Customer Reviews

Plenty of Horn

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With Ted Curson's magnificent Black Lion CD "Tears For Dolphy" no longer available (and alas my review of that title for Amazon as well), it is great to see that other excellent 60s Curson recordings have resurfaced in recent years. Curson's first album, "Plenty Of Horn," was originally released in 1961 and has now been reissued by the Prevue label (the company also responsible for delightful reissues by J.R. Monterose and Red Rodney -- see my reviews). "Plenty Of Horn" also features plenty of talented musicians -- longtime Curson associate Bill Barron on tenor sax, Kenny Drew on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Roy Haynes, Dannie Richmond and Pete LaRoca alternating on drums, and even the great Eric Dolphy playing flute and replacing Barron on two tracks. The disc's tracks include six Curson originals -- "Nosruc," "Dem's Blues," "Ahma (See Ya)," "Flatted Fifth," "Antibes," and "Mr. Teddy" -- and three standards, Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and the two that Dolphy joins on "The Things We Did Last Summer" and "Bali-H'ai." Curson built his reputation as a member of the Mingus band, and it is easy to see the impression the bassist made on him. Mingus fans and Dolphy completists will undoubtedly appreciate this effort by the overlooked trumpeter.

I'd be tempted to give this a 5 star for the line up alone Ted Curson (trumpet)
Eric Dolphy (flute)
Bill Barron (tenor sax)
Kenny Drew (piano)
Jimmy Garrison (bass)
Dannie Richmond, Roy Haynes,
Pete (Sims) LaRoca (drums)
What a group.But results are pleasing but not off the charts.Though as a record collector I like my original cop (wish I had blue wax-crazy expensive "1st of First" press but alas mine is plain black).A good session though for early Curson check out "The Fire Down Below".Curson is somebody who deserved more recognition but has had a very nice career in Finland where as a musical variety man on TV he even is a pitch man for a milk company (I had him sign a postcard of mugging with a glass of milk instead of signing the LP).Good stuff but get his "Fire" and Tears For Dolphy" first.Not one bad LP/Cd in the Curson catalog including latter "Pop Wine" and others.
Cheers
Chazz