Search - Barney Wilen :: Barney

Barney's a monster

Cedric Westphal | san francisco, ca | 09/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Barney Wilen cannot be his real name: he was a French sax player from the riviera. But his sound is real. On this date, he hooks up with the excellent Duke Jordan on keys, the amazing Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and two competent complements: paul rovere on bass and daniel humair on drums. This team was put together to play the soundtrack of a movie by Pierre Melville in 1959: 'temoin dans la ville' (which soundtrack you can by from amazon as well). The idea for the soundtrack was to kinda repeat the milestone that Miles Davis achieved for 'ascenceur pour l'echafaud', the 1957 Louis Malle movie. Barney was playing on the ascenceur soundtrack (by no means 'elevator' music), and was called again for 'temoin dans la ville'. Kenny Dorham replaced Miles, and Duke Jordan stepped in. This cd was recording at the time at club st germain. The last song is the 'temoin dans la ville' theme. The other songs are standards (or became some, as jordu or lotus blossom were written by Jordan and Dorham respectively -not for this session, however).

Barney sounds good. He is a little tentative on 'besame mucho', where Kenny blows the lights out. But he asserts himself later on."