If you’re a fan of the vibes, your probable references were the swing era gents of Lionel Hampton or Red Norvo, bebop with Terry Gibbs and Milt Jackson, and that’s about it until modern jazz with Bobby Hutcherson. Well, here’s a new gent for you to dig, but he’s not a “new” guy, but an obscure Belgian stationed in Paris and hitting the vibes with fervermallet with a bunch of impressive locals like Henri Renaud-Maurice Vander-Pierre Michelot-Francy Boland/p, Jimmy Gourley-Rene Thomas/g, Genoir Quersin/b as well as some Amerian ringers like Kenny Clarke/dr, Jymie Merritt/b, Walter Bishop/dr and Bobby Jaspar/ts.
This single disc contains Sadi in sessions as both leader and sideman rnging from a ’53 Jaspar led recording to Sadis’ own quartets. With Jaspar, there’s a “Nonette” with a hot horn section for “Honky Tonky”, a bopping smaller ensemble for “le JAMF” and a lovely “I Only Have Eyes For You”. Sadi’s sense of swing is palpable, with a tone somewhere between Hampton and Jackson, tearing up “Ridin’ High”, glowing on “Dear Old Lady” and snapping with “Laguna Leap”. The sound quality is excellent, and the vibes, well, vibrate!
As with all reissues from Fresh Sound, there’s a great booklet with session listings as well as some great background on this obscure mallet man. This is a real fun one!
https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/fats-sadi-albums/56105-sadi-s-vibes-a-retrospective-1953-1961.html