Customer Reviews

Out of the Forrest

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

 

 

I've got a bunch of Jimmy Forrest vinyl, and CDs, and Out of the Forrest is clearly the best -- it is his quintessential LP.
His tone is the best I've ever heard it, and his articulation on the very up-tempo Crash Program has got to be heard to be believed. "Crash" is the same tune as "Dog It" cut on the album Black Forrest, recorded about 18 months earlier. But it sounds to me like he'd been playing this blues head on a lot of gigs because he nails every note and swings better on this later record date.
"This Can't be Love" is also great... Forrest's solo starts at an intense level and goes up from there.
The only Jimmy Forrest album that might be of this caliber is "Most Much", which has the debatable version of Autumn Leaves... but "Yesterdays" from Out of the Forrest is sweater and more accessible to mortals.

Jimmy Forrest's tenor which has a warm fat tone, kind of like Ben Webster with a bluesey edge, is the star of this recording from 1961. He displays a gutbucket, bar room blues wail on "Bolo Blues", a boppish flair on "Crash Program", and a soulful vibrato on the slow numbers "I've Got A Right To Cry" and "Yesterdays". Backed by Joe Zawinul on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, and Clarence Johnston on drums, Forrest cuts a straightahead blowing session that is a pleasant mix of soulful slow numbers and uptempo material.

This is an amazing recording. I listen over and over. The haunting melody of Bolo Blues grabs you and infuses itself into your soul.