Search - Kenny Burrell :: Night at the Vanguard (Reis) (Rstr) (Mlps)

Absolutely Essential Kenny Burrell

Richard L. Hulsebus | Daly City,CA | 07/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kenny Burrell has one of the most beautiful,warm,exquisite tones in the history of the guitar.This CD,which just showed up recently,rises to and even surpasses the level of Midnight Blue.Its recorded live and just cooks.Listen to those samples and I am sure you will catch my drift!A must listen and have for any jazz or any music lover."

Swinging, warm, sad, modern

Nikica Gilic | Zagreb, Croatia | 10/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lovely music!



This beautiful album was RECORDED on September 16 and 17 (not originally released as the data on the amazon claimed at the time I wrote this review)- Kenny Burrell, a true giant of mainstream and moderately modern jazz guitar really shines here in the illustrious company of Richard Davis on bass and Roy Haynes on drums.



Some of the songs are really swinging, some are beautifully sad, some are pretty darn modern, but the general feeling of the album would be - in my interpretation - warm. The cozy tone of the leader's guitar really enriches his fanciful solo flights as well as the numbers where the rest of the trio has a larger role.



Initially issued on LP in 1960, the album was re-released in 1966 under the title "Man at Work", with really beautiful photo by Don Brownstein reproduced inside the CD's package (the cover photo of Burrell, taken from the original edition, is by Chuck Stewart). Actually, my only problem with this lovely CD is that the original liner notes - printed twice, are too small even for a reasonably young fellow with a normal eye-sight... Keeping the cover art was smart, but the backside of LP is not visually interesting enough to compensate for too small letters.



If you like jazz-guitar or mainstream jazz, you should get this album, to hear fresh and convincing versions of various standards (f. i. Ellington-Strayhorn's "Just a sittin' and a-rockin'", Monk's "Well, You Needn't") as well as some less often performed songs."