Customer Reviews

Hair Is Beautiful

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I have this on 8 track tape and recently burned it onto a disc. I am sure the new release does better justice to the sound quality but based purely on the music this is not generally an inspirational album. None the less, because it is Barney I have to give it a couple of stars. Some might see better merrit for what seems on the surface to be elevator music but as usual there are plenty of Kessel licks hidden in this mod expose. If you are a jazz guitar freak and / or a Kessel maniac then you will no doubt find value in various moments throughout this album, some tunes are actually pretty decent as a whole (Frank Mills, Be-In and I can't help but enjoy Barney's spacey offering on Walking In...). However, I would think most jazz fans would be disappointed, maybe real disappointed, and I would think this sort of stuff was better treated by the likes of Grant Green or maybe Boogaloo Joe Jones, etc. But if you are in the freak category with me then I am guessing you'd like to have this. It's relatively tame pop-jazz but Barney delivers some neat stuff if you listen for it, clean twangy riffs with an occasional flare up to keep you happy. I just can't see paying the import price, get it used and if you're not hard core stay away!

This is Barney Kessel playing pop music, but wasn't many jazz standards just that, before they turned into - yes; jazz standards. In one level you could agree with the other reviewer here, that it does sound, to some extend like saloon music, but then again no. For me it is simply just Kessel appreciating some nice melodies, which there actually are a lot of, in the pop hippie musical "Hair", and making them into jazz. One should also remember that this is 1969 - the culmination of that era, and therefore it also sounds like that, which perfectly all right.

Kessel's playing is actually so nice and the musicianship of the other players is very competent: the drummer swings great and the organ players are very good. Favourite songs for me are the opening song "Aquarius", which have a nice melody that just sounds so good in Kessel's hand and a great solo, "I Got Life" which is a nice ballad, "Walking In Space" where Kessel plays 12 string electric - and sounds good! But the winner got to be "Ain't Got No", where Barney really takes off.

This is not your average jazz album, and maybe not the best he has produced, but definitely worth owning.