Blue Soul

Great, classic album

I am pleased with the product and the speed in which it was sent.

Listen to the opener of the album, "Minor Vamp". I'll bet you'll buy this record. And rightly so. It is fantastic fifties's jazz at its best. There's plenty of drive, enthusiasm, and the alchemy in this album is just right. Take a look at the frontline. Mitchell trumpet, Fuller trombone, Jimmy heath tenor. The rhythmn section is Wynton kelly and the Jones's. The arrangements are from Benny Golson's pen. This album has a lot of highlights. The opener, a fast "The way you look tonight", a wonderful ballad "Park avenue petit" with Blue's trumpet clearly affirming a bright and melodically rich solo with a wonderful sound. "Top shelf" is another fast tune with spectacular solos from the guys, happy and joyful fifties jazz. Another minor tune is "Waverley street", up tempo, not fast but "up" really nice. Then there's still time for a blues, "Blue soul" with a nice simple theme and some great lines from Mitchell, and a couple of standards, a ballad "Polka dots" and a minor bebop swinger "Nica's dream" taken a little slower than usual anyway. How beautiful is the polkadots theme played by Mitchell with the contrapunctual lines by Fuller! Really exceptional!! Do you love Jazz? This one is a musthave.

Most jazz fans probably know Blue Mitchell as a member of Horace Silver's classic quintet that recorded numerous albums from 1959-63. Blue also recorded several excellent albums for Blue Note after his association with Silver, and for Riverside, including "Blue Soul," prior to and while he was with the Silver band. "Blue Soul" is almost a jazz throwback. At a time when most label's recordings were quickly thrown together jam sessions, "Blue Soul" was meticulously asembled. Not only does the album feature a stellar band of Jimmy Heath, Curtis Fuller, Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Philly Joe Jones, but Benny Golson was also brought on board to lend his arranging talents. The nine songs are all on the short side (reminiscent of the jazz from the late 40s when 10" vinyl limited lengthy improvisations), but don't confuse quantity (or length) with quality. Blue has a way with making it short and sweet, and even when Heath and Fuller sit out on three of the album's tracks, he holds down the fort just fine, particularly on the sultry "Park Avenue Petite." Anyone who loves good 50s jazz, and especially Horace Silver and the Jazztet, will love "Blue Soul."

Blue Mitchell was one of those jazz artists that I have only quite recently begun to appreciate. My introduction to him came via his strong trumpet work in The Horice Silver Quintet, but the eventual emergence of his own sextet certainly showed that he is a musician worth exploring further. `Soul Blue' was produced in 1959...a very good year for jazz and this album is one of those that tends to represent the end of this significant era. It has a distinct 50's feel in both the up beat numbers and the slower, moodier tracks. For me `Park Avenue Petite' is just about as smooth as it gets and `Minor Vamp' is the best of the upbeat numbers, with both reflecting the versatility of this truly under-rated artist. Check this album out and you might be pleasantly surprised.

The best of Blue