Lenox Avenue Breakdown

Arthur Blythe | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 20, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Koch Records
• ASIN: B00000DBVL
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,584 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Down San Diego Way

2. Lenox Avenue Breakdown

3. Slidin' Through

4. Odessa

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 20-OCT-1998

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, soon to be classic recording, September 28, 2005

By 

Open Ears "Hungry for sound" (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenox Avenue Breakdown (Audio CD)

When I first got this LP in '79 I wore it out. From its opening notes this release makes an impression with an air of textural sophistication and swing. It's an outing by players completely at ease with their virtuosity. Nothing is pressed or forced here. It's simultaneously adventurous in composition and soloing and unpretentious. The arrangements feel organic. DeJohnette, Ulmer, McBee, Franco and Newton all acquit themselves really well. Bob Stewart's tuba playing is rock steady and funky and makes you wonder why more ensembles bottoms aren't anchored by a tuba. The focal point of it all, Blythe, solos crisply and smartly and leads one of the great group efforts of the last 30 years.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Breakdown, February 7, 2003

By 

Eliot B. Muir (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenox Avenue Breakdown (Audio CD)

Despite its much too long in coming reissue, Lenox Avenue remains a largely unknown jazz classic, at least to those too young or too old to have followed the scene close enough when it originally came out. In my mind, it's a must have, an essential CD. No jazz lover should be without this magical send up. The unusual instrumentation and the harmonic awareness of these musicians melds groove and melody with the seemless free improvisation that marked the era to form the most cogent piece of late '70s jazz now available.

How much does this work mean to me? The lump in my gut the day my LP version of Lenox broke while moving wasn't removed until it was finally reissued.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawless, Inspiring, Essential, January 15, 2006

By 

a consumer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenox Avenue Breakdown (Audio CD)

This is one of my all-time favorite recordings. It's rare when concept and execution so perfectly meet. Arthur Blythe had been playing the New York loft scene for some years before this album, exploring a wide range of musical settings (tuba and conga, quintet featuring cello, etc.) and avant-garde stylings. He said he used the tuba because it reminded him of old New Orleans music, and he saw it as a way to stayed rooted in the tradition while pushing forward musically. Blythe's playing itself was/is very individual, a fat, warm sound that seems impossible to get out of an alto, with a lot of Coltane inspiration but he definitely has his own voice--you could pick him out in a blindfold listening test in about two seconds. Anyway, on this album he got to take his explorations a bit further and managed to get some big name players to help out, like Jack DeJohnette, James Blood Ulmer, James Newton and Cecil McBee. The result is less austere than the albums Blythe made before this (Metamorphosis, Bush Baby), still true to an avant-garde exploratory spirit, but often melodic and lush, full of the blues, eminently accessible to almost any jazz fan.

The first two songs are great, but it's songs three and four that make this album transcendent. "Slidin' Through" has an earthy blues theme that's complemented by a slightly atonal riff by Ulmer, a wonderful McBee solo right after the head, played while the band keeps a subdued vamp going, DeJohnette doing some of that great bob-and-weave rhythm-keeping that's his trademark, then Bythe comes in and opens it up, and from there the song builds and builds, with passionate, rapid-fire interaction between Blythe and DeJohnette, and DeJohnette taking the song out with so much power, pushing everyone in the band--there's no tension/release when the song's theme is played at the end, things aren't over--it keeps a blistering amount of energy going through all the way to the fade-out.

This song was cited by Rafi Zabor in his novel "The Bear Comes Home" (recommended in its own right) as an example of why mere mortal musicians feared the prospect of playing with Mr. DeJohnette. He wasn't an accompanist, he was a force of nature, kicking everyone's musical behinds until they were all playing their utmost.

The next song, "Odessa", is very loose, Blythe melodically soloing over a meter-less rhythm section, kind of like Coltrane, with a slow, deep, almost mournful feel--for years I have hit the "repeat" button to hear that solo over and over, it's so emotionally enagaging...

Anyway, this is definitely a desert-island disc for me. I've played it for jazz fans of all stripes and everyone has found something to like in it.