Customer Reviews

New Groove

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

 

 

Ask Me Now is a masterpiece. This CD is OK. The concepts are the same. Put Pee Wee into a challenging Chamber Jazz context, stretch him with exposure to some brilliant Modern Jazz compositions, give him a couple of ballads to do his thing. Marshal Brown really doesn't swing on that valve trombone - I guess he doesn't swing on the other CD either but it isn't so jarring. His phrasing is so literal that it sounds like he's reading his solos. Pee Wee has great moments (Taps Miller, for example) but if you need to make a choice...Ask Me Now wins hands down. This CD feels more like a bunch of Jazz traditionalists trying to make a Jimmy Giuffre record.

The previous reviewer is right: lightning doesn't strike twice. In 1962, Pee Wee Russell teamed up with trombonist Marshall Brown, formed a pianoless quartet and recorded an album made of an intriguing mix of old standards and modern compositions (Ellington, Monk, Coltrane): that is the excellent "New Groove". Two years later, they applied the very same concept and used the very same modern composers (+ Coleman) to record the very good, but somewhat paler "Ask Me Now!"

I think "New Groove" is the more rewarding effort by the Pee Wee Russell quartet: it has a better song selection - including Russell's own, great "Pee Wee's Blues"; good earthy swing from Basie ("Taps Miller") and Moten ("Moten Swing"); and Tadd Dameron bop nugget, "Good Bait". Brown's arrangement also sound more inventive, more interactive; more space is given to bassist Russell George (who has a great solo on Coltrane's "Red Planet", wittily quoting the then Coltrane solo vehicule, "My Favorite Things") and to drummer Ron Lundberg, who is a more forceful drummer than Ronnie Bedford (drummer on the "Ask Me Now" session). Finally the main man, Pee Wee, sounds a little more freewheeling, more like himself, than on AMN, me thinks.

And for all these reasons...

How does a traditional jazz musician become a modernist? By being a wonderful, unique musician. There was no one like Pee Wee Russell. This recording, as well as one made on the Impulse label (Ask Me Now!), place Russell in new musical territory, and he stamps each song with his own inimitable style. Unique musicians have always been rare, but today they are ever rarer. I love this recording (and the Impulse recording). For anyone who values uniqueness.