Customer Reviews

Kansas City: A Robert Altman Film - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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This soundtrack of Robert Altman's movie is one of my favorite jazz records in the past years.Altman's genial idea for the soundtrack was to put together some of the great musicians of the nineties and let them recreate the music played in K.C. during the thirties, without trying to copy the original versions of the tunes.In fact,any of these musicians was born at that time,except David "Fathead" Newman (born 1934,Texas),who was for years a member of Ray Charles' band.
"Blues in the dark",a 1938 Basie/Rushing tune,is a tenor duel between James Carter and Joshua Redman,remembering the famous Lester Young/Coleman Hawkins tenor battles."Moten swing",written in 1932 by Benny Moten,is played with great swing and features Jesse Davis' alto sax and James Carter.The rhythm section,made of Geri Allen,Mark Whitfield,Chris McBride and Victor Lewis reminds of the imperial Greene/Jones/Page/Basie team."I surrender dear" is a tribute to Coleman Hawkins' magnificent version of May 25,1940;the young Nicholas Payton has the opportunity for a great solo,in which he sounds just like the immense Roy Eldridge."Queer notions" was written by Hawkins when he was a member of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra;the tenor solo is played by David Murray."Lullaby of the leaves" features the great piano of the beautiful Geri Allen,and efforts by Jesse Davis and trombonist Clark Gayton. "I left my baby" may be the highlight of the record;this Basie/Rushing blues is played with ferocity.After Kevin Mahogany's vocal,the band goes into a wild,down hearted playing,with shining and rough solos by Newman,Craig Handy,and the outstanding Curtis Fowlkes on trombone."Yeah,man",a Noble Sissle original,was played by Henderson's band,and features here the tenors of Handy and Redman for another tenor battle."Froggy bottom",arranged by MaryLou Williams for Andy Kirk's band,is a perfect vehicle for Geri Allen's talented touch and David Newman's blues-rooted sax."Pagin' the devil",a 1938 Walter Page/Eddie Durham blues,featured Lester Young on clarinet;Don Byron plays the blackstick here,followed by Olu Dara on cornet and Clark Gayton."Lafayette" ,a Basie/Durham tune,is the occasion for a trumpet battle,and features Payton,Dara and James Zollar . Finally,there are two versions of Duke Ellington's "Solitude";the first one features Joshua Redman,the second has solos by Don Byron,Chris McBride and Ron Carter.
I hope many of you will be fascinated by this extraordinary tribute to the elders of jazz;it could have looked like a museum,with nostalgia and some dust;but it appears like a pure moment of madness and swing and youth too.Just sit down at the Hey Hey Club and enjoy beeing back to the mythic K.C. !

This is an exciting and interesting Jazz CD, because it contains a proposal on how to deal with a problem that has never been entirely solved in jazz: how to re-create past music. In classical music you simply play the score, which contains more or less everything. But the essence of jazz is not in the score, but in all those non-objectifiable elements that are not in the score, namely, those collectively called "swing" (that's why the score is not the document in jazz, but only the recorded piece, which glorifies one particular instant).

Hence, how do you solve the problem? Do you play ancient jazz with exactly the same sound and accents (horrible) or do you use modern tricks (maybe kitsch)? Do you repeat note-by-note the original solos or do you play new improvised ones on top of the old arrangements? There have been various attempts: for instance, Lennie Niehaus' system in Clint Eastwood "Bird" to electronically remove ancient rhythm sections and superimpose Parker's solos on new rhythm sections (interesting but terrible). Tavernier with Dexter Gordon in "Round Midnight" skipped the problem and recorded new music.

In "Kansas City", instead, we have a fresh approach: that of letting modern jazzmen interpret those pieces. It is clear they pay their dues to the pioneers - the swing and freshness is there to testify this - but at the same time they are not shy about showing off their modern techniques and mastery of the overtones - especially tenor saxophonists, like Joshua Redman and James Carter, the latter being fond of mingling with the elders. Hence, it is as if they had created a virtual, parallel Kansas City of 1934, which is distinct from the real one, but claims the same letters of credit (this reviewer has embarked in the exercise of compiling a CD with the original pieces recorded in the 30's and it is worth one's while to do the comparison).

Thus, also the re-created battle between Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young (with the interpreters mentioned above) has to be taken with a grain of salt: it's a fantasy, the ancient ones did not play that way, but the relationship between the two, to some degree, holds.

The music is fascinating and stands on its own, but the fact that it represents an attempt of re-creating originals without neither diluting nor betraying their spirit gives to this CD an extra quality that makes it unique.

At first listen, one will be hooked! I can't think of a better jazz soundtrack and I can't think of a post-70s jazz all-star recording that burns on EVERY SINGLE track. To hear cool cats like Nicholas Payton, Joshua Redman, Mark Whitfield and others in the new generation handle this watershed music with such fluidity lets the old fan and new recognize that jazz will transcend. The follow-up KC AFTER DARK: More Music from Robert Altman's Kansas City is equally energetic, expressive and ebuillent. All read the linernotes on how this recording was done in the confines of the movie being made.

Though the movie is painful to watch, its soundtrack is stunning! Like movies where the script was written around the already-planned special effects (MI2 for instance), Altman wanted to craft his work to highlight the music of the era. However, while these special effects movies then become eye-candy, "Kansas City" produces its own sweets: soul-candy! There is not a poor track on the CD. By far, James Carter's rendition of Ben Webster's solo on "Blues in the Dark" is really a high point. The band's rendition of Basie's ahead-of-its-time "Queer Notions" is also absolutely spine tingling when listened to at the right volume. Like sitting in the Hey Hey club in 1937, not 6 feet from the smokey stage. Faithful and respectful to a golden moment and place for jazz, this is not an album for the faint at heart

I didn't like Altman's movie at all. But my God, this soundtrack is amazing. Between the swing and bebop eras of jazz was Kansas City -- and you can hear strains of both genres in this album. The music can be loud, racuous -- and a hell of a lot of fun. It also can be soulful and sweet.

This is what jazz is all about. And, like other reviewers, I've put this on at parties and people have also asked me what this was. It stands out that much musically and it's worth every penny.

If you saw the movie, you know the music stole the show. Today's jazz stars take on the persona of actual jazz artists of the 1930s. The music is high energy throughout, and true to the big band style of jazz that prevailed in Kansas City jazz joints of the era. The 12 tracks deliver 63 minutes of outstanding performances. The tracks were recorded live, on the movie set, with state of the art equipment. Very little was changed during the mixing so, in the words of the sound engineer, "what you hear is what they played." If you have any interest in big band jazz, this disc is a must. See the movie to gain an even better appreciation of the music performances.

The price was excellent and I received the item in better condition than I expected.

Current musicians like Joshua Redman, James Carter and Mark Whitfield do a wonderful recreation of the music of Lester Young, Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, etc. It all takes place in a bar in K.C. and the audience enhances its authenticity. I love this type of jazz, full of soul and blues.

While channel surfing one day I saw the documentary about this music and nearly fell on the floor. A mixture of eager young jazz musicians (Redman, Mahogany, Dare etc) teamed with seasoned ones like David Newman making music of an earlier generation. The background "noise" takes a good 3 or 4 seconds to get used to, then you realize it's all part of the free flowing atmosphere that makes this such a brilliant recording.

The recording is a great collaboration and shows just how great jazz can really be. The musicianship, the spirit, the.. oh hell.. everything is top notch.

I've put this on during parties and people stop and go "what's that?"

Mahogany's vocals and individual solos on "I left my baby"and the dueling saxes on "Yeah, Man" are just incredible.

Just buy it, you'll be so glad you did.

This album has some of the swingingist, raunchiest, smooth and sweet music I've heard from any Jazz era. It's one of the most exciting albums I can think of. Every track is gold, but in particular I'm a sucker for Redman's sweet solo on Solitude. I think the Duke would dig it. Then the first track - Blue in the Dark - has James Carter just wailing. It's frightful what he can play. Get it if you don't have it.