A beautiful album. Why so obscure?
11/16/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I liked this one so much I bought another copy for my dad. Why isn't Bennie Wallace better known? This music is top notch. Deeply textured. The music's the thing here. Wallace plays with his band, not over them. Mulgrew Miller's piano puts this album into the five star category. It's all good. So why isn't it better known?"
Idiosyncratic, but interesting
Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 07/03/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It's easy to understand why some people don't like Bennie Wallace. He certainly takes getting used to. With a sound and approach somewhat like David Murray, especially with his tendency almost immediately to go "out" on his solos, Wallace produces not the mellow session I anticipated, but something more interesting and significant. Really, the only number that even comes close to the mellowed out approach is his duo with Mulgrew Miller on the title cut.Pretty much everything else gets the tear-it-up-and-put-it-back-together treatment. Fine by me. Once you drop expectations for conventionally pretty music and begin to hear Wallace's (and to be fair, the rest of the band's) interpretations of the Gershwin songbook, it all begins to fall into place. High points: the 12 + minutes of "It Ain't Necessarily So," especially the great Yoron Israel 12/8 intro; the title cut; and "How Long Has This Been Going On." The band totally gets Wallace's approach and supplies wonderful support. But it would be hard to miss with this fine a group of musicians, including Mulgrew Miller, piano; Peter Washington, bass; and Yoron Israel, drums. A quite interesting take on classic American music. 4 and 1/2 stars."
Deep In Deed!.
Prabhu | Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia | 06/23/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Benniw Wallace,a seasoned musician who comes from so called "Old-School" Traditions with his sound a reminiscent of the sound of the great and lost tenor titans Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster. All though there is a vast shade of juxtaposition between him and the elders on technique and range.He definitely posses his own sound and style.All though there is nothing innovative about this album on a musical point of view,it is indeed one of the most beautiful sounding albums, cleverly played and brilliantly conceptualized,this is how every cd should be produced - from the cover art,to the recording quality and the brilliant selection of songs and sidmen.This indeed a definite gem and everyone who is a fan of the old school jazz should definitely have this album in their racks!.Mulgre Miller's killer chops should be noticed.For the audience that fail to recognize all good music as this,u'd rather return it - because it can serve as a disgrace for this album as a gem in an expiring man's hand is useless."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1