Search - Kenny Dorham :: Blue Spring

Kenny's Usual Beautiful Playing

10/25/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Kenny Dorham was a vastly underrated bop trumpeter who played with many of the greatest artists of his day, including Art Blakey, Max Roach (he replaced Clifford Brown in Max Roach's band after Brownie's tragic death in 1956), Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and a lot of others too numerous to mention. I first became acquainted with his gorgeous playing when I heard Sonny Rollins' album "Rollins Plays for Bird". Dorham's presence on that album -- a tribute to Charlie Parker -- is particularly fitting since he had himself played with Parker after Miles Davis had moved on. Fortunately, much of Dorham's own recorded work has been reissued, and a wealth of session work with other players is also available these days. Kenny can play it all: gutbucket blues, bossa nova, Cubano, driving bop, pretty ballads, you name it. If you are not already familiar with his work, let me tell you that it will really knock you out -- he is astonishingly inventive, with a unique voice and subtle, lyrical beauty that really comes out in more relaxed, mid-tempo numbers. I was so completely impressed by Dorham's playing that I subsequently bought every albumn I could find that he ever played on. Blue Spring is a fine album, and notewothy especially for Kenny's collaboration with the gifted alto sax giant, Cannonball Adderly. In addition to being a great player, Kenny was also a gifted composer. On this album, check out "Spring Cannon," which he wrote for Cannonball. This tune positively smokes -- right up through and including the hot ending where Kenny and Cannonball trade fours. "It Might as Well Be Spring" is also beautifully rendered, and typical of the kind of song in which Kenny's exquisitely tuneful playing really shines. If you haven't heard anything by this great, great player, Blue Spring is a good place to start."