Customer Reviews

Soul Proprietor

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My very first reaction when listening was ..1)Sam Yahel has reached an impressive level as a hammond B3 player..his left hand bass playing is fantastic...and his playing on this CD show us another direction for how the B 3 could be handled.2)The general playing by the musicians are perhaps stronger than the songs.
Ralph Bowen is a tenor sax player from Philly that played a lot with the late Shirley Scott as well as with Trudy Pitts,, he also played for some time with Horace Silver.Bowen says that he has several influences like Coltrane.Rollins and Canonball.. this makes him a complete sax player... at times he plays very sweet and beautifu and his solos can not leave anyone untouched that has the patience to listen Swana plays his bebop chops with great focus on melody and swing..Bernstein is pretty much in the background but when soloing his is a as always outstanding...and Brian Blade must be one of the best young drummers out there.
Highlights are the title track "Soul Proprietor" by Bowen and another Bowen original called "The First Stone"

I saw Bowen at the Blue Note last week with the Rutgers Jazz Faculty (terrific lineup - Stanley Cowell, Gil Parris, Victor Lewis) and was really impressed with his playing. They led off with The First Stone, from this CD, and I was blown away. I was sure it was something from a '60s Blue Note session, and was surprised to learn that it is a Bowen original. The guy's got chops, and as you'll hear on this album, his abilities as a composer are impressive. He may not be as well known as some other tenor players, but he's a real pro. A revelation well worth listening to.