Customer Reviews

Rat Race Blues

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

 

 

Gigi Gryce is one of the best jazz musicians that too few people have ever heard of, and this blues-steeped album contains some of his best work. Though his career barely spanned a decade before he quit the jazz life to become a respected schoolteacher, Gryce was beloved as a performer, writer, and human being by the musicians he worked with. This disc makes a nice companion to the same-titled book, by Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald.

Gigi Gryce is best known as a writer and arranger, but this recording proves him to be a fine player as well. As the title suggests, the five tracks on this CD are all based on blues. There is some great work as well by the seldom-heard Richard Williams on trumpet; my favorite passages are those where the two horns engage in spirited interplay.

Maybe obscure is unfair, but I've only run across a few people who seem to know this recording. Not a absolutely essential release, but well worth picking up for insight to a sometimes under-appreciated performer.

This was Gigi Gryce's third and last album recorded for Prestige, all of them done in 1960, and my favorite of the three. The front line on all three albums remained the same (Richard Williams on trumpet and Richard Wyands on piano), and this one has the rhythm section of Julian Euell (b) and Mickey Roker (d). The tunes, which are all originals, are fantastic, especially the title track and BOXER'S BLUES; BOXER is a slow 24-bar blues that is absolutely compelling - it's hard to get the tune out of your head after hearing it. RAT RACE is at the other end of the spectrum - an up-tempo, 12-bar blues that cooks as well as seethes. Everyone plays brilliantly throughout. This CD has gotten repeated playing since I bought it years ago; it's Gigi Gryce at his best. Well worth getting.

There is no such thing as a bad Gigi Gryce performance or composition. Espousing that mantra, I picked this recording up. Strange Feelin' and Boxer's Blues are the standouts, but every song is a gem.

This is simply a great record. The trumpet player Richard Williams plays beautifully. Gigi is great. Essential.