If I'm Lucky: Zoot Sims Meets Jimmy Rowles

Zoot Sims | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 17, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ojc
• ASIN: B000000YW9
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,513 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. (I Wonder) Where Our Love Has Gone

2. Legs

3. If I'm Lucky

4. Shadow Waltz

5. You're My Everything

6. It's All Right With Me

7. Gypsy Sweetheart

8. I Hear a Rhapsody

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic mainstream jazz, February 10, 2001

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If I'm Lucky: Zoot Sims Meets Jimmy Rowles (Audio CD)

Norman Granz, after founding Verve in the 1940s, later returned to the record-making business with his Pablo label; this was a smaller, less adventurous affair, as befitted a time (the 1970s) when the audience for conventional mainstream jazz had shrunk. Pablo was built around a small core of musicians who had often been with Granz during Verve's heyday--Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Joe Pass, &c. Unfortunately, most of the releases from the label tend to founder on Granz's unimaginative production, which usually involved putting the same handful of stars together in the studio in every possible combination; rarely were stars encouraged to experiment or try something fresh or risky.

But Zoot Sims' albums for the label provide a shining exception. This is partly because of the involvement of the great pianist Jimmy Rowles in many of them--he's a pro's pro, who like Roger Kellaway or Dave McKenna has a positive inability to take it easy. Rowles masterminded the band's repertoire, & his encyclopedic knowledge of tunes was a fine resource (as was his ability to intelligently arrange & reharmonize them). _If I'm Lucky_ is one of the best instances of their partnership, & one of my favourite mainstream jazz discs of recent decades. The essential drama of the music comes in the interplay between the eloquent but passionate tenor of Sims & the wily, unpredictable piano of Rowles. Sims's tone is greatly affecting--it might have the same Lestorian sources as Stan Getz, but it's less pretty & more plangent. The opening track, "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone", is immensely moving. But Sims can also piledrive through "It's Alright With Me", a reading that rivals Sonny Rollins' brilliant dissertation on it on _Worktime_. Rowles is a very different kind of player--sometimes rumbustious, as when he drops in a little stride or rumbles away in the bass; sometimes hard-swinging; sometimes delicate.

There's little more to be said: this is great jazz playing, with an appealingly melancholic edge to it.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zoot and Jimmy never better, December 19, 1999

By 

Mr.&Mrs. Alan Satz (Boynton Beach,FL 33437) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If I'm Lucky: Zoot Sims Meets Jimmy Rowles (Audio CD)

As a lover of Zoots playing since I'm a kid I can only say that this is the man at his most comfortable and swinging best. Jimmy Rowles, Mousey Alexander and George Mraz are perfect cats for the masters voice at its most beautiful.Zoot never felt the need to keep up with trends or"what was happening" he just knew how to swing,and thats what he did. Boy, do we miss him. Alan Satz

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars soulful, October 19, 2005

By 

Eric T. Dean (Hamden, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If I'm Lucky: Zoot Sims Meets Jimmy Rowles (Audio CD)

I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone is remarkable, for its restraint, and for its powerful emotional statement. Rowles on piano sets up the tune in a quiet and wistful way, and then Zoot enters building up to a climax of surprising force . . . all in an understated but irresistible manner. It's a tribute to the musicians, who can make such a brilliant performance seem so effortless. One of my favorite Zoot Sims tunes.