Customer Reviews

Heavy Juice

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

 

 

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen swing like crazy on this CD. With similar styles, and no desire to get into a cutting contest, these guys produce some of the most coherent and "together" jazz in a long time. This is a rare effort-- one that should be enjoyed by a jazz veteran, as well as a newcomer. Just great stuff!

Initially I feared that I might have difficulty distinguishing between two reactionary players, both of whom sounded so much like Ben Webster. But each is as distinctive as were the two-tenor team of Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt. In fact, as if to encourage the comparison, one of the programmed tunes is Stitt's "Blues Up and Down," employed as a frequent vehicle for the friendly but always heated sparring matches between Jug and Sonny.

Hamilton and Allen have just as much fun with it--a highlight being the climactic, musical ping-pong game when they go for a chorus exchanging the identical B- flat note, shaping it and reshaping it through every possible variation in articulation, elocution, vibrato. Hamilton's sound is a bit brighter and more forward, employing slightly more of the Ben Webster breathiness and vibrato; Allen's is a bit darker, or slightly shaded, with more extended phrases and melodic-rhythmic ideas that simply know no let-up. There is no winner, other than the listener.

If you like this one, I recommend the Concord release "Groovin' High," which features Hamilton in the company of two other tenors--Ken Peplowski and the amazing Spike Robinson.

This is a great album all the way through. Hamilton and Allen compliment each other very well, and this disc is definately worth the money. I reserve 5 star ratings only for the best albums ever, though. If you are looking for one of the greatest two-tenor albums, get Ammons and Stitts on "Boss Tenors: Straight Ahead from Chicago 1961." You wont be dissapointed.

this cd brings together two of the best tenor sax player ever,you,ll love how they improvise off of each others lines,harry allen has also just released his long awaited all ballad cd available on line only at www.mcmahonjazzmedicine.com along with his other 29 cd,s