Search - Zoot Sims, Joe Castro Trio :: Live at Falcon Lair

Zoot Sims On Alto Need I Say More?

Sonny Beratt | LA,California. USA | 05/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is probably one of the finer Jazz albums to be never
released until now. Zoot Sim and The Joe Castro Trio Live At Falcon Lair is a highly superb album recorded in the 50's at Rudolph Valentino's old Digs in LA. (Beverly Hills)
What I'm asking myself is how this album sounds so pristine due to the age of the source material.
Zoot is at his Best on Alto, an instrument he never really recorded on in his natural element as stated in the liner notes by Zan Stewart. The Three originals from Castro are fine originals that in the future I'm sure will be recorded by many other fine jazz musicians becoming standards in there own right.
Swinging With Ruldolph does exactly as the song states (Swings!)
That is the high number on the tracks, it had my bouncing down the road. Joe, Leroy and Ron provide great sidemans for Sims, especially ron with the incredible ticks of the ride cymbal along with Leroy's Fine walking and Joe's fat blues riffs and
dynamic chordal comps. This is a Jazz albums for the ages and features Sims at his finest, why he left the Alto will be never known for he shows that his skill is way beyond that of which we think was not his best suit for the Sax genre.
Again this is a must listen for it is history imprinted on digital format. Why this was never released is a very strange thing indeed.
The magic is in the musicianship and it shows 4 guy's making light in a relative early stage in Jazz.
My top album of the year in the Jazz category.
Thanks guys... All the songs are just amazing."

Quite The Rare Treat

cantos22 | Austin, TX. USA | 05/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Can't even describe the high quality and the natural sound of this album...
This sounds better then Studio recordings and it is
LIVE! Simply astonishing.
And it's packaged beautifully, I wonder if Fantasy will
put out a 24bit version of this material?!
I hope so!
Love Jazz and it will love you..."

There's a reason this wasn't released for almost fifty years

BebopBoomer | Virginia | 02/15/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Zoot Sims is one of my favorite tenor players. But the rather light tone which works so well for him on tenor seems thin when transferred to the alto he plays on this CD. The tone quality is VERY close to that of Paul Desmond; many people like that sound, but to me it gives the saxophone too much of a flute-like character which is alien to the instrument (full disclosure: as an ex-altoist, I have strong and maybe too strong opinions on this subject). In fact, I can sum up my impression of the playing here very simply: imagine a Paul Desmond who could swing harder and had more of a feeling for the blues.



In addition, choice of instrument and tonal quality aside, I don't think this was one of Sims' more inspired sessions. His playing here is always competent and pleasant, but almost never more than that. In short: a session that would have been enjoyable to hear live, but does not have any special claim on the attention of listeners beyond the afternoon on which it was recorded. It wasn't released for fifty or so years because it just wasn't that important or exciting."