Customer Reviews

Limehouse Blues

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Master fiddler Staphane Grappelli and electric axman Barney Kessel heat up a Parisian studio in 1969, leading an able, local rhythmn section through standards and Kessel originals. It takes solos this fresh and hot to bring life to tired and overworked tunes like I Got Rhythm,It Don't Mean a Thing... and Honeysuckle Rose. However, this session breathes with life, vitality, and masterful swing improvisation.

I'm a jazz guitarist and jazz record collector. This is one of those albums that I listened to a lot when I was getting into jazz guitar. The spirit of this album is delightful. Stephane bringing his eloquent, Parisian swing, and Barney bringing his Charlie Christian rooted bebop fireworks. Fans of hard swinging jazz will love this album. As a guitar player, the initial draw was Barney Kessel. I love much of Barney on this session. Hearing his chordal backing of Grappelli is delightful (as I've always loved Barney's vocabulary of chords), and his solos are always hard swinging, though I must confess, he has a penchant for a few sweeping arpeggiated licks that seem to come up far too often......I say far too often because he tended to get a bit sloppy with this schtick, at times. With that niggle aside, this is a fine album that is almost certainly to delight the listener.