Jazz for the Quiet Times [32 Jazz]

Read About This Recording

Jazz, as with the most rewarding and timeless art forms, covers all types of emotions. The performances of jazz musicians and singers can make one laugh or cry, be joyful or wistful and can inspire nostalgia, new revelations or sensual feelings. Because jazz ranges in styles from Dixieland to free improvisations, swing to fusion, it can serve virtually any purpose.

This disc is a mood music collection originally compiled in the late 1990s. Nearly 40 years earlier, the Moodsville label (a subsidiary of Prestige) released quite a few sets by top jazz artists playing ballads at slow and relaxed tempos. This recording has the same idea except that it is a multi-artist collection (with each selection showcasing a different jazz musician) and most of the music dates from the 1970s and '80s. The CD is full of performances that succeed as backgrounds for either romantic situations or for one's solitary thoughts.

Jazz for the Quiet Times offers listeners a selection apiece from many of the who's who of mainstream jazz from the era. Among the stars are altoist Sonny Criss (very distinctive on "Blues in My Heart"), saxophonists Houston Person, Sonny Stitt, Antoine Roney and David "Fathead" Newman ("One for My Baby"), guitarists Kenny Burrell and Pat Martino, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson ("Whisper Not") and trumpeters Russell Gunn ("You Don't Know What Love Is") and Wallace Roney. In addition, tenors Al Cohn and Zoot Sims share a warm version of "Body and Soul."

This collection was very popular when it was released and the performances communicate just as well now as they did a decade ago. They even succeed when the times are not that quiet!

—Scott Yanow

Product Info

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Contents

Sonny Criss: Blues in My Heart; Houston Person: My Romance; Sonny Stitt: The Good Life Kenny Burrell: Lament; Bobby Hutcherson: Whisper Not; Al Cohn/Zoot Sims: Body and Soul; Antoine Roney: Estate; David Fathead Newman: One for My Baby; Pat Martino: Send in the Clowns; Russell Gunn: You Don't Know What Love Is; Wallace Roney: Smooch.