Rush to order this CD
This review is related to the Japanese release (mini-LP replica).
Herbie Mann At the Village Gate is a must have album and not only for jazz fans. Mood. Spirit. Skills. All in one live performance. The group interacts very well. The tunes are good and I am pretty sure we will want to play CD second time to enjoy the tunes and musicianship itself. This music is ahead of its time. You will hear some bands to perform (or try to copy???) what had been played 45 years ago in the beginning of XXI century. But they could hardly be able to surpass the original.
The only you could wish is a better sound quality. The recording tend to place music instruments in the channels and keep them their. Some instruments (drum, flute) are always in the left channel, others (horns) as well as the audience are always in the right channel. But, hey, this masterpiece was recorded in 1961. Overall, the sound of the remastering is bright and produces quite good bass notes.
Highly recommended.
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Arguably the best of the best jazz recordings ever
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is widely regarded as the best jazz album ever recorded. Herbie Mann's At the Village Gate may well be the category of best, too. Every track on here is wonderful and different and creative. For instance, Comin' Home Baby starts with this somewhat long opening session of the bass soon accompanied by drums. Then, in comes this playful, flirting flute, not trying to make a splash, just swinging, restrained, cool. The flute quickly moves to the front and establishes a memorable, foot-tapping theme. A little later still arrives the xylophone in the background. So beautifully and subtly executed. And oh, much later, near the middle-end, you have this breath-taking and intricate bass solo. Wow. They were taking no prisoners. Summertime opens with xylophones then moves to a rhythmic and cool theme. With congas, it has an almost breezy, Latin-jazz feel. It Ain't Necessarily So starts with the tambourines and a more passionate, yet still restrained 60s protest-, psychedelic- sound. (The album was recorded in 1964.) The most interesting thing about this last track, aside from the lovely theme, is its length--nearly 20 minutes. What makes this album unique and perhaps surpassing Kind of Blue is it was recorded before a live audience. Davis said somewhere that he had (finally) settled on Kind of Blue on the day the Davis quartet created it for studio performance. It was as close as he could get to improvisational which Davis did not like necessarily for that reason. It wasn't improv-enough. At the Village Gate, however, you hear people talking, responding, and humming in the background. This "noise" adds an extra dimension of realness, of being front-row in the swing, which is jazz at its best.
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