Customer Reviews

Smooth As the Wind

5 star:		(3)
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This is one of the truely great jazz albums. I have own the original 33 1/3 Lp for over 30 years, and have replaced it with the CD. For anyone wanting to hear one of the great, but under rated, jazz trumpeters playing impeccable, tasteful, yet beautiful music with a full orchestra of other great musicians -- this is your album. Guaranteed. Along with Clifford Brown's strings album, this rates among the best from the classic jazz period of the 1950s-1960s with a full orchestra. For aficionados, only Miles' work with Gil Evans can be rated above this.

With arrangers like Tadd Dameron and Benny Golson (who also worked with Blue on "Blue Soul"), and a stellar trumpet player who fits the genre, you can not miss - and this CD does not. Blue Mitchell is one of my 5 favorite trumpet players. Somewhat underappreciated by the jazz public at large, Blue proves to be as versatile as any of the string collaberators mentioned above, and some others not mentioned (Wes, Stan,etc.). For those who just won't or can't dig jazz with strings...simply pass this by; but you will be missing out on one of the greats doing it as well as anyone ever has.

I still have this vinyl LP in my collection. Before CDs, I listened to it dozens of times. Blue Mitchell has a unique tone and unmistakable phrasing. This is one of my all-time favorites. The strings provide an exquisite frame to Mitchell's trumpet. Recorded long before editing became sophisticated, there is one point where Blue misses a high note, but goes one. This imperfection does not subtract from the work as a whole, but instead adds to its charm.