Album Reviews

BTW: it's a not particularly well-guarded secret, but in case you didn't know: when reissue labels cut lacquers at 33 1/3 they almost always also cut at 45 for a later reissue. Just so you know that this one was cut from the same tape on the same lathe at the same time.

"Mood music" is how the annotation characterizes this album of medium-sized ensembles imaginatively arranged by the then still in his 20s French jazz enthusiast Michel Legrand. Previous to these 1958 sessions Legrand had released three "mood music" concept albums: I Love Paris (CL555), Columbia Album of Cole Porter (C2L4), Legrand in Rio (CL 1139) and I Love Movies (CL 1178). This was his first stab at a real jazz album andgiven the assembled cast of greats what a heady experience it must have been for him to both arrange and conduct in New York City those three days in early summer, 1958.

The musicians include Miles Davis (who gets star billing on the jacket front), John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Hank Jones, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Phil Woods, Ben Webster, Herbie Mann, Milt Hinton and even Teo Macero on baritone sax, plus many others.

Legrand divided the talent into three groups: one was a "whimsical" ensemble of bass, drums, piano, vibes, alto, tenor and baritone sax, bass clarinet, trumpet, guitar, flute and harp. Another an unusual grouping of four trombones, flute, tenor sax (Ben Webster), anchored by bass, drums and piano, while the third and largest group stacked four trumpets, two trombones, two alto, a tenor and a baritone sax, French horn, vibes, piano, bass and drums.

Legrand was painting colors with music in some ways reminiscent of Debussy, as well as Duke Ellington. It might be argued that Legrand's brush used some water colors borrowed from Gil Evans. At least that's what it sounds like. The tunes are all jazz and pop classic standards.

The album opens with a soufflé-light take on Fats Waller's "The Jitterbug Waltz" that of course spotlights Miles, but also gives space for Evans, Coltrane Phil Woods and others. Evans runs with a repeated "leaves fluttering" motif that have you floating. Next comes Django Reinhardt's "Nuages"—a short number arranged for the guitar-less second group featuring Ben Webster whose breathy presence is immediately recognizable.

Not going to do a song by song countdown but a few highlights include a lovely "'Round Midnight" (of course with Miles), a gossamer take on John Lewis's "Django" with Evans on piano, Miles on mute trumpet and Betty Glamann's heavily harp floating above, and a four trumpet version of "Night In Tunisia". The tracking mixes and matches pleasingly with the raucous "Night in Tunisia" followed by "Blue and Sentimental" after which you'll feel like getting up and wiping from your speakers the moisture deposited by Webster's solo.

The recording epitomizes the 30th Street Studio sound circa 1958. Does anything else have to be said? As you might recall, a Speakers Corner reissue of this record with the European cover was one of that label's few debacles as it was from a mono tape that had been electronically reprocessed for stereo acquired from Legrand's manager who had it stored in a closet. No doubt SC thought they'd scored some kind of coup but no one must have listened.

This IMPEX reissue is sourced from an "analog mix-down transfer of the original 1958 work tape by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios" and cut by Chris Bellman and Bob Donnelly at Bernie Grundman Mastering on Grundman's all-tube mastering system. I have a clean, original 6-Eye pressing that this superbly pressed reissue betters in every way. This will make both your stereo and your heart sing. Some of the greatest jazz musicians of that or any era wailing and clearly having a Legrand time. Limited to 3000 copies. Don't miss it!