Very good "unusual" date
Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 09/16/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Unusual line up here. The NJ recording studio was full of people in that day, 5 march 1957. This album sports a classic Jazz trio with four solo voices, seven musicians. An unusual line up with two guitars (Raney and Burrell) then we have McLean alto, Byrd trumpet, Waldron piano, Watkins bass, Taylor drums. The album opens with "Blue duke", a medium-up tempo 9 minutes blues. "Dead Heat" is a nice original by Waldron who contributed with the opener "Blue Duke" and "Pivot" too. "Dead Heat" is a major swinger a typical hard bop tune with some descending two-five's. "Pivot" is similar, another hard bop thing similar to some Clifford Brown thing. "Close your eyes" is a melodic tune medium tempo with Burrell as a leader here, stating the melody and contributing with two solos. Then "Little Melonae"'s time comes. It's a very beautiful original by McLean written in a sort of Monkish fashion. It's very bebop in a sense. Here they played a long 9 minutes version of the tune. After that comes the longest tune of the album "This way" a speeder opened by Burrell's solo (it's a kind of tune that could be perfect on Kenny's "Blue lights" album, it's that sort of thing). The last tune is the standard "Out of nowhere" a tune where Jimmy is the leader as kenny has been in "Close your eyes". The tempo is medium and the first soloist is Mal. In the end a very satisfying session. I have no difficulties in rating this album 5 stars and to call it essential for jazz guitar enthusiasts. It's a rare kind of album. Usually when you have two guitars in a jazz album you don't find a piano and a sax or a trumpet too because generally guitarists don't want to have stronger solo voices compared to the softer sound of the guitar and morever they don't want another harmonic instrument that could come in their way of comping. Generally you have two guitars double bass and drums. Not here. This thing alone could be interesting enough to buy this album but there's plenty of swing and ideas too here. "Blue lights" from Burrell is another album similar to this one and equally good. Buy with confidence, you can't go wrong if the Jazz album you're considering is a 1957."
Flawed, may have moments
Mad bin Tod | Ireland, TX USA | 08/21/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I've liked Kenny Burrell for a long time and have recently gotten into Jimmy Raney pretty heavily, so I was very intrigued by this disc. Unfortunately it's somewhat disappointing. First of all, and typical of Prestige "jam session" dates from this era, there are a lot of soloists here and they are not all always good or interesting. Second of all, and really a bigger issue, is that I find the session dominated by Burrell, who's overall sound is a little too close to Raney's. Thirdly, when Raney does solo, his lines don't have the punch or verve that can be found on his sessions with Stan Getz from earlier in the decade or the stuff on the "Visits Paris" sides. Indeed, his phrasing seems kind of tentative and his ideas not fully formed. The one weird high point is the very futuristic and almost submarine tone Raney selects for his solo on "Dead Heat.""
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1