Alone or together, these are among the great horn men of jazz today; but over and above it all, the assertively swinging tenor of Al Cohn soars superbly to lend vibrant power to this novel instrumental experiment. To paraphrase a song on one of these sides, this is one of those occasions when after the song is ended the melody, the harmony and the rhythm will all linger on - Leonard Feather, Original liner notes to Four Trumpets, One TenorIn the mid fifties, Al Cohn, Joe Newman and Freddie Green were ubiquitous at RCA Victor jazz sessions. In 1955, they made five superb small group swing albums together for RCA with the group size ranging from septet to nonet. These wonderful sessions were issued as Cohn's The Natural Seven and Four Trumpets, One Tenor, Newman's All I Wanna Do Is Swing and I'm Still Swinging and Green's Mr. Rhythm. The material, arranged in equal portions by Ernie Wilkins, Manny Albam and Cohn on each album, included standards and Basie classics but leaned heavily on originals by the leaders and arrangers.
The spirit of Count Basie's Kansas City Seven informs all 61 selections. The sound of Basie's band played an influential role in the writing styles of Cohn, Wilkins and Albam. Cohn's Pres-inspired tenor and the work of Basie-ites Newman, Wilkins, Henry Coker and, of course, Freddie Green among others keep that joyous easy swing alive throughout.
Like the Basie band of the fifties, the music here is tightly arranged and smoothly executed swing with great charts and excellent, succinct solos played with a modern tinge against some of the hippest rhythm sections that jazz has to offer. Other sidemen include Urbie Green, Nat Pierce, Dick Katz, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson and Shadow Wilson.
This 3-CD set is mastered from the beautiful-sounding original tapes, all made at RCA's Webster Hall studio.
“Whether on mute or open horn, Joe's work is a delight to the ears - not merely because it is sane jazz in the midst of much that today is either overwritten or vacuous, but because it is always fresh, always swinging, always blown from the top-drawer of inspiration. And it is a remarkable tribute to all involved that this session, which ran from midnight to 10 A.M. - and which was, incidentally, captured by engineer Dick Gardner on one mike, around which all the musicians formed a circle, rising only to take their solos - produced jazz of this highly infectious sort. But in reality, it is undoubtedly true that regardless of the time of day or night, these men, in the midst of such telling arrangements, could not but blow wonderfully - and in these recordings, led and sparked by Joe Newman, they have all obviously engraved some of their most sincere, and jazzdom's most sparkling, efforts." - Jack Lewis and Bill Zeitung, Original liner notes to All I Wanna Do Is Swing
Mosaic Select: Cohn, Newman & Green (MS-027)
Limited Edition: 5000 copies
3 CDs - $44.00
For more information contact All About Jazz.
