Bob Brookmeyer : Kansas City Revisited
Bob Brookmeyer : Kansas City Revisited
Bob Brookmeyer (trombone), Al Cohn, Paul Quinichette (tenor sax), Nat Pierce (piano), Jim Hall (guitar), Addison Farmer (bass), Osie Johnson (drums), Big Miller (vocals)
United Artists 4008
Pure Pleasure Records : LP 180 gram
Brand New and Sealed Record
A1 - Jumping At the Woodside
A2 - A Blues
A3 - Blue and Sentimental
B1 - Doggin' Around
B2 - Moten Swing
B3 - Travlin' Light
Recorded in October 1958 in New York City
Back in the 1930s Kansas City was a major jazz scene as it was home to Bennie Moten’s Band followed by the Count Basie Jazz Orchestra. Bob Brookmeyer, the virtuouso valve trombonist, who just passed away in the last several months, gathered in 1958 a largely Basie-oriented septet to do honor to the KC scene by recording several standards of the day including “Jumping at the Woodside,” “Blue and Sentimental,” “Moten Swing,” and Travlin’ Light.” In addition Big Miller, who was a featured vocalist with the Fletcher Henderson band, was brought in on vocals to sing on “Travlin Light” and “A Blues.”
The British audiophile LP label, PurePleasure, has re-released Kansas City Revisited. Long out of print, the label used Ron McMaster to handle the remastering, and chose Capitol Studios’ facilities to rework this swinging 1958 issue. For a 50+ year old recording, McMaster has done a fine job polishing up the acoustics. Jim Hall’s guitar solo sounds mighty nice on the opening Basie standard, “Jumping at the Woodside,” with sympathetic backing by the rhythm section of Addison Farmer on bass, and Nat Pierce on piano, though Pierce’s piano is a bit distant in the sound mix.
Cool jazz meets swing on this memorable but long out-of-print LP.
This Pure Pleasure LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the original analogue studio tapes through to the cutting head and was pressed with virgin vinyl at Pallas.