Customer Reviews

New Faces

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Dizzy had a great idea for this 1985 album. Rather than try to bring a group of seasoned players for this early full digital jazz recording he decided on bringing in some young musicians such as Kenny Kirkland,Branford Maraslis and drummer Robert Ameen for a really fresh take on on old songs and some new Dizzy originals. Now the sound is excellent,the best you can get. As opposed to going for some flattened out flavor or some kind of early loudness war the the sound is crisp and clear. Even versions of old chestnuts like "Birk's Works and Chano Pozo's "Tin Tin Deo",with some great modern day Pozo style percussion by Steve Thornton,who by the way does and excellent job on similarly Cuban-jazz flavored tunes such as "Lorraine" and the lively "Fiesta Mojo". There are two newly written songs here and both have a strong funk kick to the otherwise pretty standard bop arrangements. "Tenor Song" and "Every Mornin'" have plenty of R&B grooves and breaks in and out of the song. During the 80's there was a lot of this approch;fairly straight jazz incorperating purely the rhythms of funk rather than it's electric instrumentation. Even the very sudtle use of electric bass in "Every Mornin'" could never seem to intrude on the music itself to even the most anti fusion of jazz fan. The songs are all long enough to allow the musicians to make the most out of solos and keep the attention of the listener. This is especially evident on the song "Ballad" which is not only self explanatory but actually has a great vocal type section it it. It would be great for a singer. Maybe it's already been done-I don't know. Either way this is a great Dizzy album from an era when a lot of people could've written him off as a currently non producing musical legend and kept him musically in the game.

What is it about this crisp and jumpy album? I thought it would be old-jazz pre-bop, but there's some rock & roll propellant in here that merges sweetly with the brass leads. A sharp pianist too, whoever he is (my library copy is missing the cover). And the date -- was Dizzy still blowing it in 1984-?

This is one of my favorite Gillespie albums! It is really great. Marsalis's saxophone really compliments Dizzy's trumpet. I reccomend this album highly.

The chemistry on this recording is great! It's such a shame we lost Kenny Kirkland he was destined to be one of the greats! Dizzy of course is Dizzy! It's really as if he's speaking through his trumpet.

Much of what you hear on 1985's New Faces by Dizzy Gillespie is not new. You get the bop-blues of "Burks Works," the straight bop of "Lorraine," and the Latin jump of tracks like "Tin Tin Deo, and "Tenor Song,"

What is new are the younger musicians--Branford Marsalis and bass player Lonnie Plaxico--and the clean sound on New Faces. Gillespie was actually revisiting the various musical bases he touched through his entire career. His playing is here as speedy and detailed as it ever was.

But it can be a very odd experience to hear this classic music in digital. This was a relatively new medium in 1985 and while you can't fault the quality of the recording, the quicksilver improvising is strange in juxtaposition with the buffered sheen of the audio. But musically, New Faces is beyond reproach, and if you have and if you have heard the classic Dizzy albums from the 1940 to the 1970s, this is without question one to buy.

I purchased this CD for my brother in Oklahoma, because he is a HUGE Dizzy Gillespie fan. He only mentioned one song in particular, "Tin Tin Deo", so after searching the web for and listening to that song, I knew my brother would enjoy having the CD. Boy, was I right!!!! He told me that he plays the CD everyday. It arrived quickly from Amazon, and yes, the pricing was awesome!!!!!