Search - Houston Person :: Lost & Found

Mixed Bag

John Chapin | Jackson Heights, NY USA | 02/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD combines two otherwise un-related sessions, Sweet Slumber and Wildflower. Sweet Slumber is a first rate, 5-star record, which opens with a quintessential Person-ified slow blues, Late Night Lullabye. The piano on this set, Charles Brown, also sings on about half the tunes. At first I was distracted by his very personal vocal style, which I had not heard before. But on a second exposure it's very nice. He doesn't sing on every cut, but when he does it adds quite a lot to the whole thing. It ain't Sinatra, it ain't supposed to be, get over it!
The Wildflower session is marred by two things: the first cut, Preachin and Teachin, just doesn't fit in to the soulful jazz sound that Person typically delivers. And the sax is recorded with a huge amount of reverb making it sound like some kind of weird mixing experiment.
Fortunately, the rest of Wildflower isn't as bad as the first cut, and there is in fact some real solid swing... It's just this first cut that is like a scar on an otherwise good set."