To Love and Be Loved (Album)

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To Love and Be Loved
Harold Mabern's studio album

Publication
(s)

2017

Label (s) Smoke Sessions Records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Hard bop , post bop

Title (number)

10

running time

1:04:41

occupation

Studio (s)

Sear Sound Studio C, NYC

chronology
Afro Blue
(2015) 		To Love and Be Loved The Iron Man: Live at Smoke
(2018)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

To Love and Be Loved is a jazz album by pianist Harold Mabern . The following studio sessions in the New York jazz club Smoke originated on April 17, 2017 and appeared on Smoke Sessions in the same year.

background

Six of the ten pieces were played by the Harold Mabern Quartet with Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone), Nat Reeves (bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums). The trumpeter Freddie Hendrix was added to three of the tracks, while the quartet was expanded to include drummer Cyro Baptista on the title track . "Dat Dere" is played by Mabern alone. Eric Alexander composed "The Iron Man" in honor of Mabern; Freddie Hendrix arranged "The Gigolo".

Track list

  • Harold Mabern: To Love and Be Loved (Smoke Sessions Records - SSR 1706)
  1. To Love and Be Loved ( Jimmy Van Heusen , Sammy Cahn ) 5:38
  2. If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You ( Arthur Schwartz , Howard Dietz ) 5:22
  3. The Gigolo ( Lee Morgan ) 6:11
  4. Inner Glimpse ( McCoy Tyner ) 5:29
  5. My Funny Valentine ( Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart ) 6:44
  6. The Iron Man (Eric Alexander) 9:12
  7. So What ( Miles Davis ) 7:11
  8. I Get a Kick Out of You ( Cole Porter ) 6:57
  9. Dat Dere (Solo Piano) ( Bobby Timmons ) 5:29
  10. Hittin 'the Jug ( Gene Ammons ) 6:25

reception

Kevin Whitehead ( National Public Radio ) said that Harold Mabern had seen half of jazz history as a pianist and had that history under his finger. “He keeps pushing like a drummer.” Listening to him is like “watching a conspicuous magician who always pulls something out of another pocket.” As impressive as he is as a soloist, he can also hold back within the ensemble itself or support someone else's solo, as heard in "I Get a Kick Out of You". Mabern stay busy without attracting attention. The author also emphasized the interaction with Mabern's protégé Eric Alexander, who has the same timing, the same ear for harmonies and the deep swing feeling. In the ballad "If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You" from 1934, Harold Mabern lays a carpet under his solo.

Eric Alexander

“Harold Mabern and Eric Alexander know how to keep a mood or change it when the spotlight changes. The pianist and saxophonist also share a blues feeling that has been sharpened over the years they have spent in Chicago. ”On Harold Mabern's new album, the players would even win gold from singular songs like“ My Funny Valentine ”and“ So What “Draw, so the author's summary. "But they also hit the blues hard and will never go wrong there."

According to Thomas Conrad ( JazzTimes ), To Love and Be Loved is the ideal album when asked "I would love to get into jazz , but I don't know where to begin." To introduce newcomers to the art form, you need jazz that is real but accessible. " To Love and Be Loved is top-class jazz full of liveliness, which is centered in the tradition of the modern mainstream with few entry barriers." At 81 years of age, Mabern plays the piano masterfully; “Its stroke is hard and clean. His solos are all balanced, elegant, complete forms, even when he is racing ”(as in McCoy Tyner's “ Inner Glimpse ”). Alexander worked powerfully, in his clarity, with a classic tenor saxophone sound; but he could also contribute steely, unsentimental versions of sharpness (as in "My Funny Valentine").

Jennifer Odell ( Down Beat ) praised, "Here the inestimably powerful, blues-intensive motor that drives Mabern's most exciting work is alternately enhanced and encouraged by the contributions of his former students Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone) and Freddie Hendrix (trumpet)." somewhat sleepy start ”,“ The Gigolo ”really gets down to business when Freddie Hendrix, who arranged this version,“ goes from a warm, rolling chorus to a crisp and intense performance of the solo. ”But the album culminates in the“ rolling, popping, exuberant ”solo play by Mabern with“ Dat Dere ”. Although he has already performed and recorded this title, he is impressed by "the fearless melodic access of the pianist to the keys and the unshakable soulful feeling for the blues".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harold Mabern: To Love and Be Loved at Discogs
  2. ↑ Kevin Whuithead: Jazz pianist Harold Mabern Is In Full Command On 'To Love And Be Loved'. National Public Radio, September 22, 2019, accessed October 5, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Conrad: Harold Mabern: To Love and Be Loved (Smoke Sessions). JazzTimes, December 17, 2017, accessed October 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Jennifer Odell: Reviews: Harold Mabern: To Love And Be Loved. Down Beat, October 1, 2017, accessed October 5, 2019 .