Customer Reviews

Not Just Another Pretty Bass

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(0)
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We were given this CD as a gift and it hasn't been out of my car CD player since!! After reading a bio of Jim we contacted him via e-mail and discovered he was going to be in our vicinity in one week as a back-up player with Crystal Gayle. We got tickets and met him after the concert. What a gracious and talented player he is. Our only dissapointment is that he is so busy with his duties playing back-up that he isn't regularly in any club so that his live performances are few and far between. He is writing actively and will have another CD out in the spring,with more of his own tunes on it. Again our assessment of his playing and personality can't be too enthusiastic. He is simply the best.

As a terrific change of pace from rap, hip-hop, pretty-boy vocal groups with boring harmonies and country singers in big black hats, Jim Ferguson's Not Just Another Pretty Bass cd is a breath of musical fresh air. More than a virtuoso on the bass along with an open and inviting vocal style, Mr. Ferguson takes the musical form of jazz-influenced "standards" and delivers each song with an irresitable contemporary flair. From the whimsy in the title track, Not Just Another Pretty Bass, written by Mr. Ferguson, to the heartfelt performance of Blame it On My Youth, and all of the other cuts, we never tire of listening to it. We give it 5 stars.

Nashville jazz--I love it! Jim Ferguson has a voice as smooth as silky velvet.

One of the best jazz albums of the past decade. Loved the bass playing and title track. Good job on the piano Pat Coil.

This cd is simply amazing. I bought it while I was in Nashville after a music teacher at MTSU suggested that I listen to it. With all due respect to the New York jazz scene, this album is such a breath of fresh air in comparison to most modern jazz. The Nashville delivery and the stripped down quartet setup (the jazz quartet is almost a lost art) make this an incredible blend of the old and the new. If you have any interest at all in vocal jazz, this is above and away one of the top ten jazz albums of the ninties. Great job, JIM.

Wow! Jim Ferguson! His treatment of a ballad is so sensitive, done with such passion, executed with such precision. Jim's voice performance is to the song as is Lynne Arriale's piano. What an enjoyable experience listening to Jim and his bass perform their magic on this great selection of tunes. I can't wait for the next CD!

I heard this CD reviewed on NPR, and fell in love. Ferguson has a delicous voice. The sax is superb, the keyboard great...this is lovely listening. I have bought 3 of this CD so far, one for me and two as gifts...a must for jazz that retains and regifts us with melody and wonderful vocal style and phrasing. Yummy stuff.

Rather than go on at length, which would be easy to do, just let me say that my copy arrived from Amazon last week and it has yet to be removed from my CD player. As a musician and fellow bassist, what more can I say?

Where has Jim Ferguson been all this time? What a great CD! And it was his first? The rest of the group, notably Chris Potter, were outstanding as well.It's hard to imagine that Jim will improve with age, but I am eagerly looking forward to his second.

I buy new artists' CD's with great trepidation. With all due respect to other reviewers and the lttle sound samples that I check out on my computer, only once I am alone in the car with the CD do the "warts" show themselves. Let me assure you, there are no warts on this CD. Jim's voice is lyrical, flexible, musical and spot on the note. As well as lovely intonation, he has beautiful diction, so you can understand every word of every song - yet it is as easy and natural as speech. If you like smooth voices (Torme, Buble) I will be very surprised if you don't like Jim. With something of the jazz looseness of Kenny Rankin and the richness of timbre of Tom Lellis, Jim has a totally beguiling sound of his own. The supporting musicians are always tasteful and Jim's bass playing is superb. This album shows great diversity (the title track's a hoot) and may well take you from laughter to tears.