I know pres

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I know pres
Studio album by Ray Crawford

Publication
(s)

1971

Label (s) Candid Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Bop, contemporary jazz, soul jazz , hard bop

Title (number)

5

running time

43:38

occupation

production

Nat Hentoff

Studio (s)

Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City

chronology
- I know pres It's About Time
(1977)
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I Know Pres is a jazz album by Ray Crawford . The recordings, which were made on February 10, 1961 in the Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City, were first released under the title I Know Pres on LP in 1971 in Japan, and finally in 1988 as a compact disc under the title Smooth Groove in Europe.

background

In October 1960, guitarist Ray Crawford played with Gil Evans , who led a large band with whom he performed at New York's Jazz Gallery club . This led to the recordings of the album Out of the Cool by the Evans band, in which Crawford was also involved. One night while Evans was performing at the Jazz Gallery in 1960, critic Nat Hentoff stopped by and heard Crawford play. At that time, Hentoff ran the Candid Records label with Archie Bleyer . Hentoff, who was in charge of A&R , was looking for talents who stood for current jazz developments; Nat Hentoff was taken with the guitarist's game and booked Crawford for February 1961 at Nola Penthouse Studios.

After the Out of the Cool recording session in November 1960, Crawford set to work to write arrangements for the planned recording and to put musicians together for his first album under his own name. In addition to Crawford, the line-up consisted of Johnny Coles (trumpet), Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone), Junior Mance (piano), Ben Tucker (bass) and Frankie Dunlop (drums). Four of the five songs were original compositions, "I Knew Prez", "Smooth Groove", "Miss April" and "The Compendium Suite", plus Steve Allen's track "Impossible". After the recording session, Crawford returned to California and waited for the recordings to be released, but the album never came out. The Candid label had to stop its activities after only eight months. The album was finally released on vinyl in Japan as I Know Pres and in 1988 in Europe as Smooth Groove . In 1997, the year Crawford died, the album was reissued on CD in Japan.

Track list

Cecil Payne at the Kitano Hotel Jazz Club, NYC 2005
  • Ray Crawford: I Know Pres (Candid SONF 01121, Candid CS 9028)
  1. I Know Prez (Crawford) 10:13
  2. Smoove Groove (Crawford) 11:07
  3. Miss April (Crawford) 7:41
  4. Impossible (Steve Allen) 6:09
  5. The Compendium Suite (Crawford) 8:28

reception

Scott Yanow gave the album four stars in Allmusic and wrote that the guitarist and his sextet play a fairly advanced hard bop . Everyone sounds good and one can only regret that these recordings have disappeared for so many years.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stylistic classification according to discogs
  2. ↑ Stylistic classification according to Allmusic
  3. ^ Marc Myers: Ray Crawford: Smooth Groove. Jazzwax, June 30, 2020, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Ray Crawford: I Know Pres (Candid) at Discogs
  5. ↑ Ray Crawford: I Know Pres Ray Crawford: I Know Pres (Candid Europe)
  6. ^ Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 30, 2020.