Customer Reviews

Serenade to a Bus Seat

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Bus Seat contains one of the best recordings of Donna Lee I've ever heard. Griffin and Terry were clearly spurring each other on during these sessions, and the results were one of the best hard bop records ever made.
The rhythm section is great too... Winton Kelly pno, Paul Chambers, bss, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The overal record demonstrates the height of mainstream Bebop recorded at the end of that era. For me the highlight is Johnny Griffin's tenor... he's got an attack that defies description.

I should state for the record that I'm much more of a swing fan than a true lover of bebop. But I do harbor enough interest in the works of Dizzy, Fats Navarro and others to keep exploring. And for me Clark Terry represents safe ground because he was born and raised in the big swing bands of Basie, Ellington and Hampton and that upbringing shows through on this 1957 recording for Riverside, his first for the lable. The rhythm section is first rate - Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. And Johnny Griffin's relaxed tenor is a nice foil to Terry's inventive yet technically supercharged style of improvisation. 8 tracks in all including bop standard Donna Lee and a nice treatment of the ballad Stardust. Recommended to swingers and boppers alike.