Italy based Red Records has released a collection of important albums from jazz greats that either toured or hit the country while on tour.
Walter Davis didn’t make a lot of recordings as a leader, but the pianist put together a fantastic solo session back in 1979 in a Milanese studio. His bop dna is felt throughout, as Davis takes on with verve a pair of Bud Powell originals in “Glass Enclosure” and “I’ll Keep Loving You” as well as a percussive read of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca”. His own material includes a rapidly fingered opening to “Being Such As You” that morphs into an exquisite romance, and “Backgammon” a classic bopper and his well known “Scorpio Rising” riveting. This is a guy that deserves a second and third look.
Baritone sax legend Gerry Mulligan is found in the autumn years of his career on this 1992 concert in Bologna, Ital with his touring band of Harold Danko/p, Dean Johnson/b and Ron Vincent/dr, but his tone and delivery is timeless. He still includes material from his early California Cool days, such as a sleek “Line For Lyons”, a nifty “Walkin’ Shoes” and of course a bel canto and dark “My Funny Valentine”. His supporting team, featuring Danko, is faultless as on “Curtains” and the bluesy “ Lonesome Boulevard” and Mulligan imbibes his own musical inspiration Harry Carney on the Ellingtonian tunes “Take The ‘A’ Train” and his own “Song For Strayhorn”. The Lion in the Winter.
Initially released as a limited edition of 5000, Gato Barbieri’s Standards album was recorded way back in 1968, at the very beginning of the tenor saxist’s career. Recorded in Rome, the record has Barbieri exploring a wide range of styles, most intriguing of which are a pair of Ornette Coleman songs, a fascinating “Jane” and frenetic “When Will The Blues Leave”. Barbieri bears down on a hard swinging take of Ahmad Jamal’s “New Rhumba” and an amazingly dark read of Monk’s “Round Midnight” that makes you afraid to go out at night. Barbieri’s tone is thick and foreboding, filled with drama, even a bopping “Anthropology” and his own “In Search of the Mystery”. A jazz form of Opera Verismo.