Stan Kenton: Adventures In Jazz (Capitol)
Complex, demanding arrangements, played with precision and elan by a memorable big band in coruscating form, distinguish this superb reissue from one of the best periods in Kenton's career. By 1961, he had lost his most famous soloists, but in saxophonists Gabe Baltazar and Sam Donahue, and brassmen Marvin Stamm, Gene Roland, Ray Starling and Dee Barton, he had more than capable replacements. Most of the fare is standards, craftily dressed by arrangers Barton, Roland, Donahue and the great Bill Holman (including a magisterial Malaguena), making deft use of the tonal weight the mellophonium section gave the band; two alternate takes and an extra arrangement, by Lennie Niehaus, underline the quality.
- Ray Comiskey
Grant Green: Talkin' About (Blue Note)
The second of three 1964 Blue Note albums uniting guitarist Green with drummer Elvin Jones, and the first of two he made that year with Jones and organist Larry Young, this is perhaps more modestly conceived than the trio's brilliant Street Of Dreams encounter with Bobby Hutcherson. But it emphasises an old truth - when really creative players hit it off, a blowing session takes on an ineffably swinging character of its own. And they do here; long, flowing lines subtly supported by Jones, whose polyrhythmic control and nuanced sense of dynamics and the soloist's direction underpin some delightful, probing work by guitar and organ. It's the album's first appearance on CD, and about time, too.
- Ray Comiskey
