notes, it's a different thing altogether from his pop recordings.

I bought both Al Hirt Cotton Candy/Sugar Lips and Honey in the Horn/That Honey Horn Sound. Niether come close to his performances in his Club. If you ever saw Al in his New Orleans club and his mostly solo performances you will be disappointed in either of the CD's. My advice sample before you buy.