Search - Bobby Hutcherson :: Best of the Blue Note Years

You have to start somewhere.....

Dr.D.Treharne | Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom | 06/07/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The problem with calling this "The Best of the Blue Note years" is that that opinion is very subjective.This is actually an attempt to provide one track from eleven of the albums that the prolific Hutcherson recorded for Blue Note between 1965 and 1976 as a taster for more re-releases.As such, it works better than it ought to. My favourite tracks are "Ghetto Lights" on which Freddie Hubbard gets to play some lovely muted trumpet (that from 1965) and"Umhh" from 1970 which puts Hutcherson up against Joe Sample on electric piano and Harold Land on Tenor Sax.There are three other things to note. Firstly the selection illustrates very well how differently jazz is recorded at the start of the 21st century than some of the early efforts here.For example, listen to the drum sound, particularly on "Blues Mind Matter" which is all sticks and top.It's also interesting to hear how much bassier the sound had become by 1976 and "Houston St. Thursday afternoon".Secondly if you're coming to Hutcherson from his Verve material it's like listening to somebody completely different - be warned.Finally, this succeeds in its unstated aim of this listener wanting Blue Note to remaster and re-release (selectively) whole albums,perhaps starting with "Dialogue""