279.00 PLN

LP-180G 33rpm:

Nr kat.: APRJ28
Label  : Acoustic Sounds

Feeling tired and stressed out? Give Uncle Gene a spin. Besides perfect pitch, Ammons' other special gift was a melodic sense that allowed him to effectively convey feelings at slow tempos. Here is a great jazz ballad player given full scope to spin his charms. This Prestige CD reissues two of Ammons' Moodsville LPs: "Nice an' Cool" and "The Soulful Mood of Gene Ammons", from 1961 and '62. The venue in both cases was the Van Gelder Studio, where Master Rudy was able to create a warm tonal balance and a believable spatial perspective. Although the later session is more uniformly excellent, the entire disc is a joy. -Dick Olsher, Stereophile, February 1995. AllMusic Review by Stewart Mason A companion to Gene Ammons' other release on Moodsville, 1961's Nice 'n Cool, 1963's Soulful Moods of Gene Ammons picks a slightly less familiar batch of ballads (Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark," for example, or Jimmy Van Heusen's "But Beautiful") but performs them in the same soloist-plus-trio format, with pianist Patti Bown, bassist George Duvivier, and future Tonight Show stalwart Ed Shaughnessy taking on accompanist duties. It's a solid album throughout, with all four players performing well, but there's a certain spark missing in comparison with Nice 'n Cool. In particular, Bown -- who recorded with Ammons many times in the late '50s and '60s -- sounds a little off on this session. Her fills are uncharacteristically distracting, and particularly in tandem with the minimalistic style of Duvivier and Shaughnessy (who on some tracks, particularly the lissome "Under a Blanket of Blue," is playing so softly that he's barely audible), it sounds like she's overplaying. Ammons himself is typically excellent: few tenors in the '60s had his way with a ballad. Musicians: Gene Ammons, tenor saxophone Patti Bown, piano George Duvivier, bass Ed Shaughnessy, drums