Search - Herbie Mann :: Village Vanguard

Arguably the best of the best jazz recordings ever

Short Dog | 05/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

CD

J. LOPEZ | STANLEY, NC USA | 01/26/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"At the Village Gate

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU BUY REPRODUCED CD'S. THIS CD IS A POOR REPRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK. I HAVE THE ORIGINAL 33 RPM LP. I COULDN'T FIND A CD IN THE STORES SO I BOUGHT THIS CD SO I COULD USE IT IN MY UP TO DATE EQUIPMENT. IT WAS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. ALTHOUGH I COULD RETURN IT I WILL KEEP IT BECAUSE I'M ABLE TO FIX THE SOUND SOMEWHAT SO IT'S FAIRLY GOOD. IF YOU'RE NOT ABLE TO DO THIS, AGAIN BE CAREFUL."

A phenomenal jazz flute album

C. Gruba | The U.S. | 07/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The sound quality is not great, but not terrible. A treasure of jazz flute and of Herbie Mann. A snapshot of live and intimate jazz club music."