Customer Reviews

Poll Winners

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the reviews below are not very helpful, I will try to contribute one that is. As I have indicated in my reviews of the first two Poll Winners CDs, Guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne were the people's choice on their instruments in the late 1950s. Since they had recorded together in the past (with a variety of frontmen), it was only natural that they try to reap the financial rewards of their popularity by forming the Poll Winners Trio. Their third album, "Poll Winners Three!" recorded on November 2, 1959, is perfectly good but the formula of running through the standards of the day is getting a bit repetitive. The album's three originals, "Crisis," "The Little Rhumba," and "Minor Mystery" contributed by Kessel, Manne and Brown respectively, offer some differentiation, and the performances of "Soft Winds" and "Easy Living" are excellent, but the true spirit of these trio collaborations are best captured on the first two albums. "Three!" and "Exploring the Scene" are certainly less about cashing in than their 1975 reunion album "The Straight Ahead," but for my money I would start at "poll" position.

If there is a better trio around than I haven't heard them. Barney Kessel got me into jazz years ago even though I was a hard core rocker. I own all of the Poll Winners recordings and if you want to hear jazz like it SHOULD be played, this is the place to go.

I heard that Barney Kessel passed away last may. This is the right occasion to tribute his talent rewieving this album. 1959 was running when this album was released. Just two years were passed since the Jazz zenith, 1957, but the freshness was still there. At least in the hands of these three poll winners, Barney, Ray and Shelly for sure. What separate this guitar /doublebass/ drums trio from trios of the same category are two things. Fantasy and fun. Fantasy because these three giants approach every tune with a different mind, contributing with fresh harmonic, melodic and moreover rythmical ideas, so the tune still if it is a well known standard finds new life. Few guitar based trios have the ability to sound fresh and inventive. The guitar has some idiosyncrasis which make it difficult for the guitarist to be interesting as a band leader. Only few did it successfully, Montgomery, Kessel,.. very, very few. The second is fun. Jazz surely should be deep musically but it should be funny too. These guys never forget this rule. They create interest, they are always ironic, and more than anything else they don't ever forget to swing hard. A special mention should be done to Barney because he has in the trio format, the greatest weight to carry. I don't want to steal you the surprise of hearing for yourself what were able to create these guys, talking about the tunes contained here. It will be enough to say that these guys were winners, and rightly so.

All of the pollwinners recordings are great, but this one really stands out. The tunes and the playing is so hip. Ray, Manne, and Kessel where really at their best.

5 stars? 50 stars!! From the first note of the smooth "Soft winds" right to the end of the end of the grooving "I hear Music" you won't be able stop listening. What an album...

I've got a LP called Poll winners,but I'm playin' him so much,so that there was no music anymore,than I search for an other record but I couldn't find him.
But I've got lucky to meet Amazon and I searched and found poll winner 1.2 & 3,I've never heard from n°3,so I read my books and than was it all clear to me,I won't to have him,so I buy it and I'm very happy I did it because it's such a good record with great artist on it,it's a pleasure to hear it and it make's my collection complete,I've got it all three.
Sometimes I've been disipointed about the price that some custumers ask for there records,but I'm search for a good example and I've got enough time to wait for a record that me pleaced.
I'm searchin' many time in Amazon and more than once,and I found a lot of music that I search for a good price,but the other problem I've got is the price the send it to my place and that is sometimes a great difference between the seller's.
I'm working long enough with some sellers,so that I know when I ordered there I become a good result from him and that is for me very imported.
Some sellers I wrote ,when I ask him from product information and than I become an answer,sometimes I don't recieved any message and than I couldn't ordered than the records,so than I go searching again to another seller.
I've been always happy that some sellers send me a personal note with a few lines on it and that mekes me also very happy,because they give us the oppertunity to search and to buy,but we don't know with such a person we deal and than I like a personal note very much
Thanks for the quick delivery and the good quality from the product.
My best regards Paul Van Oosterwyck music collector from Belgium

Obviously they were.......you can't be honored like that three years in a row on a fluke! I converted my old LP to disk and also stored it on my hard drive. The LP is almost 51 years old but the sound qaulity has not degraded that much as I still give my collection loving care.

The music still sounds good to me after all these years. Barney Kessel summed it up best when he said "It's not a guitar with bass and drum accompaniment.....it's a trio in every sense of the word." There's little that can be added to that. I never find the music of the "Poll Winners" boring because their approach always resulted in great jazz......but then I never played all of their albums sequentially.......maybe that's the advantage of having a fair sized collection.

This album would appeal to almost anyone who appreciates the individual talents of these three musicians. Their music is the best!.

Great cd in the collection of the poll winners, the trio is great as are the first two cd's by them.