Customer Reviews

Super Jazz

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having listened to the complete CD on a long drive this morning, I am blown away by the music here. I fully expected to find multiple glowing reviews here, but found no reviews posted yet.

Both Al Hirt and Pete Fountain deliver superb performances, but this recording is just as much about the musical interactons between them and with the audience. Listening, I felt as if I was attending a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, one of those where it all comes together musically.

This CD includes wonderful improvisations by Hirt and Fountain. I believe you can't do better than this.

This is a live 1975 recording made at a New Orleans festival called "Super Jazz I".

AFter first purchasing this CD some 15 years ago I found out that my father was actually at the superdome when they performed this fantastic meeting of new orleans' best. If you love Al Hirt and Pete Fountain and you don't have this in your collection, get it now and you will be blown away.

I HAD THIS IN RECORD FORM, PROBABLY WHEN IT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED. WHO KNOWS WHERE IT IS NOW. PETE FOUNTAIN IS A FANTASTIC JAZZ CLARINETIST. I WAS REALLY EXCITED TO GET THIS CD, AND VERY DEVASATED WHEN I TRIED TO PLAY IT. THE CD WAS COMPLETELY BLANK. ON TOP OF THAT, AMAZON WONT SEND A REPLACEMENT ONLY A REFUND. THAT SUCKS.

The icons of Bourbon Street - Al Hirt and Pete Fountain - teamed up for a series of gigs in conjunction with the 1975 Super Bowl being played in Tulane Stadium, with the performances pulled from a number of the evenings.

The album mirrors the shows; opening with Hirt and his band, then Fountain and his group performing a set and the night culminating with a jam session featuring Hirt, Fountain and all the band members. The three numbers from Hirt are from the first evening and are worth the price of admission solely on his monolgues explaining the variety of parades in New Orleans, the history of traditional Creole music and his special friendship with Louis Armstrong. Fountain paves a pop path with "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and delivers a hot rendition of the classic "When the Saints Go Marching In."

The editing gets choppy for the jam session, as the hijinks from a later gig finds Fountain explaining to the audience the challenge of performing after having a few cocktails and Hirt amping things up to the point where certain words are "bleeped" out. But the dynamic duo delivers on "Basin Street Blues" and "Super Bowl Blues."

Though they owned clubs in the French Quarter and performed extensively in the city, the pair rarely played on the same stage once they became international stars. Hirt called the gigs "Super Jazz 1" and this is truly a legendary team on their home turf.

I was pleased that you had Al Hirts music available and the cds I ordered was just what I wanted. Thanks for having them in stock!

Travis Royal