My Favorite Things [Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Dave Brubeck | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sbme Import
• ASIN: B000005RUM
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,979 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. My Favorite Things

2. Over and Over Again

3. Why Can't I?

4. Little Girl Blue

5. This Can't Be Love

6. My Romance

7. The Circus on Parade

8. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Of My Favorite Brubeck Albums!, September 23, 2005

By 

Alex Udvary (chicago, il United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: My Favorite Things (Audio CD)

"My Favorite Things" is one of Dave Brubeck's "composer albums". Brubeck fans will recall such titles as "Anything Goes" (Cole Porter), and "Angel Eyes" (Matt Denise) here the Dave Brubeck Quartet pays homage to Richard Rogers and the results, while at as satisfying as "Anything Goes", make "My Favorite Things" one of Brubeck's best albums.

We start things off with a fast tempo version of the title track, minus Paul Desmond. Brubeck at times seems as if he's about to go off-time, but never does. Brubeck fans will take note of the fact he has made a career playing around with time signitures. But Brubeck does get some good passages in. I like a lot of the chord changes and Brubeck's right hand does some nifty work.

The next track "Over and Over Again" starts off with Brubeck playing the melody, almost as a ballad and then things pick up as Desmond comes in. Wonderful interplay between Brubeck and Desmond should make you keep coming back to this one.

My favorite track on the album might be "This Can't Be Love". Brubeck plays it as a familar tempo but again gets in a lot of good passages. As does Paul Desmond.

"Circus on Parade" is one the only song on the album I wasn't familar with it. The quartet swings on it from beginning to end and the result is rather pleasing.

"My Romance" and "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" are the same version heard on Brubeck's "Plays West Side Story". But are enjoyable to listen to but I prefer "Girl".

Overall "My Favorite Things" is a very good album that demonstrates with made the quartet so popular. Brubeck and Desmond as usual have wonderful chemistry together and the song selection is a delight. If there is one negative thing to say about the album it is that there aren't enough songs! Where are the recordings of "Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered", "Where or When", "Soon (There'll Just Be Two Of Us)", "Lady Is A Tramp" and "Loads of Love"? But we Brubeck fans will take what we can get.

Bottom-line: One of Brubeck's best albums. Desmond and Brubeck are a delight to listen to as is the song selection. Fans of Brubeck should check this out despite it being very rare.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative, October 21, 2009

By 

R. Carter (Oklahoma City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Favorite Things (Audio CD)

I grew up with my parents playing this as a vinyl record. It has my favorite version of the song "My Favorite Things". I love Brubeck.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great If Less Well-Known Brubeck Album, January 13, 2007

By 

Aficianado, "Music, Film and Book Lover" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Favorite Things (Audio CD)

This is another of Dave's albums of music from a specific composer, in this case the legendary Richard Rodgers. It was released on CD in 2006 (along with Brubeck's "Anything Goes", another great album) in limited distribution. Sony, who has been among the most aggressive labels in re-issuing older LP albums on CD has done jazz lovers a great service by making this treasure available as an import from Japan.

In this particular case, they have re-issued Dave's original Columbia Records red "six eye" label LP by the same name (and with selections recorded in 1962 and 1965) but now in re-mastered stereo on CD. Also, since there are no online "sound samples" available for this album (at least as of this writing) and which are normally very helpful, it is somewhat more difficult for those who haven't heard the album before to know what it sounds like and make a purchase decision. I hope this review can be of some assistance to those in that category.

The songs selected for this album are classics from one of America's all time great composers for the musical theater. Richard Rodgers is of course well known for being the musician half of the great teams of "Rodgers and Hammerstein" and "Rodgers and Hart". This album consists exclusively of music from both teams (although mostly from "Rodgers and Hart"), as interpreted by Dave Brubeck and his quartet. I found that as much as I liked Brubeck's "Anything Goes" CD (released at the same time), I personally enjoyed this album even more!

The Brubeck quartet sounds as good (and plays as well) as ever and Sony's stereo re-mastering on this album is superb, as is usual for them. It ranks with the best I have yet heard on any jazz album. You will definitely want this album if you are a fan of Dave Brubeck's and even more so if you love the heritage of the American musical theater.