Customer Reviews

Man with the Horn

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first-time release of an early '80s tape featuring the one-man orchestra, pianist Bobby Enriquez, and the madcap prince of the alto, Richie Cole. Some more sober and somber jazz followers will regard four stars overly generous while others will get a bang out of this session. Look at the playlist (yes, that's "Peg of My Heart"). Even though the date opens with Bird's best composition, "Confirmation," this set is an eclectic, slightly over-the-top mix of everything--from Louis and Keely to Liberace, from bebop to bump & grind music. It's all a lot of fun, the perfect therapy for listeners anesthetized by Chris Botti or stretched to the limits of artistic pretentiousness by a CD collection overstocked with "jazz" recordings from ECM and Winter&Winter.

I'm a Richie Cole fan, but I can't be as positive about this release as the previous reviewer. I give it 3 1/2 Stars.

Why?

The pianist: Bobby Enriquez. Calling it "Liberace" is too generous. "Chico Marx" is more like it. Track 10 "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" IS slaughtered, and should have stayed in the can. Enriquez plays more notes than 3 or 4 bop pianists put together, and most of them are meaningless.

It's too bad, because the sound is clean and punchy.

But at times you can almost hear the ghost of Eddie Jefferson behind such classics as Charlie Parker's "Confirmation." If Richie Cole has any unreleased Eddie Jefferson tracks in the vault, it would be a service to release them.

So skip Track 10, and imagine what it would have been like had Eddie Jefferson not gone down.