Search - Bobby Watson :: Love Remains

Finest of His Pre-Horizon, Red Label Recordings

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bobby Watson came up through Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he was music director for several years. After that, he recorded a series of records with the Italian Red label. Though all are worthy of owning, this is the best. The title cut, a slow ballad, is Watson's finest effort on record. Its haunting, plaintive melody is perfectly suited to Watson's breathy delivery; the result is one of the more poignant recordings in the history of jazz. Interestingly, Watson's latest release, Quiet As It's Kept, is a return to the sensibility found on this disc and to the Red label. The band is one of his best with John Hicks on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, and Victor Lewis on drums. A companion session led by John Hicks called Naima's Love Song featuring the same personnel and put out under the DIW is also very much worth getting."

As Good As It Gets

Mark Bennett | San Diego, CA USA | 12/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc is unquestionably Bobby Watson's finest, which is all you really need to know. BW's complete mastery of the bop and hard bop idioms is conclusively demonstrated throughout this set; but what is really breathtaking is the passion and soul he puts into every note. The man smokes! And the rhythym section of John Hicks, Curtis Lundy, and Victor Lewis is simply superb. Buy this CD now. I mean right now."

Essential 80s recording

Geronimo2@Gilanet.Com | New Mexico | 03/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bobby Watson gets more out of his alto on this one recording than most players manage to squeeze out of a carreer. Every solo is a mini lession in the past, present, and future of improvized music. It smokes. It swings. It makes mounds and mounds of julienne fries. What can I say. Even after obsessive repeated listenings, my Love Remains."