Barney Kessel Live

Barney Kessel - Live At The Jazz Mill 1954 (2016) {Modern Harmonic MHCD-007}
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© 1954, 2016 Modern Harmonic / Sundazed Music | MHCD-007
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Guitar

A fantastic addition to the Barney Kessel catalog of the 50s – a never-heard live set that has the guitarist in form that's every bit as strong as his famous albums for Contemporary Records! In fact, the strength of the recording may well capture Kessel at a level that beats those sessions – as Barney's playing live, with a bit more bite – and really grabs us with the strong tone on his solos – and the sense of energy he gets in a quartet that also includes a young Pete Jolly on piano! The recording quality is excellent – crystal-clear, and very focused – and the set isn't one of those lost tapes that should have stayed "lost" – but instead a real lost chapter in Barney's tremendous career.

The second Great Guitars album features guitarists Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis matching wits and generally inspiring each other throughout this studio set. The trio, along with bassist Joe Byrd and drummer Wayne Philips, are heard together on four numbers (best are "Undecided" and Ellis' "H & B Guitar Boogie"; Ellis and Kessel duet on "Down Home Blues"; Byrd has two features to himself; and a medley combines together short versions of "Benny's Bugle & and "Latin Groove" with the typically exuberant "Charlie's Blues" A fine all-around effort.

Barney Kessel - On Fire +5 (1965) {Emerald-Interplay Japan XQAM-1639 Mini LP DSD rel 2015}
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© 1962, 1965, 2015 Emerald / Interplay / SSJ Japan | XQAM-1639 | Mini LP | DSD mastering
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Guitar

Cardboard sleeve reissue with DSD mastering. Five bonus tracks. Rare and groovy work by Barney Kessel – originally recorded for a strange subsidiary of Phil Spector's record label! The album's quite different than some of Kessel's other albums of the earlier years – recorded live with a gritty feel that's really nice – a bit more edge on the strings of the guitar, and a rumbling tone that's a far cry from his lighter work for Contemporary in the 50s. Kessel still retains much of his ability to produce a bell-like tone on the guitar – but he rings out with a tremendous amount of force – spurred on by the crackling club rhythm section of Jerry Scheff on bass and Frank Capp on drums. Titles include 2 great originals – "Slow Burn" and "Sweet Baby" – plus an excellent version of "Recado Bossa Nova", and the tunes "The Shadow Of Your Smile", "Just In Time", and "One Mint Julep". CD features five bonus tracks – including 'Fly Me To The Moon", "The Gypsy In My Soul", and "April In Paris".

Buddy DeFranco - Generalissimo + Live Date! (1958) {Verve–Lone Hill Jazz LHJ10295 rel 2007}
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© 1958, 2007 Lone Hill Jazz / Verve | LHJ 10295
Jazz / Bop / Clarinet

De Franco's 1958 album + bonus LP "Live Date". Both albums appear here for the first time on CD. In 2007, the Lone Hill Jazz label reissued two Verve albums by clarinetist Buddy DeFranco: Generalissimo and Live Date!, which despite the title was a studio recording. In a producer's note, Morton James verbally winces at the pun on the name of the notoriously genocidal Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco, and speculates that this grossly insensitive gimmick, thought up by some clueless A&R director or advertising agent, might actually have delayed the album's appearance on CD until 2007.