1. Just Blues
2. Violets for Your Furs
3. Down Home
4. Almost Like Being in Love
5. Wee Dot
6. Too Close for Comfort
7. These Foolish Things
8. S’Wonderful
Recorded in 1956 in New Jersey
Jerry Lloyd – Trumpet
Zoot Sims – Tenor
Jutta Hipp – Piano
Ahmed Abdul Malik – Bass
Ed Thigpen – Drums
For anyone who likes easy,
melodic, free-swinging jazz, this album is
an absolute gem. I only have to see Zoot Sims'
name on a record cover to know I will enjoy
the content. Zoot was inspired by Lester Young,
but he had an individual style that was easily
recognisable and he could swing ‘at the drop
of a hat’.
I know less of Jutta Hipp
who was brought up in Leipzig in East Germany
but, within months of her arrival in the USA
in the 1950s, secured herself a six-month
residency at the Hickory House in New York
City. She suits the style of Zoot Sims style
very well, she ‘comps’ very cleanly, never
interrupting the lines of the other soloists.
It seems incredible that some two years after
this album was recorded, she gave up music
altogether and worked for 35 years as a seamstress
in a clothing factory. This enabled her to
fund her other passion as a painter, but was
a great loss to the jazz world.
Ed Thigpen was a member of
the Oscar Peterson trio for many years: he
is one of the finest drummers the jazz world
has produced, concentrating much more on swing
than noise. Would that there were many more
like him. Bass player Ahmed Malik plays nice
clean lines and fits in well. Trumpet player
Jerry Lloyd (who wrote Down Home) also
drifted in and out of the jazz world; he was
also a skilled arranger and taxi driver! At
the time of this recording, he was working
with Zoot’s quartet.
All of the tunes are superb
examples of what a sympathetic bunch of jazz
musicians can produce, but throughout it is
Zoot Sims who stamps his authority on the
whole proceedings. This CD is just too
good to miss!
Don Mather
CD Reviews
Blue Note 93178
