Search - Ben Webster :: Soulville (Shm)

Deserves 5 Stars..Ask The Students

Original Mixed Up-Kid | New York United States | 12/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Big Ben has played with so many greats and at the tender age of 50 kind of came into his own here...His blues and his sound is pretty unique and distinguishable and he is valued as one of the top of his genre..

This CD has a lot of soul and indeed fits a smokey bar because some of the cuts are so bluesy sounding very Kansas City ...the sound he captures with "kings" such as Coleman Hawkins and "Sweets" Edison on other sides all coming out around this 2o year period smacks of a genre in Jazz history whose heart and emotions are very hard to match.

Lovely package,booklet and added tracks."

Has To Be One Of The Best Webster Albums From The Fifties

Robert J. Ament | Ballwin, MO United States | 11/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"..............especially since all of the tracks, save the piano ones and "Late Date" appear in other Verve compilations as well ("Jazz Masters 43", "Ben Webster For Lovers", "Great Sax 'Jazz 'Round Midnight'", "Jazz 'Round Midnight" and "Quiet Now:Until Tonight").



The cd opens with two blues.....the first one,worth the price of the cd alone, is so beautifully late night........and the second more gutsy and honky tonk and showing Oscar's fantastic talents as a soloist but even more so, his willingness to lay back.



The next five selections are ballads by one of the finest practitioners of the form and are pure ecstasy. Also note the contributions of Herb Ellis and Ray Brown throughout the first seven tracks."Makin Whoopee" is an old, old standard which serves as an excellent example of the humor which can be depicted in good jazz.



The last three tracks feature Ben on the piano, his first instrument at an early age showing stride, boogie, and the type of stride which probably accompanied the pre-sound movies. These are not as important to me .....but would be to a collector since they represent (to my knowledge) the only recordings of Ben Webster playing the piano.



If you don't have any of these recordings, this is a definite 'must'! The blues and the sensational ballads alone make it well worth while!"

The contrasting emotions of Ben Webster

Bomojaz | South Central PA, USA | 11/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ben Webster was one of the most emotional tenor sax players in jazz, and his range of emotions was incredible. He could be feisty one minute, coy the next; gruff on one tune, profoundly lyrical on the next; conversational here, in-your-face there. All these feelings are on display in this excellent album.



Ben is at his most relaxed on the medium-tempo tunes (MAKIN' WHOOPEE and LOVER COME BACK TO ME). It's as if he's having a front porch conversation with you on any ol' thing, and on WHOOPEE he is even sly at times and winking, too. On very slow ballads (TIME ON MY HANDS and WHERE ARE YOU) he is pleading and mournful, tugging at the heartstrings.



He plays two blues here, one medium-tempo where his tone is gruff, the other slow, where he is lyrical and subtle. (Oscar Peterson is especially fine on the slow blues, the title track.) The contrasts in his playing are marvelous and keep him forever fresh. Three additional tracks from the session (10/15/57) appear on the CD that were not issued before and feature Ben on piano (he's better on tenor any day of the week). This is a CD definitely worth checking out."