| Site review by Southern SACD Fan October 8, 2007
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Jazz can be a difficult form of music to get into. For many who are interested but are not too sure where to start, their first 2 albums might have been Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Time Out by Dave Bruebeck. Where do you go from there? Perhaps live shows or trips to your local library would be the two most obvious suggestions. Another route might be to trace other albums by Miles Davis and Dave Bruebeck, or albums produced by other band members from those two very popular albums.
To my surprise, almost 50 years after the release of Kind of Blue (1959) we have an album from the last category. Jimmy Cobb was the drummer playing with Miles Davis in Kind of Blue. When choosing music, I almost never pick albums where the band is headed by a drummer. I have bad memories of listening to high school bands and the dreaded obligatory “drum solo”. In this case Jimmy Cobb’s impressive past was enough to make me put my musical prejudices aside.
Cobb’s Corner has 10 tracks, all written by other people. My initial impression was that there are similarities to Kind of Blue. On reading the album notes, this is confirmed, track 4 “John Charles” has musical allusions to the Miles Davis album. However the other tracks have plenty of variety and are contemporary. The other first listening impression is of a quartet which is not dominated by the drummer and all the players contribute well to the music. The overall effect is very enjoyable and relaxing.
Part of the up to date feeling is also generated by the Chesky recording process. Or perhaps that should be more correctly said as the lack of processing during Chesky recordings! I have not heard an album from this label before but there is a very helpful 2 page explanation of the Chesky recording philosophy and setup. The “less is more” approach to recording works well here and I am very pleased that Chesky decided to go down the SACD route for that extra lift in playback quality.
In summary: easy listening jazz music with a great quartet and top rate recording, an easy recommendation, and yet another of my preconceived ideas put to rest!
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| Review by Barb October 16, 2007 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
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J. Cobb dr, R. Hargrove tp & flh, R. Mathews p, P. Washington b, Chesky 2006.
The latest Chesky Jazz recordings, The New York Sessions, are, to me, the best recordings ever because they are the most natural sounding ever. They always record live, not in studios, with minimal but highest quality technical equipment. There is no multi-tracking, overdubbing or compressing what makes the music sound so natural with its original dynamics. The lack of technical equipment may be the reason for the natural, pleasing sound of so many Jazz records of the 50`s, even the monaural ones, combined with the highest quality technical equipment of today Chesky makes the perfect sound. Listening to Cheskys for the first time you will recognize they are out of the ordinary, but I think you`ll have to get familiar with them to hear that they are best. In some of the booklets there are diagrams showing the positions of the musicians during the recording session. That was not necessary, you can see them when playing the record.
Wow! What a combo! The quartet plays mostly well known material on this disc, ballads and mid-tempo tracks, but interpretation, interplay and soloing are pure pleasure. It is a surprise once again how thrilling and exciting the old standards can be when played with such a feeling and perfection, especially when you can hear every tonal nuance and detail. Roy Hargrove once again demonstrates why he is one of the most-wanted hornists of today. He can play everything.
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| Review by zeebee March 16, 2008 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
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| Thoroughly agreeing to the two earler reviewer as to the simplicity of the recording set-up has somewhat been a revelation (somewhat belated) to me when listening to the music presented here. I've even been starting to compare to a number of highly rated JSACD from 88, SMEJ etc. and somewhat drawn back to the pure natural sound of Chesky's recording (even digging back my Chesky RBCDs). Mainly standards presented here, played with enthusiasm as for the first time, I won't comment much on the players as their credentials, from Cobb to Hargrove, are IMHO beyond reproach. Highly recommended.
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