With his thick, engaging sound and elegant romanticism, it only made sense for Ike Quebec to try his hand at the bossa nova boom Stan Getz kick-started in 1962, and that's what he did with Soul Samba. However, Quebec makes the session much more than mere bandwagon-jumping. He takes some chances with the repertoire and consciously adds a heavy blues inflection that makes Soul Samba one of the more unique interpretations of the bossa nova style. It's also one of the more sensuous, thanks in part to the combination of Quebec's natural tendencies and the soft, light style itself, but even more so with the extra bit of meat added via the blues. The music is warm and danceable, yet with a late-evening hush that's more suggestive of winding down and getting cozy with someone…
Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic Album series with a re-mastered 2CD second set release from Ike Quebec, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.
“Blue And Sentimental”; “It Might As Well Be Spring”; “Heavy Soul” and “Bossa Nova Soul Samba”.
Welcome back Ike Quebec! 1945-1961, that’s a long time between releases! So what happened to the great tenor saxophonist? Sadly an all too familiar story of the decline of big band jazz audiences followed by serious drug problems. Ike Quebec had quite an extraordinary split career which either end you look at was remarkable for the jazz men he played with. The early years in the 1940s gets you Hot Lips Page, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge…
Ike Quebec was something like Ben Webster in his ability to play lush ballads or to scream like a smokestack when the band was cooking. After working for Roy Eldridge and Frankie Newton, Quebec became Cab Calloway's star tenor man in 1944, making everyone sit up and take notice when he wailed over Cab's band in a wonderfully raspy tone utilizing the instrument's extremities for maximum effect. Each of Quebec's sessions as a leader produced staggeringly potent records. J.C. Heard is the drummer on all 20 tracks - check him out on "Indiana" - and for bassists you have Milt Hinton, Grachan Moncur II, or Oscar Pettiford. While Roger Ramirez was an excellent pianist, it is a gas hearing Johnny Guarnieri on the Savoy session. Guest horn players are Buck Clayton, Keg Johnson, Jonah Jones, and Tyree Glenn. Guitarist Tiny Grimes is present on three of these dates…
This 1962 date by tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse celebrates a grander and funkier scale of what Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd did earlier in 1962 with the bossa nova. Unlike Getz, Rouse didn't feel he needed to be a purist about it, and welcomed all sorts of Afro-Caribbean variations into his music. His choice of bandmates reflects that: a three-piece percussion section with drummer Willie Bobo, conguero Carlos "Patato" Valdes, and Garvin Masseaux on chekere (a beaded percussion instrument that is played by being shaken). Add to this bassist Larry Gales, and a pair of guitarists, Kenny Burrell, and Chauncey Westbrook, along with Rouse, and it is an unusual and exotic sextet. Burrell and Masseaux were part of Ike Quebec's band on Soul Samba, but the two recordings couldn't be more different.