Search - Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Ray Brown :: Poll Winners Ride Again

Poll winners means perfection

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 08/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These three guys were not lucky poll winners. They were winners because they were rightly the best in their instrument category but not only this. They taken together were a fantastic unit, with great musical ideas in the trio context. And they proved once more their abilities here, on this second album of the saga. I mean, these great can transform "volare" the italian popular little melody (that I'm sure noone would listen again) into an interesting and catching swinging little portrait. But for more serious efforts you simply have to listen to the masterful rendition of "The spring is here". A master in guitar trio playing. Wonderfully balanced. The opener "Be deedle dee do" is a blues instead, taken at medium tempo. Barney, a musician strongly rooted in blues, wrote the theme for this blues. "Angel eyes" has a splendid, touching intro by Barney's guitar.



The fact is that these guys really know how to play, in every sense. I'm not talking only about technical chops, they listen to each other, they know the meaning of the word "dynamic", they invent musical devices, interesting rhiytmical, melodical and harmonical situations, different in every tune. They have personality and they have chops and a personal recognizable sound. They deeply understand the tune's essence and arrange the parts to take the best out of the tune and out of the trio setting. Nothing here is out of place. Everything sounds perfect, everything is in place. Everything sound right, every note says something, every musical decision is right.

How do you spell perfection? Let's do it together c'mon, repeat with me P, O, L, L, - W, I, N, N, E, R, S. Ok."