Alan Barnes
CDs
Harlem Airshaft
Alan Barnes
Cat No: WVCD 122
Price £10 inc. postage
- Alan Barnes - Alto / Clarinet / Bass Clarinet
- Bruce Adams - Trumpet / Flugelhorn
- Andy Wood - Trombone / Valve Trombone
- Tony Coe - Tenor / Soprano / Clarinet
- Andy Panayi - Baritone / Clarinet / Flute
- John Horler - Piano
- Alec Dankworth - Acoustic Bass
- Mike Smith - Drums
Recorded Red Gables Studios, January 21st 2008
- 1. Take The Duke Train (Strayhorn) Listen
- 2. Snibor (Strayhorn) Listen
- 3. Second Line (Ellington) Listen
- 4. Black Butterfly (Ellington) Listen
- 5. Fantazm (Ellington) Listen
- 6. Harlem Airshaft (Ellington) Listen
- 7. Sunswept Sunday (Ellington) Listen
- 8. Battle Royal (Ellington) Listen
- 9. Tonight I Shall Sleep (Ellington) Listen
- 10. Fife (Ellington) Listen
- 11. Brown Penny (Ellington) Listen
- 12. La Plus Belle Africaine (Ellington) Listen
Details
Twelve new arrangements of lesser known Ellington/ Strayhorn gems are tackled by this superb new ensemble, featuring some of the finest soloists around. The musicians include Tony Coe, Bruce Adams and Andy Panayi and the superb writing and playing enable this small group to wield the power and dynamics of a big band in an inspired studio session..
Reviews
On the face of it, this is classic Ellington swing from an expert octet led by the UK's multi-reeds star Alan Barnes, featuring the trumpeter Bruce Adams, bassist Alec Dankworth and pianist John Horler. Then you hear the first slithery solo from the idiosyncratic tenor saxist Tony Coe, and the album offers something more. Coe enters on Take the Duke Train, a reworking of the classic Take the A Train with half a dozen other Ellington/Billy Strayhorn themes woven into it. Tony Faulkner arranged this programme, drawing on both famous and little-known material, and creating fresh collages of Ellington/Strayhorn melodies to act as shifting backdrops for the improvisers. Coe opens his solos like a sleeping man roused, and he's a fascinating contrast with the swooping certainties of Barnes' agile alto sax, the warm, mobile clarinet variations the leader generates on Second Line, or his looser and more impressionistic bass clarinet break on the atmospheric Fantazm, one of the standouts of the session. Adams plays everything with urgent energy, and Horler never misses a coquettish step. In the era of Don Byron's radical remakes of classic jazz materials, this music operates on the safe side of the mainstream - but the soloists make it an attractive curiosity.
