Think Well of Me
| Think Well of Me | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Jack Teagarden | ||||
|
Publication |
||||
| Label (s) | Verve Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
LP / CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
11 |
|||
|
running time |
35:58 |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Studio (s) |
Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey , |
|||
|
||||
Think Well of Me is a jazz album by trombonist and singer Jack Teagarden , which was recorded in the studio of Rudy Van Gelder from January 17-19 , 1962 in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey and was released on Verve Records that same year .
background
In the years after Jack Teagarden left Louis Armstrong 's All-Stars until his death in January 1964, the trombonist and singer worked with a Dixieland- oriented sextet. Most of the recordings made during this period were versions of jazz standards and swing songs such as “ St. James Infirmary ” or “ After You've Gone ”, which were associated with Teagarden's music since the 1930s. Deviating from this, Teagarden recorded a number of songs by songwriter Willard Robison two years before his death, such as "Old Folks", "A Cottage for Sale" and "Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer", as well as another song, " Where Are You ”by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson , arranged by Claus Ogerman . Teagarden had played early in his career with Robison's band in Kansas City in 1924 and made his first recordings with him before coming to New York in 1928.
Verve producer Creed Taylor had Teagarden recorded two of Robison's songs for Verve's first album Mis'ry and the Blues , "Don't Tell a Man About His Woman" and "Peaceful Valley" ( Paul Whiteman's earlier theme song) ). The orchestral direction and string arrangements are mostly from Russ Case (1912–1964) and Bob Brookmeyer , which were his first recorded string arrangements. Teagarden's musicians include trumpeter Don Goldie , pianist Bernie Leighton , guitarist Barry Galbraith, and bassist Art Davis . The LP with the Robison songs was the penultimate album with which Teagarden fulfilled his contract with the Verve Records label.
Track list
- Jack Teagarden Acc. By Russ Case / Bob Brookmeyer's Orchestra: Think Well of Me (Verve Records - V-8465)
- Where Are You (Jimmy McHugh) - 2:50
- Cottage for Sale - 3:34
- Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer - 3:39
- I'm a Fool About My Mama - 3:30
- Don't Smoke in Bed - 3:18
- In a Little Waterfront Cafe - 3:55 am
- Think Well of Me - 2:40
- Old Folks - 2:45
- Country Boy Blues - 4:06
- Tain't So Honey, Tain't So - 2:40
- Round the Old Deserted Farm - 2:55
- All other compositions are by Willard Robison. The tracks Moonlight Mississippi and Don't Take Your Meanness Out On Me , which were also recorded during the sessions, were not released.
reception
.jpg)
Doug Ramsey wrote on the occasion of the new release of the album in 1999 in JazzTimes that this was "a Teagarden album like no other in its 40-year discography." It reflects much of what is significant for the person and musician Teagarden; the "astonishing precision and sleepy passion of his trombone playing, the intimacy of his singing, his feeling for blues and the quality [of his music], which has not suffered from his weariness of recent years." Willard Robison's songs are with their nostalgic affection and Down-to-earth wisdom is the ideal vehicle for Teagarden's warming voice and trumpet. The arrangements by Russ Case and Bob Brookmeyer would give the titles the right amount of emphasis and dampening. There are authoritative versions of "Old Folks", "A Cottage for Sale" and "Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer"; the trumpet play is incomparable. Teagarden's favorite trumpeter in recent years, Don Goldie, made the connection between the vocal and trombone passages, including the occasional obligatos . While these recordings were among Goldie's most well-proportioned, the overactive accompaniment by the pianist Bernie Leighton was the only weak point of the record.
Scott Yanow gave the album four and a half stars in Allmusic and said that the string arrangements did not really contribute anything decisive and were superfluous; Teagarden, however, shows a lot of reserved feeling in forgotten pieces like “Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer”, “Think Well of Me” and “Round My Old Deserted Farm”. His short solos are often really excellent and mostly touching; this makes this session one of the strongest in recent years.
For the critic Dan Morgenstern (2009), the Robison songs fit perfectly with Teagarden's relaxed vocal style; In his opinion, Think Well of Me is, in its elegiac character, a kind of swan song from Teagarden. The string arrangements should by no means be condemned as “commercial” in their jazz-relatedness, but they would not be differentiated enough to add sufficient “musical meat” to the processes. Occasionally the string textures envelop the Teagarden sound, instrumental and vocal; and "he seems to enjoy the level of attention paid to him."
Will Friedwald described Think Well of Me as "a masterpiece"; Loren Schoenberg (2002) counted the album among the highlights of his later years, " a reflective and challenging set of Willard Robison's music ".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Dan Morgenstern: Living with Jazz: A reader , edited by Sheldon Meyer. 2009
- ↑ Russ Case, formerly a trumpeter with Benny Goodman , had used Teagarden as a musician in his pop studio productions for RCA Victor in previous years .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Review of the album (1999) in JazzTimes
- ↑ Review of Scott Yanow's Think Well of Me album at Allmusic . Retrieved April 15, 2015.
- ^ Will Friedwald: Jazz singing: America's great voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond Scribner's Sons, New York . 1990. (German: Swinging Voices of America - A compendium of great voices. Hannibal, St. Andrä-Wierter, 1992. ISBN 3-85445-075-3 ) Page 152.
- ^ Loren Schoenberg: The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz , 2002, p. 153.
