Customer Reviews

Ride Red Ride

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

 

 

Brilliant music made by old friends from the era when swing was still forming but at the same time the foundations of modern jazz were layed in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra ("Queer Notions" and some other songs).
This is a really hot and swinging Henry "Red" Alllen's slightly dixielandish date, featuring Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax) J. C. Higginbotham (trombone), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Cozy Cole (dm), as well as some younger but still hot players.

However, the leader is particularly expressive in the ballad "I Cover the Waterfront" - no wonder I found it cited as one of the classical Allen's performances. Late fifties were good not only for modern explorations: this hot hi fi session gives great joy to us fans of classical jazz who sometimes whish that the recording technology in the 20's and 30's was a bit more advanced...

Amazon has placed the preceding accurate review alongside the wrong recording. It's not the great New Orleans trumpeter's acclaimed recording of 1957, "Ride, Red, Ride in Hi Fi" on the RCA Victor Label. You won't find "I Cover the Waterfront" or any of the other 8 tunes from that session on this recording, "Ride Red Ride," which is a European collection representing Red's work from 1929 to 1946. 25 tracks altogether, and Red is of course inspired and soulful on each, so it's not exactly a "rip-off." Still, since it's showing as #2 in Amazon's sales for Red Allen, I suspect that unsuspecting consumers are being misled. Some listeners are undoubtedly going to be disappointed by the corny saxophone solos (though the Hawk is on a couple of the tracks) as well as the excessive banjo and the recessive (or totally absent) bass. This same collection is being sold in other versions, with different covers in different colors. So stay alert and on the case, and Red in hi fi should soon show up.

As for the mix-up it's not the reviewer's fault, and Amazon can hardly be expected to check out the contents of all of the CDs it sells. Consequently, it's easy to pick up a CD that has nothing in common with the one you thought you ordered except the title (Miles Davis' "Milestones" is another example. A European bootleg operation has used the title of that noteworthy Columbia date as the title of its collection of early, public domain Miles recordings).