Search - Big Jay McNeely :: Live at Birdland: 1957

Talk about the hardest working man in show business ! ! !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 01/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is some hard wailing R & B... I guess they might have called it Rock and Roll back then - - of course Jazz masters like Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb also come to mind... - - its the blues, its wailing... it jumps hard... There is no doubt that Big Jay is a madman, but there is something that sets his group apart... certain musical devices that give the band an unbelievably fat, swinging yet different sound, be it sudden rhythmic changes, interesting percussion, or some other strange things thrown in here and there... anything can happen as the tunes build to frenzic shouts... Sometimes being energetic means playing less refined and musical and just going all at it, pounding whatever you can... but this group can do both at the same time... FLYING HOME is a prime example... When you hear Big Jay's rap with the audience and how fired up he and they are... its only a hint of things to come... Little Sonny's vocals steal the show as well ("