Album Reviews

It's an unacceptable prejudice and this review has nothing to do with me, but I admit to having had a problem with Lionel Hampton because he was a Nixon supporter. Isn't that ridiculous? I mean having a problem with it, not that Hamp supported tricky Dick. His politics are his of course, but this prejudice took hold during the 1970s.

It's an unacceptable prejudice and this review has nothing to do with me, but I admit to having had a problem with Lionel Hampton because he was a Nixon supporter. Isn't that ridiculous? I mean having a problem with it, not that Hamp supported tricky Dick. His politics are his of course, but this prejudice took hold during the 1970s.

It took a record like this to get me over the Nixon connection. Here's a bunch of youngsters: Lionel Hampton,  Buddy Rich, Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson absolutely tearing through most of this set speed metal fashion. Peterson was in his late '20s and idolizing Art Tatum, Ray Brown was about the same age, while Buddy was a veteran at 36. Hampton was in his mid forties.

The quartet was built for speed, taking the opener, "Just One of Those Things" at a breathless pace. Hampton generously gives Peterson the opening solo and he packs more interesting notes per measure than you might think possible on keyboard. Rich became known later for center stage showmanship but here he stays back moving at lightning speed but remarkably understated, tearing loose only when given solo space.

Bass at the time was strictly background so Brown remains way in the background in a traditionally supportive role while Hampton's doesn't at all hog the spotlight despite being the session leader. 

If you're a Peterson fan, you'll find this early Peterson fearless. There are but four songs, which allows each soloist to spread out and take some time to develop ideas. The ballads are suavely done, particularly the closer "The Nearness of You."  The group had an elegance about it that will put you in a sophisticated supper club—the kind you see in movies from the 1940s. 

The musicianship is impeccable, the mood is classic and dated in the best sense of the word and the recording is warm, mellow mono. The sound is ideally dated to match the music—and that's not a criticism. It's a perfect match of sonic mood to musical context. Great David Stone Martin cover.