Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones

Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones.

Journey to Next

Lightyear 54168-2

Benny Carter, composer, arranger, conductor, alto sax. Dizzy Gillespie, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpet. Quincy Jones, composer, arranger, conductor.

Additional artists: Pepper Adams, Monty Alexander, Cecil Bridgewater, Ron Bridgewater, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Brown, Jimmy Cleveland, Ted Dunbar, George Duvivier, Harry "Sweets" Edison, John Faddis, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, Billy Harper, Milt Hinton, Quentin "Butter" Jackson, Hilton Jefferson, Pete Jolly, Hank Jones, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Shelly Manne, Jean-Luc Ponty, Tom Scott, Louis Singer, Lew Soloff, Clark Spangler, Dave Taylor, Ernie Watts, Frank Wess, Joe Wilder, Ernie Wilkins.

I can add up 155 years of playing from these three gentlemen and just check out that line-up!

This is a wonderfully emotive compilation of animated film music from thirty years of collaboration between these legends of Jazz. "Animation and Jazz is a marriage made in heaven." Says Faith Hubley, who with husband John were the animators of these classics. Five films were scored by Benny Carter and one each by Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones. Unusually for film music they worked only from the plot and approximate length, creating the music before the film footage a method that offered them greater freedom. This is music to warm the heart; it has vitality, inventiveness, fun and sheer artistry. Big band swing, samba, scat, Latin, blues, rock and roll, trombones at their fattest, Lionel Hampton on vibes, a brief panic to lock up your daughters as Maynard Ferguson cuts loose, Hilton Jefferson on alto sax, the flugelhorn playing of Thad Jones, flashing, exotic solos and sheer wizardry. If I were to pull one track (you could easily disagree) it might be "Harlem Wednesday", recorded in 1956. The film is a tone-poem depicting life in Harlem. It has a delicious opening theme and a wide variety of moods and feelings, played with a richness and panache we can regard as normal from these musicians. This music can comfortably stand on its own without the animation and will tell you its own story whilst encouraging a smile.

by Ferdinand Maylin

(Available at Jazz Now Direct CD Store)

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