Oblique

Bobby Hutcherson - Oblique (1967) [2005 RVG Remaster]
EAC+LOG+CUE | Flac (image) | 1 CD | 239 MB | scans @ 600dpi | Time: 41:04 | 3% recovery | HF + RS
Jazz, Post Bop | Blue Note/ Capitol Records | EMI Catalog # 7 2435 63835 2

This album, recorded in 1967, had to wait 13 years to be released. But when it was, it was hailed as one of the greatest albums in this great vibist's long career. The quartet tackles both attractive and challenging material contributed by Hancock and Chambers as well as the leader.

Oblique is one of only two quartet sessions the great vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson recorded for Blue Note (the classic Happenings being the other). Both albums featured the seminal pianist Herbie Hancock and drum master Joe Chambers, with the only variable in the line-up here being bassist Albert Stinson. Hutcherson’s breezy opener “‘Til Then,” Hancock’s tremendous “Theme From Blow Up,” and Chambers’ adventurous “Oblique” are standouts of a session that, taken as a whole, is an incredible journey from hard bop grooves to exploratory sonic tone poems. Recorded in 1967, the album wasn’t first released until 1979.

The Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu, who lived only from 1870 to 1894, studied with Franck and d'lndy, and before his untimely death from typhoid made enough of an impression for d'lndy to complete the Piano Quartet which he left unfinished. This intensely emotional young man, who was ''knocked out'' by his discovery of Beethoven and fainted on hearing Tristan, declared his aim to be that of ''putting all my soul into my music'' and seems to have achieved it. Thus, his Molto adagio of 1886–7 was inspired by Christ's words in the Garden of Gethsemane, ''My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death''.

Parmi les nombreuses versions disponibles du Carnaval des animaux, celle-ci fait partie des toutes meilleures. Notons que cette œuvre, aidée ici par la transparence et la précision d'une excellente prise de son, nous permettent de découvrir, d'une façon ludique, l'étendue et les particularités spectrales des instruments concernés. C'est à l'âge de vingt ans que Saint-Saëns composa le Quintette op.14. La qualité de cette œuvre annonce déjà l’énorme potentiel du jeune compositeur dans la musique de chambre.