Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Benny Green: Kaleidoscope

292

Benny Green: Kaleidoscope

By

View read count
Benny Green: Kaleidoscope
One must suppose the folks at Blue Note strive to uphold a certain tradition. Kaleidoscope seems to fit the bill; yet, like Benny Green's other Blue Note releases, it's all rather too derivative. The pianist clearly fares better as an accompanist (Ray Brown, Freddie Hubbard and many singers) where his sensitivity to style is an asset. Here, as always, the musicianship is professional and features a first-rate cast including Antonio Hart (alto sax), Russell Malone (guitar), Ron Carter (bass) Lewis Nash (drums) and (briefly) Stanley Turrentine on tenor sax. But in the long run, it all seems locked into too many memories of Blue Note glories from the past to be worthwhile on its own merits.

The intricate (and, after a while, annoying) "Kaleidoscope" is sort of reminiscent of much of Andrew Hill's Blue Note work from the mid 60s. For some reason, this exercise-like tune gets two extended playings - one to get it all started and one to wrap it all up. The pretty "Soft Center" starts off mixing McCoy Tyner with The Prisoner -era Herbie Hancock, but as Green gets more interesting, he injects a few touches that will remind many of Gene Harris. "The Sexy Mexy," surprisingly the third track on the disc, has the funk feel of many Blue Note hits like Kenny Dorham's "Una Mas" and some of Lee Morgan's post "Sidewinder" album headers. Things start making sense on the piano/bass duet, "Patience," and the piano/bass/guitar of "My Girl Bill." Here one is reminded of the empathy shared between Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez. But one senses Ron Carter is the driving energy of creativity and unity in this group - and the poetically fluid guitarist Russell Malone adds much to the group's overall `kaleidoscope.' Together, Carter and Malone give this Green's conceptions an interesting twist to the legacies of Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson. Stanley Turrentine has a pretty sax/piano feature on "You're My Melody," but it would have been nice to hear the tenor player as part of the full sextet. In the end, this encapsulates the problem with this disc. It feels as if it's filled more with a few good ideas than one memorable performance.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Kaleidoscope | Year Released: 1997 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Benny Green Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.