Soulville [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Ben Webster, Ben Webster Quintet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: UMVD Labels
• ASIN: B000084I0H
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,323 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2009 Limited Edition Classic LP's. High Definition premium Vinyl pressing for super fidelity. 180 gram vinyl audiophile pressing. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves 5 Stars..Ask The Students, December 22, 2005

By 

Original Mixed Up-Kid "jg" (New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soulville (Audio CD)

Big Ben has played with so many greats and at the tender age of 50 kind of came into his own here...His blues and his sound is pretty unique and distinguishable and he is valued as one of the top of his genre..

This CD has a lot of soul and indeed fits a smokey bar because some of the cuts are so bluesy sounding very Kansas City ...the sound he captures with "kings" such as Coleman Hawkins and "Sweets" Edison on other sides all coming out around this 2o year period smacks of a genre in Jazz history whose heart and emotions are very hard to match.

Lovely package,booklet and added tracks.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soulville, September 28, 2002

By 

nostrilbone "nostrilbone" (San Antonio, Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soulville (Audio CD)

Absolutely beautiful music. Webster's tenor sax in his greatest decade. One of his best albums. What more can you ask for? Wonderful support from Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and company. Ten songs, four gorgeous ballads. The CD has three previously unreleased tracks not included on the original LP of Webster playing a fierce, nerve-jangling boogie-woogie style piano. They're of interest because it's Webster pounding the heck out of the keys but they don't really contribute to the otherwise sumptious beauty of the proceedings. The contents of the original LP is what you'd be buying this for, the first seven songs--Ben Webster at the summit of his art or one of the summits I should say for he attained this level of artistic achievement a number of times throughout the 50s.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Has To Be One Of The Best Webster Albums From The Fifties, November 8, 2006

By 

Robert J. Ament "papacoolbreeze" (Ballwin, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soulville (Audio CD)

..............especially since all of the tracks, save the piano ones and "Late Date" appear in other Verve compilations as well ("Jazz Masters 43", "Ben Webster For Lovers", "Great Sax 'Jazz 'Round Midnight'", "Jazz 'Round Midnight" and "Quiet Now:Until Tonight").

The cd opens with two blues.....the first one,worth the price of the cd alone, is so beautifully late night........and the second more gutsy and honky tonk and showing Oscar's fantastic talents as a soloist but even more so, his willingness to lay back.

The next five selections are ballads by one of the finest practitioners of the form and are pure ecstasy. Also note the contributions of Herb Ellis and Ray Brown throughout the first seven tracks."Makin Whoopee" is an old, old standard which serves as an excellent example of the humor which can be depicted in good jazz.

The last three tracks feature Ben on the piano, his first instrument at an early age showing stride, boogie, and the type of stride which probably accompanied the pre-sound movies. These are not as important to me .....but would be to a collector since they represent (to my knowledge) the only recordings of Ben Webster playing the piano.

If you don't have any of these recordings, this is a definite 'must'! The blues and the sensational ballads alone make it well worth while!