Encounters Ben Webster. The Complete Session [Import]

Coleman Hawkins | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 7, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: ESSENTIAL JAZZ CLASS
• ASIN: B001O8C5VY
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,702 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Blues For Yolande

2. It Never Entered My Mind

3. La Rosita

4. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

5. Prisoner Of Love

6. Tangerine

7. Shine On, Harvest Moon

8. Maria

9. Cocktails for Two

10. Blues for Yolande [Mono Version] [Version]

11. La Rosita [Short Alternate Version] [Version]

12. Shine On, Harvest Moon [Short Alternate Version] [Version]

13. My Melancholy Baby

14. Where Are You

15. Ill Wind

16. Ill Wind

17. Blues For Yolande [Incomplete Takes] [Take]

Editorial Reviews

This 2009 release contains the complete classic album Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster as well as the other six tunes from the sessions, originally issued on other Hawkins' albums and long out of print anthologies. As a bonus, we have added four songs from sessions recorded on both the previous and the same day by each saxophonist alone with the same rhythm section. The sessions end with each player presenting his own reading of 'Ill Wind'. Essential Jazz Classics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely Encounter, July 15, 2011

By 

Richard Pissillo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Encounters Ben Webster. The Complete Session (Audio CD)

To put two great legends of the tenor sax together does not guarantee great results. Quite often the exact opposite happens. Not here. I do not often review music, since there are so many other, to quote Donovan, "one man's opinion of moonlight". The only other reviewer trashed this album, which I have loved since the 70s. Meandering??? Perhaps to someone who has no appreciation for jazz ballads. However, this is by no means meandering. The solos are pithy, if anything. They swing, they move, they are perfectly crafted and innovative tunes by two who understood their craft and without any sense of competition. Oscar Peterson's on top of his game. Even Herb Ellis has some lovely parts. Ray Brown is his usual rock solid self. Alvin Stoller completes the rhythm section with grace and poise.I have owned the Verve 2fer on vinyl and have played it to death, requiring me to purchase the cd. If you don't like this music, check your pulse.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very relaxed encounter, July 6, 2009

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Encounters Ben Webster. The Complete Session (Audio CD)

I always think re-issues are a bit of a trap for the unwary and the Hawkins and Webster 'Encounters' CD is a good example. Amazon has several editions at various prices and slightly different track listings. The original LP had seven tracks and some CDs carry two additional versions of the first track Blues for Yolande but this Essential Jazz Classics is the only one to have seventeen tracks and lasts for just over seventy-eight minutes. The additional tracks are from the same session in October 1957 with two omitting Hawkins and two omitting Webster. Of all the versions available this would seem the right one to get.

Having worked out this was the best CD I have to say I was disappointed with the contents. Webster and especially Hawkins I felt were just coasting and going through the motions of playing some relaxing but rather unremarkable jazz. Hawkins plays much better on Swingville (1960) or Blues Groove (1958) both sessions recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.

The original LP 'Encounters' tracks are blues oriented with plenty of meandering solos, the extra tracks from the session are similar. None of the seven original tracks lasted more than six and a half minutes, hardly enough time to deliver some creative improvisation though Hawkins, of course, can create wonderfully rich solos in no time at all. (`Tiny Bean' from the Blues Groove session has him playing a quite stunning bit of improvisation in less than two minutes).

'Encounters' is pleasant enough, mostly slow blues material but I thought it lacked anything original from either Hawkins or Webster.