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4.0 out of 5 stars
Reissue of an excellent 1982 date., August 8, 2009
This review is from: Mystic Bridge (24bt) (Dig) (Audio CD)
Bennie Wallace has always been kind of an oddball. His sound (as everybody will tell you) points to the thirties but his harmonic ideas point to the sixties and seventies. He love New Orleans music, the blues, a well-played ballad but then his soli are full of odd phrases and twists and turns. He will mix it up with anybody good enough- Dr. John, John Scofield, Elvin Jones, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ray Anderson and Chick Corea all played on one or another of his CDs from the '80s. On this reissue, he is featured with Corea on piano, Eddie Gomez on bass and Dannie Richmond on drums.
This is a typical Wallace CD- a nice mix of originals by him and Corea, and a standard or two. His tenor sound is big, powerful and his ideas a nice mix of swing and post-bop. Corea sounds traditional in comparison but his playing is wonderfully adapted to Wallace's style. Gomez and Richmond are the same as they ever were- perfect in support and, yet, always themselves.
This is not Bennie Wallace's best CDs from the 80s. I would suggest Big Jim's Tango or Twilight Time for that honor. But on any of Wallace's CD that I have heard, there is plenty of musical soul and intelligence to satisfy.
Listen to his version of My One and Only Love on this CD and see if you don't agree.
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