Customer Reviews

Red Rodney: 1957

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Red Rodney's "1957" is a great album but it is the exact same material as is on the Savoy CD "Fiery" (see my review). I mail-ordered this title without realizing this. Don't repeat my mistake.

I just don't get it. $65 (current price) for the CD and the DVDA goes for $9.... how crazy is that. DVDA=CD...

This 1957 date, originally done for Signal and subsequently issued on Savoy, is one of Red's finest. It also marked a high water mark in his career: it was the last thing he would record (other than an obscure session for Argo two years later) for the next 16 years, the result of a very bad drug habit.

The album starts off with a long version of STAR EYES, a tune Red's mentor and hero Charlie Parker recorded twice. It's done medium tempo and pianist Tommy Flanagan really shines. Four of the remaining five selections are done up-tempo (thus the CDs title), and both Red and tenor sax man Ira Sullivan cook on these titles. Best is RED ARROW, a Frank Wess composition, that has a handsome theme out of which Red comes wailing; on this track Sullivan plays trumpet and he and Rodney duel each other in fours and then twos to the end. It's a great performance.

YOU'D BETTER GO NOW, a pretty Frank Foster ballad, is played beautifully by Red and Ira on tenor. The rhythm section of Oscar Pettiford (b) and Philly Joe Jones (d) is rock solid throughout. It's a shame that such a high quality album should mark the last from Red for such a long time to come, though we can be thankful it was made before the fall. An excellent CD; definitely worth checking out.