Customer Reviews

Straight No Chaser

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the reviewer below was trying to be helpful, it has backfired since he only gave this title one star. "Straight, No Chaser" is an excellent live document of Joe with the Wynton Kelly Trio in the years immediately following his stint with Blue Note. Along with "Four," this recording sat in the vaults for close to 30 years before being issued on CD by Verve. Normally, I would say this is a four-star disc, as the material is mostly standards and not as adventurous as the Blue Note albums. But I have no qualms awarding five here to offset the earlier one star rating. Great sound from a great group in a great era -- we'll miss you Joe.

These magnificent renditions of jazz standards (plus few lesser known songs) are precisely what I have expected from such a great group.
Joe Henderson (together with Charles Mingus and very few others) often sounds as if jazz history exists only to give him fuel for his playing, whereas the powerhouse Wynton Kelly trio (Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb !), relatively fresh from the Miles Davis experiences (or at least influenced by Miles), shines brightly - although their more mellow side on "If you could see me now" is no match to their forceful interaction to good old Joe... Make no mistake, Henderson is the star of this album, with Kelly trio giving him the springboard for flights of musical fancy.

Recommended to all the fans of modern jazz and of Joe Henderson...
'Tis pity Kelly died too young to develop further (or at least to keep doing his thing for few decades more)...