Search - Kenny Burrell :: Soul Call

Tender Ken' !

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 09/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the recent weeks I have bought a lot of sixties albums with Kenny Burrell in them. His own albums like this one or other guys's dates where he did play the sideman role. He is one of those guitarists not flashy or spectacular, I mean not charming like some other guys (think of Wes), not deep like some others (think of Jim Hall) neither perfect like some other players (think of Johnny Smith) that for these reasons are often forgotten. But he was great too for his own style even if it was less flamboyant or intellectual. This album, together with "The cats", "Blue Lights", the first sessions he recorded for Blue Note, "Two guitars" and a couple of live dates is probably one of his best. The highlights here are the tunes where he could show his melodic, tender side. "A sleepin bee" is wonderful. He played here a marvellous chords intro. Than "Here's that rainy day" played with a very soft and tender attitude. I particularly love the opener too, another tender tune, an Ellington's original "I'm Just a lucky so and so". "Soul call" is a slow blues, "Oh Henry" is a fast blues and "Kenny's theme" is a medium tempo blues (so you have all the blue picture) and "Mark one" is an hard bop fast thing. In the end a balanced program. The band apart from Ray Barretto the conga player is not that famous (Will Davis piano, Martin Rivera bass, Bill English drums) but they played properly behind Ken which obviously was the star, In good shape I must admit. He was not flashy and spectacular as Montgomery or deep as Hall but he was good enough to stand the test of time and this album is there to prove it."

Answer the call

kenneth hohman | poestenkill, n.y. United States | 11/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My favorite jazz is a half a step outside of the blues.This is in that vein.Kenny is deep.Cool phrasing,funky melodies,Wes-ly octave run's,beautiful in tune sounding chord passage's,flashy tremolo runs,never boring, never trying too hard.You can hear his influence on Stevie Ray Vaughn on this record,think "Chitlin's con Carne",or "Riviera paridise".A good confident and relaxed feel coming off the band,on the funky pushing number's as well as the ballad's.Just buy it."

Blues infliction

T-Bone | Tennessee | 07/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll stand in line with the previous reviewer. Although I love everything from Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa to Bird & Diz to Ornette Coleman to Latin and beyond, blues inflicted jazz has always been a path to my heart. Guitarists Kenny Burrell and Grant Green are two amazing guiatarists who infect jazz with an innate sense of blues. Or I might could say, infect blues with an innate sense of jazz, as that might be more of an accurrate statement. People don't have money to buy several records from all the wonderful artists who deserve the acclaim and album sales. And I wouldn't argue someone sticking with Midnight Blue as their KB album for the proverbial island trip; however, if you do have extra money you want to spend on a jazz album (at least for guitar anyway) and you have the staples, this is a wonderful choice. Anything he's done really is worth the money, but this would come right after MB in my book. I personally enjoy it a little more. He seems to play out a little more - a slight deviation from his standard blues chops. It's always nice to see artists and musicians grabbing outside their usual bag of goodies and bringing some new spice to the table."