AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only, from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Analogue Productions - APRJ 8220 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue

Mastered By Kevin Gray -  Pressed at QRP

 Limited Edition - New Jazz 8220

 ultimate audiophile Prestige stereo reissues from Analogue Productions — 25 of the most collectible, rarest, most audiophile-sounding Rudy Van Gelder recordings ever made.

All mastered from the original analog master tapes by mastering maestro Kevin Gray. 200-gram LPs pressed at state-of -the-art plant Quality Record Pressings and plated by Gary Salstrom.

Deep groove label pressings, tip-on jackets on thick cardboard stock.

Benny Golson, who came to the attention of the jazz public with Tadd Dameron's band and Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra, was a member of the Jazztet — the group he had formed with Art Farmer — at the time of this recording. Farmer is not with him in this recording but another Jazztet-mate, trombonist Curtis Fuller, is. Although this session is not as structured as the three-horn efforts of the Jazztet, there is a balance between blowing and Golson's writing that makes for a felicitous blend, whether on Golson's own "My Blues House," Gene Krupa's old burner, "Drum/Boogie," or Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays." And with Art Blakey on drums things cook when they have to, and simmer at the right moments. With Curtis Fuller, Ray Bryant, Paul Chambers and Art Blakey.

Benny Golson enjoyed five years of limelight between 1957 and 1962, riding high on his place in the front line of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers alongside Lee Morgan, with Golson’s groovy climactic centrepiece of Blakey’s 1958 jazz-icon “Moanin’ “. Captured on European tour. Golson takes the handover from Morgan around four minutes in, but the whole clip is worth watching if you have not seen it. Or watch again if you have.

With apologies to Angus YoungNever mind playing air guitar, Benny’s tenor solo in Moanin’ made me want to take up playing air saxophone, strut up and down my front living room in the manner of AC/DC’s Angus Young, to the consternation of passers-by looking through my windows. Is that man alright do you think?

Golson fronted a series of releases as band leader, including Golson’s New York Scene, The Modern Touch, Gettin’ With It, and Groovin’ with Golson, before going on to form Bop’s most structured combat unit, The Jazztet  with Art Farmer  (1959-62) . He made his mark as a composer as much as a player, with memorable jazz favourites such as Whisper Not, Along Came Betty and Just by Myself, recording with Riverside, Mercury, UA and Prestige’s New Jazz label, and always working with the best sidesmen. His talents also led him to a lucrative career in the studio composing music for such unforgettable TV series as Ironside and Mission Impossible.

In 2008 at the age of 79 he was still recording: New Time, New ‘Tet Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ , August 25, 26 & 27, 2008. He never really broke into the top tenor-league, as it seemed no-one could overcome the dominance of Rollins and Coltrane. It probably also didn’t help that he failed to cultivate a mean and moody image, didn’t waste himself on heroin, instead always smiling to camera, a nice man, and a great melodically inventive player.

Music: The instruments are all beautifully  recorded, especially Curtis Fuller’s liquid trombone as it mixes with Golson picking out the melody in the lower register of the tenor. Ray Bryant’s piano sparkles with fluid bluesy runs mixed with solid chordal progressions, and PC Paul Chambers is at his most rock-solid walking-the-beat, also throwing in the odd bowed solo, as he liked to do.. If all this wasn’t enough, Art Blakey provides  a rhythmic precision you could set your watch by.

Musicians:
Benny Golson
Curtis Fuller
Ray Bryant
Paul Chambers
Art Blakey

Selections:
1. My Blues House
2. Drumboogie
3. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
4. The Stroller
5. Yesterdays