If Trees Could Talk

Larry Willis (Artist), Hamiet Bluiett (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 1999)
• Original Release Date: September 14, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mapleshade Records
• ASIN: B00001QGLY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #401,282 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From Jazziz

Mapleshade's spare approach to sound recording - analog, mastered live to two track, no overdubs, no compression, no mixing board, and on - serves Bluiett well on this album, capturing the World Saxophone Quartet member's baritone sax in all its robust, earthy richness. The arrangements are similarly unadorned - except for the opening cut's skeletal, percolating Afro-beats (courtes y of percussionist Asante), Bluiett provides the album's rhythmic thrust. Pianist Larry Willis is the only other player here, offering glistening contrast with his fluid solos and sprightly, straightahead accompaniment. As a creative foil, Willis is valuable, providing inspiration and broadening the sonic palette. But the real star here is Bluiett, whose mastery is responsible for a good deal more variation than one might think his big horn would allow.

Bluiett consistently displays an impressive range - one could be forgiven for repeated checks of the detailed CD booklet to see if the lush mid-range and squealing high-end sounds are indeed produced by the baritone. (They are, except for the alto flute used on the titular song.) The album boasts an impressive thematic ran ge, too: shearing dissonance meets up with honking R&B on "The African"; elsewhere, mournful melodies benefit from around, smooth tone. Ballads don't escape sharp interjections, but even at his most jarring, Bluiett never dismisses his tuneful sensibilities.

--Patrick Hughes, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary Triumph, December 15, 1999

By 

Yang-chu Higgins (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If Trees Could Talk (Audio CD)

The often heard lament that jazz just isn't as good as it use to be might be more clique than reality. Quite simply, this cd is excellent for its melodic fusion of American and African instrumentation. This is very serious jazz.

I was exposed to the cd by the best radio station in the world-- WPFW, which can be listened to outside the D.C. area by visiting www.wpfw.org.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bari Delicious!, July 5, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If Trees Could Talk (Audio CD)

This 1999 release from Mapleshade was actually recorded years before--1993, to be not fully exact--but had apparently been placed on the back shelves as the studio went on to other projects, many of them produced by Bluiett and Willis (who soon after this project became Mapleshade's director of music). Although there are only two musicians playing, this is some powerful stuff that can knock you right back on your backside.

Bluiett plays the baritone sax, and anyone who has a heard a baritone sax in full cry knows that this is one formidable instrument (after the first Gulf War, in imaginary fact, Iraq was forbidden from manufacturing them), and Bluiett is anything but a shrinking violet. Although there are sometimes some squeaks and snarls from Bluiett's horn that sound altogether gratuitous, this is one powerful recording as he and Willis work hard together to produce some really moving music.

A special highlight is their version of John Coltrane's "Some Other (Schizophrenic) Blues." It might be hard to imagine the ghost of Coltrane's classic quartet being summoned so effortlessly by just piano and baritone sax, but that's what happened in 1993. Mapleshade's Pierre Sprey captured these sessions in immediate, powerful, explosive sound, and as my old friend Strawberry Shortcake used to say, the end result is "bari delicious."