Jazz at the Cellar 1958 [Import]

Harold Land | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 14, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Lonehill Jazz
• ASIN: B000PFU7VW
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,405 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cherokee

2. Just Friends

3. The Scene Is Clean

4. Big Foot

5. Come Rain or Come Shine

Editorial Reviews

Although he was always a secondary figure when compared to other contemporary tenor saxophonists like Sonny Rollins, Harold Land was nevertheless an excellent player. This opinion is backed by the important groups and musicians that counted on his services. He formed part of outstanding small groups in Los Angeles and made perennial recordings with bassists Red Mitchell and Curtis Counce. Land taped the first Long Play album issued under his own name in 1958, Harold in the Land of Jazz, followed a year later by The Fox. He also began playing with the Gerald Wilson orchestra, and with pianists Hampton Hawes and Carl Perkins. In 1960, he recorded in San Francisco with Thelonious Monk and gained fame in the late sixties for his band with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Influenced by John Coltrane, Land’s sound and style began to change during this period, becoming harder and freer than his early bebop and post Bebop recordings. Issued on the current CD for the first time ever, the live recordings contained here present Harold Land in a splendid but unusual setting. The rhythm section of pianist Elmo Hope, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Lennie McBrowne wasn’t part of his usual group. In fact, the three musicians formed the rhythm section for Sonny Rollins’ quartet!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What happened to playback speed?, November 9, 2009

By 

Jazz Lover (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz at the Cellar 1958 (Audio CD)

This CD, like several others that have appeared recently are wonderful historical documents of rare performances by some of my all-time favorite jazz artists. However,like the recent ones featuring Clifford Brown at the Cotton Club and the one-of-a-kind home recording of Clifford Brown with Eric Dolphy, it is are marred by that fact that the music plays back at least 1/2 step above proper pitch and sometimes more, ruining the quality of the sound (it becomes 'tinny' and pinched-sounding when playback speed is faster than the original recording speed). Columbia Records made this mistake with the classic Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" album but had the good sense to correct their error re-issuing it with the tracks at the proper playback speed. One can only hope these companies will do the same or at least in the future take the time to ensure that rare and invaluable old tapes like these are carefully edited for correct pitch when transferred to CD. This music is too valuable to be distorted like this!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Performance / Mediocre Recording, October 19, 2010

By 

Craig S. Cherry (Kansas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jazz at the Cellar 1958 (Audio CD)

Fans of Harold Land may want to pick this up as this live set recorded in Vancouver in 1958 is previously unissued and the quartet delivers a fine, hard-swinging performance. Unfortunately, the recording itself leaves a lot to be desired. Lonehill Jazz generally does a good job with vintage jazz reissues, but in this case the source material sounds thin and tinny. In fact, you can barely hear the bass player at all, which is a real shame, as what you CAN hear sounds great. If someone has bothered to remaster this and fix the acoustic balance by bringing up the lower frequencies, this would be a 4 to 5 star CD. But as it is, I can only give it 3 stars for excellent playing by the great Harold Land.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars None better., May 30, 2011

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz at the Cellar 1958 (Audio CD)

This recording is reminiscent of some of the Bird live dates on which practically the only musician who's audible is Bird. The more's the pity, because some of the studio dates on Contemporary that include Scott LaFaro on bass (present on the pictured recording) reveal that, even before his meeting up with Bill Evans, he was one of the music's strongest "walkers." Moreover, the engineering of Roy DuNann captures the sound of the acoustic bass with more warmth, body, and definition than is the case with even present-day digital recordings. And to my ears, Scottie benefits more from DuNann's skills than any other bassist.

To a trained listener, or hard-core jazz fan, the audio on this session (also being marketed as "Harold Land Quartet Live in Canada") is not as unlistenable as claimed. Much of the time--but not all--Scottie's bass drops out altogether, and the drummer's ride cymbal is non-existent. But most importantly Harold Land demonstrates why he was unsurpassed at the time, pushing two tunes to 20 minutes and a 3rd to almost 30, with relentless streams of cleanly articulated, unrepetitive melodic brilliance. It was no accident that the soloist in the frontline with Clifford Brown on 80% of the great trumpeter's recordings was the one player who could match him, practically serving as his double during ensembles as well as solos.