Customer Reviews

Porgy & Bess

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I heard a long selection from this CD on my local Baltimore NPR station-WYPR-the week it was released. The Porgy and Bess suite was absolutely stunning, evocative and for lack of a better word, beautiful. I'm online now to buy the CD...

Wow.A fantastic CD with a rich and gorgeous orchestra backing a great soloist. Hard to believe Gershwin wrote these songs in the thirties, Gil Evans originally did the orchestrations for Miles so long ago and now Jeff Lindberg leads the Chicago Jazz Orchestra to back Terry in this terrific collection from Porgy and Bess. The depth of the brasses alone make it worth the price. Deep, lush, sensous and mellow but it can swing. Get this one.

A classic piece of music re-done usuly has nothing but poor results, not on this record. From track one to done this record is non-stop entertainment. Framiler songs done in a way that will make you smile, and turn it up a notch on each track. A must have for anyone interested in Jazz.

This recording shows that Clark Terry can and does hold his own with cats like Dizzy & Miles. Don't get me wrong, I love Diz and Miles a lot, but Clark just took a different path and for some reason is only now getting his due.
Featured, as usual, is Clark's muted trumpet and gorgeous flugelhorn sound and man for anyone at any age he is definitely SMOKIN'! Do yourself a favor and grab this one!
The Chicago Jazz Orchestra is a perfect blend to Clark's genius.
What I'd really like to see is Miles' and Gil Evans' reactions!
You are gonna love this!

I don't often like remakes better than the original (12 Angry Men, for a movie example). I don't know that I would call this a remake as much as it is a variation on a theme. To explain, this album takes the Gil Evans arrangements that Miles made famous, even immortal forty-plus years ago, and takes them in a subtly different direction. For one, the solo instrument is a fluglehorn and not a trumpet and the richer, more sonorous sound changes the feel significantly.
And for another, Clark Terry isn't Miles Davis. I have to say that for myself, I LIKE Terry's playing better than Miles's in absolute terms, while acknowledging that Miles is the more important and innovative musician. (My favorite jazz genre is the swing-era small group. so there's a bias.)But the emotional content that Terry injects is, in my opinion, gentler and more varied, if less intense, that what Miles gave us. More nostalgic perhaps.
I also feel the connection more in this rendition to the lyrics of Gershwin's original songs, to the heartbreak and resilience of spirit that the opera celebrates.