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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Bedroom Music, December 21, 2003
If you want soft, sensual bedroom music this recording rates right up there with the best jazz ballad cd's out there. Carter's version of 'Round Midnight done on the baritone sax is definitive. His self-penned The Intimacy of My Woman's Beautiful Eyes and Deep Throat Blues are marvelously romantic tunes, and where else will you find an updated version of a Sun Ra ballad (You Never Told Me That You Care)? His rich tone is like a soundtrack that draws you in seductively and does not let go until the final note is in the air. The only oddity in this otherwise perfect program is the rip roaring Don Byas tune 1944 Stomp, an excellent tune in it's own right, but a bit out of place with all the other masterful ballad treatments.
James Carter consistently delivers high quality and very individualized performances, and this cd is the high point in my opinion thus far of an outstanding discography. Carter is a man on a mission to incorporate the best of jazz history with a modern sensibility. While he sometimes seems to not receive the acclaim he so richly deserves, I defy anyone to listen to his work on this recording and come away with anything but the highest praise for this multi-talented, multi-horn playing wonder.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
maybe it's the baritone, March 13, 2007
i remain overwhelmed by james carter and everyone i know who has heard his music feels just about the same way. maybe it's just that growl he has or the sound he gets from his baritone, a sax few reed players favor. without question he has his own style and historically he's so deep in jazz that listening to him is taking a trip in a time machine.
and then there are those other saxes he plays. on this recording he plays baritone on round midnight when just about everyone else has played it on tenor. he pulls out his tenor for you never told me that you care, and does a riff of when sonny gets blue that makes the song worth the price of the cd. and 1944 stomp by don byas, how many tenor fans even know the name byas these days? for the byas selection, carter performs on soprano. i could go on.
and what about craig taborn, what jazz piano style can't he play? and dave holland on bass?
i had given this cd 4 stars, but i changed it to 5 stars.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful stuff, July 3, 2002
The title here indicates Carter's intention: rather than the facile "quiet storm" music found on radio, this is music that is intimate & soulful & yet squarely within the jazz tradition. Carter's conception of jazz tradition is pleasingly to one side of the neoconservative pantheon. The album contains tunes by Sun Ra, Jackie McLean & Don Byas; in the liner notes Carter also namechecks Frank Foster, Gene Ammons, Anthony Braxton, John Surman & Frank Wess[!]Carter plays with two separate bands here: one features pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Jaribu Shahid & drummer Tani Tabbal, while another replaces the last two with the all-star rhythm section of Dave Holland & Leon Parker (though in point of fact the switch of rhythm sections doesn't make all that much of a difference to the sound of the music). Carter ranges through his arsenal of horns, &--most importantly--sounds good on all of them, even the bass flute with which he tackles "Ballad for a Doll". Carter's love of extrovert showmanship is sometimes apparent--as on his patented tumbling doubletime runs or the long held high note on "Round Midnight"--but never causes him to break the album's predominantly intimate & sensuous mood. A fine album: ignore the cloying cover art & give a listen to the music within.
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by James Carter 
