Search - Kansas City 5 6 & 7 :: Kansas City 5,6 & 7: 1938-1944

10-star, So Cool Jazz!

07/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great disc. I'll quote the liner notes: "The present CD collates four informal studio encounters featuring the [Count] Basie alumni, a series of sessions never previously issued together on one CD." Four great studio sessions featuring a quintet, 2 sextets, and a septet of KC-style jazz musicians in NYC: hence, the KC 5, 6 & 7.
Buck Clayton's muted trumpet cooly adumbrates Miles Davis' of more than a decade later. Freddy Green on acoustic guitar is reminescent (with Walter Page on string bass) of the timbre and tempo of France's Hot Club ensembles with Django Reinhart and Stephane Grapelli.
Lester Young on clarinet and tenor sax never sounded better.
This is a great disc all around; can't go wrong with it."