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Reviewers: Tony Augarde [Editor], Steve Arloff, Nick Barnard, Pierre Giroux, Don Mather, James Poore, Glyn Pursglove, George Stacy, Bert Thompson, Sam Webster, Jonathan Woolf



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TOOTS THIELEMANS

Toots

Blue Moon BMCD 844

 

 

Toots Thielemans: Toots

1. O Susannah

2. Please Send Me Someone to Love

3. There Is No Greater Love

4. Preachmanship

5. I Can’t Get Started

6. Secret Love

7. Blues Talk

8. By the Time I Get to Phoenix

9. I’m Beginning to See the Light

10. Lover Man

11. The Good Life

12. Whispering

Toots Thielemans – Guitar, harmonica

Dick Hyman – Piano, organ (tracks 2-5, 7, 9-12)

Al Casamenti, Gene Bertoncini, Bucky Pizzarelli - Guitar

Ron Carter - Bass

Ronnie Zito - Drums

Herbie Hancock – Piano (tracks 1, 6, 8)

Tony Mottola: Heart & Soul

13. Heart and Soul

14. If He Walked Into My Life

15. Lullaby of the Leaves

16. I’m Getting Sentimental Over You

17. Tony’s Tune

18. Little Girl Blue

19. Georgia

20. Love Is Here to Stay

21. Jimmy’s Blues

22. The Gang That Sang Heart of My Heart

23. The Impossible Dream

24. My Ideal

Tony Mottola - Guitar

Phil Bodner – Woodwinds

Dick Hyman – Piano, organ

Al Casamenti – Rhythm guitar

Bob Haggart - Bass

Bobby Rosengarden - Drums

Phil Kraus – Vibes, percussion (tracks 13, 14, 17, 21-24)

Joe Venuto – Vibes, percussion (tracks 15, 16, 19, 20)

This is a rather strange coupling of two LPs recorded respectively in 1968 and 1966. The only reasons I can see for putting Toots Thielemans together with Tony Mottola on one disc is that they are both guitarists and Mottola accompanied Thielemans on a completely different album called The Amazing Sound of Toots Thielemans.

At any rate, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, as this CD contains nearly 70 minutes of music, which is a bargain if you like both of the featured artists. I certainly like Toots Thielemans, as he is a master of the guitar as well as the harmonica, and we have to snap up his recordings when we can, since he recently announced his retirement at the age of 94. Another selling-point of Toots is that the personnel includes three guitarists besides Toots and that fine keyboardist Dick Hyman as well as another keyboard expert, Herbie Hancock.

The album begins in country style with the massed guitars giving a western tinge to O Susannah, making this listener want to shout “Yee-hah!” Percy Mayfield’s Please Send Me Someone to Love is also in C & W mode. The mood changes for a Latinized There is No Greater Love, where Toots double-tracks his guitar with his harmonica to provide his own accompaniment. He does the same on I Can’t Get Started, Blues Talk and Lover Man, with complete precision.

Dick Hyman supplies groovy piano on Preachmanship, while Herbie Hancock (Hyman’s substitute on three tracks) adds a sparkling piano solo toSecret Love. Thielemans brings a new feeling to By the Time I Get to Phoenix: playing the guitar in octaves.I’m Beginning to See the Light sounds unusual with a mixture of country and rock, and Lover Man is taken as an up-tempo waltz. The Good Life and Whispering are convincing examples of Toots’ complete mastery of the harmonica.

Tony Mottola, who died in 2004, was a prolific recording musician as well as producer and mentor for many other artists. The tracks on this CD come from a 1966 album entitled Heart & Soul. They fit more closely into the category of easy listening than jazz, although the backing group includes such jazzmen as Dick Hyman, Phil Bodner and Bob Haggart. Mottola certainly plays with heart and soul but the jazz content is limited.

Tony Augarde

www.augardebooks.co.uk

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