Search - James Moody :: Wail Moody Wail

Wail Moody Wail

Eugene M. Norris | United States | 01/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fine straight-ahead circa 1955 jazz from a very talented group. Worth buying just for the anti-R&R liner notes of Irving Gitler. My, how the world has changed. This CD contains 2 more tunes that the original mono LP. The band shows fine blues blowing on several cuts including a 10-minute Wail Moody showcasing Moody on tenor and alto and Dave Burns on trumpet, and is fine on standards such as The Nearness of You and Quincy Jones' The Golden Touch."

Moody's golden touch

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 08/30/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"James Moody is another one of my heroes and this album I think is really well worth having for people interested in good jazz. It's a Prestige album recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1955. It's a small big band album because the line up is important, Moody alto and tenor, William Sheperd trombone, Dave Burns trumpet, Pee Wee Moore baritone, Jimmy Boyd piano, John Lathan bass, Clarence Johnson drums. Not big names except for Moody, but a very tight supporting band. It's a quite interesting session, the sound the band produced was full and articulated. James blew as only he could do, very boppish and very bluesy with a personality that was all his own. The program, which is on the up and bright side (apart from "The nearness of you" that of course is a ballad), begins with a Quincy Jones tune, "The golden touch" wich is an extremely well written anthem, sophisticated I might call it. "Moody's blue again" it's a blues, a bop blues of course (medium tempo) while "Donkey serenade" it's not a ballad as one might expect), on the contrary it's a fast and happy hard bop swinger, such as the long title track (which has excellent long blowing by Moody). "The Strut" is a medium-up tempo happy swinger again. The last tune is instead another lovely ballad wher eyou can appreciate a nice arrangement that take advantage of the particular line up. What can I say more in the end, a particularly lovely and happy record with a Moody in perfect shape on both his horns. A nice addiction to any Jazz collection. (Ira Gitler's notes are particularly ridicolous because they are against rock'n'roll. Of course Jazz is a "superior" music compared to rock, under any point of view, at least in terms of complexities, melodically superior, harmonically superior and rhytmically superior, but rock proved in more than fifty years of existance that's in its best efforts, it's not the devil Ira complained about, but a good Jazz' son.)"