Three leaders -- trombonist Kai Winding, trumpeter Fats Navarro and tenor saxophonist Brew Moore -- contribute four tracks each to this compilation on the Savoy label that documents the early days of the jazz style known as bebop.
Some of the performances, recorded between 1946 and 1948, are a bit raw and the recording quality is not all that it might be, but there's no denying the excitement this music generated. For me saxophonist Moore, with the help of pianist Gene DiNovi, comes off best with his more laid-back performances.
Moore (1924-1973), who was heavily influenced by Lester Young, never changed his style of playing throughout his entire career. Unfortunately that cool style went out of favour and he spent the last dozen years of his life in Europe. Here, then, is a sampling of that style from 1948.
Blue Brew
In the Beginning...Bebop was first issued by Savoy on LP in 1957. There was a 1994 CD reissue that is now out of print. However, used copies are available at a reasonable price in the Amazon Marketplace. Individual tracks from this collection may be available as downloads, but the album itself is not.
To finish things off here's a recent YouTube posting of Five Planets in Leo, from a 1956 performance by the Brew Moore Quartet.
No comments:
Post a Comment