Search - Eddie Costa :: Eddie Costa Quintet

One Of The Precious Few Recordings Left By Eddie Costa

Peter La Barbera | California | 07/16/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who knows me will vouch to the fact that Eddie Costa was someone I truly felt would have been a key figure in the progression of the music we love, jazz. Eddie has not left us with much in the way of recordings, most of which have become rare and collectors pieces, but the little left behind clearly enables us to listen to this artist and gauge where he'd be had his music progressed. This album has been reissued by V.S.O.P. records. With the exception of Art Farmer and Nick Stabilius on drums in place of Paul Motian, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing this same group perform a number of times on Sunday afternoons at a small club in Kew Gardens in Queens New York. Although not exhibited that much on this CD, Eddie would solo on piano and go deep into the base notes of the keyboard and explore such imaginative lines while conjuring up some choppy and well though out improvisations in an area of the instrument no one ever explored with such vigor before. Like Boo! ! ker Little, Clifford Brown and many other young players destined to change the music, Eddie was taken from us too soon. We could only imagine what his contributions would be had he lived. Get out of the road, is a Phil Woods line that has some good solo lines by Woods, Costa and Farmer. Listening to this, you get a semblance of where Phil was headed with his pen. In your own sweet way is a nice rendition of a Brubeck warhorse with an excellent example of Eddie's other instrument, Vibraphone. He played along the lines of the Milt Jackson approach, rather than the Hampton-Norvo style, but it's obvious that, here too, Eddie was going in his own direction. Art Farmer, always too underrated for me, plays a nice muted solo with Eddie doing some tasty obligato behind him. The liner notes don't state if it's Eddie dubbed in on the piano comping; my guess is that it was. Nature boy has one of Eddie's best solos on the CD. He builds and extends the ideas. However,because these were orig! ! inal LP recordings we are stuck with limited time. Not near! ly enough to give Eddie the extensions needed that would have had him explore further the capabilities of this Nat King Cole standard. Blues plus eight offers a boppish line by Costa that's a finger popper all the way. The killer piece of the album comes from Art Farmer, Stretch in "F'. (based on the changes of "Shout Hallelujah") Eddie takes it out after the intro and wails in the lower register that has me strongly reminiscing for those Sunday Afternoons back in Kew Gardens Queens, New York once more."