Artist: Buddy De Franco Quartet
Title Of Album: Mr. Clarinet
Recording Date : May 15, 1953,May 20, 1953
Release Date: 8/6/2002
Label: Verve (SNG)
Genre: Jazz / Bop
Quality: FLAC (Image+Log+Cue+scan+Info)
Bitrate: Lossless
Mono/Stereo : Mono
Total Time: 44:57
Total Size: 160 MB (Recovery 6%)
Review: by Alex Henderson
Over the years, Buddy DeFranco’s admirers have often wondered why the clarinet’s
popularity as a jazz instrument declined considerably after World War II and the swing era
– why haven’t more improvisers applied Charlie Parker’s ideas to the clarinet, and why is
the clarinet usually stereotyped as a swing/Dixieland/classic jazz instrument rather than a
bebop, post-bop, avant-garde, soul-jazz, or fusion instrument? Perhaps it has something
to do with the demands of the clarinet — it is a tough instrument to master, and it becomes
even more demanding when you’re dealing with the complexities of bop. But those
challenges never stopped DeFranco, who was 30 when he recorded Mr. Clarinet for Verve
in 1953. By that time, DeFranco was being hailed as “the Charlie Parker of the Clarinet,”
and he lives up to that title on this excellent album (which boasts Kenny Drew on piano,
Milt Hinton on bass, and Art Blakey on drums). Throughout Mr. Clarinet, DeFranco makes
the clarinet sound perfectly logical as a bop instrument — which was certainly an innovative
thing to do back in the late ’40s and early ’50s. Whether he is playing original material or
standards (including “But Not for Me” and “It Could Happen to You”), DeFranco refuses to
let the clarinet’s evolution end with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Sidney Bechet, and Barney
Bigard; he has no problem making the clarinet sound relevant to the bebop scene of 1953.
(It should be noted that Shaw was also exploring bop on the clarinet in the early ’50s,
but regrettably, he decided to retire from music in 1955.) Most of the bop-oriented recordings
that DeFranco provided in the ’50s are well worth owning; Mr. Clarinet
(which Verve reissued on CD in 2002) is no exception.
Tracklisting:
1. Buddy’s Blues
2. Ferdinando
3. It Could Happen To You
4. Autumn In New York
5. Left Field
6. Show Eyes
7. But Not For Me
8. Bass On Balls
Buddy DeFranco – clarnet
Kenny Drew – Piano
Milt Hinton - Bass
Art Blakey – Drums
www.up.jeje.ge
Please Login or Register to view this content
www.files.mail.ru
Please Login or Register to view this content
www.rapidshare.com
Please Login or Register to view this content *** Please Login or Register to view this content
