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
CD Reviews
Blue Moon BMCD 844
