More Hampton Hawes
More Contemporary Label Jazz Recordings
This Triple Plus (+++) pressing from ’55/’56 mono tapes is EVERYTHING that’s good about mono. The size, the weight, the solidity, the clarity, the energy, the rhythmic drive – it’s all here and more.
This killer pressing has the best sound and the best music we have ever heard on any Hampton Hawes album.
There is nothing to fault in the sound of side one of this pressing, and side two was nearly as good – what a record!
Both sides are Tubey Magical, rich, open, spacious and tonally correct. We’ve never heard the record sound better, and that’s coming from someone who’s been playing the album since the ’80s.
These guys are playing live in the studio and you can really feel their presence on every track — assuming you have a copy that sounds like this one.
Based on what I’m hearing my feeling is that most of the natural, full-bodied, smooth, sweet sound of the album is on the master tape, and that all that was needed to transfer that vintage sound correctly onto vinyl disc was simply to thread up the tape on a high quality machine and hit play.
The fact that nobody seems to be able to make an especially good sounding record these days — certainly not as good sounding as this one — tells me that in fact I’m wrong to think that such an approach would work. Somebody should have been able to figure out how to do it by now. In our experience that is simply not the case today, and has not been for many years, if not decades.
George Horn
George Horn was doing brilliant work on Contemporary recordings all through the ’80s. This album is proof that his sound is the right sound for this music.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
You and the Night and the Music
Stella by Starlight
Blues for Jacque
Yesterdays
Steeplechase
Side Two
‘Round Midnight
Just Squeeze Me (But Don’t Tease Me)
Autumn in New York
Section Blues
AMG Review
One of the best of the hard bop piano players in the West Coast jazz scene, Hampton Hawes made a splash with a series of impressive trio records cut during the latter half of the ’50s.
Hawes sprung from Bud Powell’s bebop innovations and soon showed equal panache with both brisk swingers and romantic ballads. After coming up though Los Angeles bands led by Shorty Rogers and Howard McGhee and playing with other West Coast bebop stars like Sonny Criss, Dexter Gordon, and Wardell Gray, Hawes hooked up with bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Chuck Thompson for several fresh and accomplished titles on the Contemporary label.
This early release from 1955 finds the trio coming up with their usual mix of originals and standards. Highlights include fine readings of “Stella by Starlight” and “You and the Night and the Music,” as well a breakneck cover of Charlie Parker’s “Steeplechase.” Hawes shows off some writing muscle on his “Blues for Jacque,” while Mitchell and Thompson come up with the album closer “Section Blues.”
Topped off with entertaining and informative liner notes by Ralph Gleason, this Hampton Hawes date would certainly make good company for any other top jazz piano trio records in your collection.